National, sub-national, and risk-attributed burden of thyroid cancer in Iran from 1990 to 2019

An updated exploration of the burden of thyroid cancer across a country is always required for making correct decisions. The objective of this study is to present the thyroid cancer burden and attributed burden to the high Body Mass Index (BMI) in Iran at national and sub-national levels from 1990 to 2019. The data was obtained from the GBD 2019 study estimates. To explain the pattern of changes in incidence from 1990 to 2019, decomposition analysis was conducted. Besides, the attribution of high BMI in the thyroid cancer DALYs and deaths were obtained. The age-standardized incidence rate of thyroid cancer was 1.57 (95% UI: 1.33–1.86) in 1990 and increased 131% (53–191) until 2019. The age-standardized prevalence rate of thyroid cancer was 30.19 (18.75–34.55) in 2019 which increased 164% (77–246) from 11.44 (9.38–13.85) in 1990. In 2019, the death rate, and Disability-adjusted life years of thyroid cancer was 0.49 (0.36–0.53), and 13.16 (8.93–14.62), respectively. These numbers also increased since 1990. The DALYs and deaths attributable to high BMI was 1.91 (0.95–3.11) and 0.07 (0.04–0.11), respectively. The thyroid cancer burden and high BMI attributed burden has increased from 1990 to 2019 in Iran. This study and similar studies’ results can be used for accurate resource allocation for efficient management and all potential risks’ modification for thyroid cancer with a cost-conscious view

Hands and feet radiologic involvements in systemic sclerosis

Abstract Aim Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare autoimmune disorder characterized by vascular and fibrosing involvement of the skin and internal organs. In this study, we determined the prevalence and characteristics of radiological hands and feet involvements in Iranian SSc patients to identify the associations between clinical features and radiologic findings. Methods 43 SSc patients (41 women and 2 men), with a median age of 44.8 years (ranges 26–70 years) and a mean disease duration of 11.8 years (ranges 2–28 years) were studied in this cross-sectional study. Results 42 patients had radiological changes both in their hands and feet. Only one patient had alteration just in hand. The most frequent changes that we found in hand were Juxta-articular Osteoporosis (93%), Acro-osteolysis (58.2%), and Joint Space Narrowing (55.8%). The prevalence of joint space narrowing or acro-osteolysis was higher in subjects with active skin involvement [modified Rodnan skin score (mRSS) > 14] [16/21 vs. 4/16 for patients with inactive skin involvement (mRSS < 14); p = 0.002]. The most frequent changes that we found in the foot were Juxta-articular Osteoporosis (93%), Acro-osteolysis (46.5%), Joint Space Narrowing (58.1%), and subluxation (44.2%). The presence of anti-ccp antibody was detected in 4 (9.3%), while positive rheumatoid factor was found in 13 (30.2%) of SSc patients. Conclusion This study corroborates that arthropathy is common in SSc patients. The introduction of the specific radiological involvements of SSc needs to be confirmed by further studies, in order to define the appropriate prognosis and treatment of patients

COVID-19 prognostic modeling using CT radiomic features and machine learning algorithms: Analysis of a multi-institutional dataset of 14,339 patients

Background: We aimed to analyze the prognostic power of CT-based radiomics models using data of 14,339 COVID-19 patients. Methods: Whole lung segmentations were performed automatically using a deep learning-based model to extract 107 intensity and texture radiomics features. We used four feature selection algorithms and seven classifiers. We evaluated the models using ten different splitting and cross-validation strategies, including non-harmonized and ComBat-harmonized datasets. The sensitivity, specificity, and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) were reported. Results: In the test dataset (4,301) consisting of CT and/or RT-PCR positive cases, AUC, sensitivity, and specificity of 0.83 ± 0.01 (CI95%: 0.81-0.85), 0.81, and 0.72, respectively, were obtained by ANOVA feature selector + Random Forest (RF) classifier. Similar results were achieved in RT-PCR-only positive test sets (3,644). In ComBat harmonized dataset, Relief feature selector + RF classifier resulted in the highest performance of AUC, reaching 0.83 ± 0.01 (CI95%: 0.81-0.85), with a sensitivity and specificity of 0.77 and 0.74, respectively. ComBat harmonization did not depict statistically significant improvement compared to a non-harmonized dataset. In leave-one-center-out, the combination of ANOVA feature selector and RF classifier resulted in the highest performance. Conclusion: Lung CT radiomics features can be used for robust prognostic modeling of COVID-19. The predictive power of the proposed CT radiomics model is more reliable when using a large multicentric heterogeneous dataset, and may be used prospectively in clinical setting to manage COVID-19 patients.</p

