Epidemiological and Clinical Characteristics of Adult and Pediatric Patients with Chronic Spontaneous Urticaria

Chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) is when lesions occur for ≥6 weeks. However, its underlying mechanism remains unclear. CSU prevalence is similar in adult and pediatric patients; nevertheless, few data are available on CSU characteristics in pediatric patients. We aimed to describe the epidemiology, clinical features, and treatment approach of CSU in pediatrics and adults. In this cross-sectional study, 193 patients with CSU were treated at the Sheba Medical Center, Israel, in 2009–2022. The information collected includes age at diagnosis, reported triggers, atopic co-morbidities, autoimmune co-morbidities, treatments and their response, family background, laboratory tests, and follow-up duration. The study group was divided into pediatrics (aged ≤ 18) and adults. Metabolic syndrome was most prevalent in adults as against atopy in pediatrics. Autoimmune co-morbidities were observed in 34.7% and 34.8% of adults and pediatrics, respectively. Inflammatory bowel disease and thyroid disease were the most common in pediatrics and adults, respectively. Systemic treatments other than antihistamines were administered more frequently in adults. Adults with autoimmune disease required second-line treatment with immunomodulators compared to those without it. Co-morbidities were more common in adults than in pediatrics. Patients with autoimmune co-morbidities may be more challenging to manage; thus, escalation to biologics should be considered soon

The effect of body mass index reduction on intraocular pressure in a large prospective cohort of apparently healthy individuals in Israel.

PurposeTo investigate the effect of change in body mass index (BMI) on intraocular pressure (IOP) in a large cohort of apparently healthy volunteers who underwent an annual comprehensive screening examinations.MethodsThis study included individuals who were enrolled in the Tel Aviv Medical Center Inflammation Survey (TAMCIS) and had IOP and BMI measurements at their baseline and follow up visits. Relationships between BMI and IOP and the effect of change in BMI on IOP were investigated.ResultsA total of 7,782 individuals had at least one IOP measurement at their baseline visit, and 2,985 individuals had ≥2 visits recorded. The mean (SD) IOP (right eye) was 14.6 (2.5) mm Hg and mean (SD) BMI was 26.4 (4.1) kg/m2. IOP positively correlated with BMI levels (r = 0.16, pConclusionsBMI loss correlated with reduction in IOP, and this correlation was more pronounced among morbidly obese individuals

Risk Modeling of Time-Varying Covariates Using an Ensemble of Survival Trees: Predicting Future Cancer Events

The challenge of survival prediction is ubiquitous in medicine, but only a handful of methods are available for survival prediction based on time-varying data. Here we propose a novel method for this problem, using a random forest of survival trees for left-truncated and right-censored data. We demonstrate the advantage of our method on prediction of breast cancer and prostate gland cancer risk among healthy individuals by analyzing routine laboratory measurements, vital signs and age. We analyze electronic medical records of 20,317 healthy individuals who underwent routine checkups and identified those who later developed cancer. In cross-validation, our method predicted future prostate and breast cancers six months before diagnosis with an area under the ROC curve of 0.62±0.05 and 0.6±0.03 respectively, outperforming standard random forest, random survival forest, cox-regression model, dynamic deep-hit and a single survival tree. Our work proposes a new framework for survival risk prediction in time-varying data and our results suggest that computational analysis of data on healthy individuals can improve the detection of those at risk of future cancer development

RBE variation as a function of depth in the 200-MeV proton beam produced at the National Accelerator Centre in Faure (South Africa)

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Thorough knowledge of the RBE of clinical proton beams is indispensable for exploiting their full ballistic advantage. Therefore, the RBE of the 200-MeV clinical proton beam produced at the National Accelerator Centre of Faure (South Africa) was measured at different critical points of the depth-dose distribution. MATERIAL AND METHODS: RBEs were determined at the initial plateau of the unmodulated and modulated beam (depth in Perspex = 43.5 mm), and at the beginning, middle and end of a 7-cm spread-out Bragg peak (SOBP) (depths in Perspex = 144.5, 165.5 and 191.5 mm, respectively). The biological system was the regeneration of intestinal crypts in mice after irradiation with a single fraction. RESULTS: Using 60Co gamma-rays as the reference, the RBE values (for a gamma-dose of 14.38 Gy corresponding to 10 regenerated crypts) were found equal to 1.16 +/- 0.04, 1.10 +/- 0.03, 1.18 +/- 0.04, 1.12 +/- 0.03 and 1.23 +/- 0.03, respectively. At all depths, RBEs were found to increase slightly (about 4%) with decreasing dose, in the investigated dose range (12-17 Gy). No significant RBE variation with depth was observed, although RBEs in the SOBP were found to average a higher value (1.18 +/- 0.06) than in the entrance plateau (1.13 +/- 0.04). CONCLUSION: An RBE value slightly larger than the current value of 1.10 should be adopted for clinical application with a 200-MeV proton beam

Clustering of clinical and echocardiographic phenotypes of covid-19 patients

Abstract We sought to divide COVID-19 patients into distinct phenotypical subgroups using echocardiography and clinical markers to elucidate the pathogenesis of the disease and its heterogeneous cardiac involvement. A total of 506 consecutive patients hospitalized with COVID-19 infection underwent complete evaluation, including echocardiography, at admission. A k-prototypes algorithm applied to patients' clinical and imaging data at admission partitioned the patients into four phenotypical clusters: Clusters 0 and 1 were younger and healthier, 2 and 3 were older with worse cardiac indexes, and clusters 1 and 3 had a stronger inflammatory response. The clusters manifested very distinct survival patterns (C-index for the Cox proportional hazard model 0.77), with survival best for cluster 0, intermediate for 1–2 and worst for 3. Interestingly, cluster 1 showed a harsher disease course than cluster 2 but with similar survival. Clusters obtained with echocardiography were more predictive of mortality than clusters obtained without echocardiography. Additionally, several echocardiography variables (E′ lat, E′ sept, E/e average) showed high discriminative power among the clusters. The results suggested that older infected males have a higher chance to deteriorate than older infected females. In conclusion, COVID-19 manifests differently for distinctive clusters of patients. These clusters reflect different disease manifestations and prognoses. Although including echocardiography improved the predictive power, its marginal contribution over clustering using clinical parameters only does not justify the burden of echocardiography data collection

Pathways of Corneal and Ocular Surface Inflammation: A Perspective from the Cullen Symposium

The goal of this symposium was to coalesce information presented by 22 investigators in the field of corneal and ocular surface inflammation into common pathways of inflammation. The perspective elucidated in this article defines the components of the normal ocular surface immune architecture and describes the consensus reached on the mechanisms/pathways involved in 1) acute inflammation; 2) late-stage (chronic) response; and 3) allergic disease. Seven diagrams didactically illustrate mechanisms. This paper is the introductory article in a supplement containing 18 articles by the symposium participants