ABLATE : a score to predict complications and recurrence rate in percutaneous treatments of renal lesions

RENAL score has been validated on predicting adverse events and relapses in percutaneous treatments of renal lesions. To better fit interventional issues a modified score (mRENAL) has been introduced, but the only difference from the RENAL score is on the dimensional parameter. However, it remains of surgical derivation while a specific interventional score is missing. This study aims to obtain a specific score (ABLATE) to better quantify the risk of complications and relapses in percutaneous kidney ablation procedures compared to the existing surgical scores. Taking inspiration from previous papers, a score was built to quantify the real difficulties faced in percutaneous treatment of renal lesions. The ABLATE score was used on 71 cryoablations to evaluate its predictivity of complications and relapses. Logistic regression was used to predict complication incidence; Cox-regression was used for relapses; ROC analysis was used to evaluate the accuracy of the different scores. Between January 2014 and November 2019, 71 lesions in 68 patients were treated. Overall, malignant histology was found in 62 lesions (87.3%). Mean and median RENAL, mRENAL, and ABLATE scores were 7.04 and 7, 7.19 and 7, and 5.11 and 4, respectively. Out of 71 treatments, we experienced 3 bleeding with anemia (4.2%), only 2 of which needed further treatment (2.82%). The mean and median RENAL, mRENAL, and ABLATE scores in those with complications were 7.66 and 7.01 (p = 0.69), 8.0 and 7.1 (p = 0.54), and 6.6 and 5.0 (p = 0.38), respectively. Out of 62 malignant lesions, we experienced 2 persistent and 6 recurrent lesions (3.2% and 8.4%, respectively). At Cox-regression analyses, mABLATE score outperformed both RENAL and mRENAL scores in predicting recurrences (HR 1.48; p < 0.001 vs. 1.41; p = 0.1 vs. 1.38: p = 0.07, respectively). The ABLATE score showed to be a better predictor of relapses than RENAL and mRENAL. The small number of complications conditioned a lack of statistic power on complications for all the scores. At the moment to quantify the risks in percutaneous kidney ablation procedures, surgical scores are used. A specific score better performs this task

SlicerMorph: An open and extensible platform to retrieve, visualize and analyse 3D morphology

Abstract Large‐scale digitization projects such as #ScanAllFishes and oVert are generating high‐resolution microCT scans of vertebrates by the thousands. Data from these projects are shared with the community using aggregate 3D specimen repositories like MorphoSource through various open licenses. We anticipate an explosion of quantitative research in organismal biology with the convergence of available data and the methodologies to analyse them. Though the data are available, the road from a series of images to analysis is fraught with challenges for most biologists. It involves tedious tasks of data format conversions, preserving spatial scale of the data accurately, 3D visualization and segmentations, and acquiring measurements and annotations. When scientists use commercial software with proprietary formats, a roadblock for data exchange, collaboration and reproducibility is erected that hurts the efforts of the scientific community to broaden participation in research. We developed SlicerMorph as an extension of 3D Slicer, a biomedical visualization and analysis ecosystem with extensive visualization and segmentation capabilities built on proven python‐scriptable open‐source libraries such as Visualization Toolkit and Insight Toolkit. In addition to the core functionalities of Slicer, SlicerMorph provides users with modules to conveniently retrieve open‐access 3D models or import users own 3D volumes, to annotate 3D curve and patch‐based landmarks, generate landmark templates, conduct geometric morphometric analyses of 3D organismal form using both landmark‐driven and landmark‐free approaches, and create 3D animations from their results. We highlight how these individual modules can be tied together to establish complete workflow(s) from image sequence to morphospace. Our software development efforts were supplemented with short courses and workshops that cover the fundamentals of 3D imaging and morphometric analyses as it applies to study of organismal form and shape in evolutionary biology. Our goal is to establish a community of organismal biologists centred around Slicer and SlicerMorph to facilitate easy exchange of data and results and collaborations using 3D specimens. Our proposition to our colleagues is that using a common open platform supported by a large user and developer community ensures the longevity and sustainability of the tools beyond the initial development effort

Manitoba-oculo-tricho-anal (MOTA) syndrome is caused by mutations in FREM1

Genetics of disease, diagnosis and treatmen