National, sub-national, and risk-attributed burden of thyroid cancer in Iran from 1990 to 2019

An updated exploration of the burden of thyroid cancer across a country is always required for making correct decisions. The objective of this study is to present the thyroid cancer burden and attributed burden to the high Body Mass Index (BMI) in Iran at national and sub-national levels from 1990 to 2019. The data was obtained from the GBD 2019 study estimates. To explain the pattern of changes in incidence from 1990 to 2019, decomposition analysis was conducted. Besides, the attribution of high BMI in the thyroid cancer DALYs and deaths were obtained. The age-standardized incidence rate of thyroid cancer was 1.57 (95% UI: 1.33–1.86) in 1990 and increased 131% (53–191) until 2019. The age-standardized prevalence rate of thyroid cancer was 30.19 (18.75–34.55) in 2019 which increased 164% (77–246) from 11.44 (9.38–13.85) in 1990. In 2019, the death rate, and Disability-adjusted life years of thyroid cancer was 0.49 (0.36–0.53), and 13.16 (8.93–14.62), respectively. These numbers also increased since 1990. The DALYs and deaths attributable to high BMI was 1.91 (0.95–3.11) and 0.07 (0.04–0.11), respectively. The thyroid cancer burden and high BMI attributed burden has increased from 1990 to 2019 in Iran. This study and similar studies’ results can be used for accurate resource allocation for efficient management and all potential risks’ modification for thyroid cancer with a cost-conscious view

The burden of prostate cancer in North Africa and Middle East, 1990–2019: Findings from the global burden of disease study

Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the second most prevalent cancer among men worldwide. This study presents estimates of PCa prevalence, incidence, death, years-of-life-lost (YLLs), years-lived-with-disability (YLDs), disability-adjusted-life-years (DALYs), and the burden attributable to smoking during 1990-2019 in North Africa and Middle East using data of Global Burden of Diseases (GBD) Study 2019. Methods: This study is a part of GBD 2019. Using vital registration and cancer registry data, the estimates on PCa burden were modeled. Risk factor analysis was performed through the six-step conceptual framework of Comparative Risk Assessment. Results: The age-standardized rates (95 UI) of PCa incidence, prevalence, and death in 2019 were 23.7 (18.5-27.9), 161.1 (126.6-187.6), and 11.7 (9.4-13.9) per 100,000 population. While PCa incidence and prevalence increased by 77 and 144 during 1990-2019, respectively, the death rate stagnated. Of the 397 increase in PCa new cases, 234 was due to a rise in the age-specific incidence rate, 79 due to population growth, and 84 due to population aging. The YLLs, YLDs, and DALYs of PCa increased by 2 (-11.8-23.1), 108 (75.5-155.1), and 6 (-8.9-28.1). The death rate and DALYs rate attributable to smoking have decreased 12 and 10, respectively. The DALYs rate attributable to smoking was 37.4 (15.9-67.8) in Lebanon and 5.9 (2.5-10.6) in Saudi Arabia, which were the highest and lowest in the region, respectively. Conclusions: The PCa incidence and prevalence rates increased during 1990-2019; however, the death rate stagnated. The increase in the incidence was mostly due to the rise in the age-specific incidence rate, rather than population growth or aging. The burden of PCa attributable to smoking has decreased in the past 30 years. Copyright © 2022 Abbasi-Kangevari, Saeedi Moghaddam, Ghamari, Azangou-Khyavy, Malekpour, Rezaei, Rezaei, Kolahi, GBD 2019 NAME Prostate Cancer Collaborators, Amini, Mokdad, Jamshidi, Naghavi, Larijani and Farzadfar