Measurement properties of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) for women with Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause: a systematic review

Background: Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause (GSM) is a chronic and usually progressive skin disease which affects up to 50% of postmenopausal women. Symptoms, such as vaginal dryness, itching and burning have negative impacts on the women's sexual activity and often come along with urinary problems. Furthermore, these consequences influence the women's quality of life (QoL). Patient‐reported outcome measures can be used to measure the impact of GSM. Objectives: We aimed to identify all existing PROMs that were developed and/or validated for measuring patient‐reported outcomes in women with GSM or vulvovaginal symptoms during menopause and assess the quality of these PROMs in a transparent and structured way. Methods: We performed a systematic literature search in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science and smaller data bases, and hand‐searched reference lists of included studies. Only studies in English, German, French or Italian aiming at the evaluation of measurement properties, the development of a PROM, or the evaluation of the interpretability of the PROMs of interest were eligible. The methodological quality of eligible studies was evaluated with the COnsensus‐based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) risk of bias checklist. Quality criteria for good measurement properties were applied and the quality of evidence was graded using a GRADE approach. Information on interpretability and feasibility was extracted as well. PROMs were then categorized into three categories. PROMs of category A had evidence for sufficient content validity and at least low quality evidence for sufficient internal consistency, PROMs of category C had high‐quality evidence for an insufficient measurement property, and PROMs of category B could not be categorized in A or C. Results: Eight studies, two of which were found by reference list screening, were included. These studies reported on four PROMs. All of the included PROMs showed sufficient content validity. Two of the PROMs, the Vaginal Symptoms Questionnaire (VSQ) and the Day‐to‐Day Impact of Vaginal Aging (DIVA) showed moderate‐to‐high quality of evidence for sufficient structural validity and internal consistency, and were categorized as A. They can be therefore recommended for future use. The UGAQoL still has the opportunity to be recommended for use, but further validation is needed. The overall rating was often indeterminate since structural validity or important reliability parameters were not reported. The Urogenital symptom scale cannot be recommended for use since there was high quality of evidence for insufficient structural validity and internal consistency. Conclusion: Currently, two PROMs for women with GSM or vulvovaginal symptoms can be recommended. Nevertheless, those PROMs do not cover the urinary component of GSM. Future validation research should try to confirm and extend the measurement properties of those PROMs to strengthen this recommendation. PROSPERO registration CRD42018092384

Outcome measurement instruments for peripheral vascular malformations and an assessment of the measurement properties: a systematic review

© 2019, The Author(s). Purpose: The Outcome measures for vascular malformation (OVAMA) group reached consensus on the core outcome domains for the core outcome set (COS) for peripheral vascular malformations (venous, lymphatic and arteriovenous malformations). However, it is unclear which instruments should be used to measure these domains. Therefore, our aims were to identify all outcome measurement instruments available for vascular malformations, and to evaluate their measurement properties. Methods: With the first literature search, we identified outcomes and instruments previously used in prospective studies on vascular malformations. A second search yielded studies on measurement properties of patient- and physician-reported instruments that were either developed for vascular malformations, or used in prospective studies. If the latter instruments were not specifically validated for vascular malformations, we performed a third search for studies on measurement properties in clinically similar diseases (vascular or lymphatic diseases and benign tumors). We assessed the methodological quality of these studies following the Consensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement Instruments methodology, and evaluated the quality of the measurement properties. Results: The first search yielded 27 studies, none using disease-specific instruments. The second and third search included 22 development and/or validation studies, concerning six instruments. Only the Lymphatic Malformation Function Instrument was developed specifically for vascular malformations. Other instruments were generic QoL instruments developed and/or partly validated for clinically similar diseases. Conclusions: Additional research on measurement properties is needed to assess which instruments may be included in the COS. This review informs the instrument selection and/or the development of new instruments. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO, 42017056242

Prevalence of Campylobacter and Salmonella in African food animals and meat: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Campylobacter and Salmonella, particularly non-typhoidal Salmonella, are important bacterial enteric pathogens of humans which are often carried asymptomatically in animal reservoirs. Bacterial foodborne infections, including those derived from meat, are associated with illness and death globally but the burden is disproportionately high in Africa. Commercial meat production is increasing and intensifying in many African countries, creating opportunities and threats for food safety. Methods: Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, we searched six databases for English language studies published through June 2016, that reported Campylobacter or Salmonella carriage or infection prevalence in food animals and contamination prevalence in food animal products from African countries. A random effects meta-analysis and multivariable logistic regression were used to estimate the species-specific prevalence of Salmonella and Campylobacter and assess relationships between sample type and region and the detection or isolation of either pathogen. Results: Seventy-three studies reporting Campylobacter and 187 studies reporting Salmonella across 27 African countries were represented. Adjusted prevalence calculations estimate Campylobacter detection in 37.7% (95% CI 31.6–44.3) of 11,828 poultry samples; 24.6% (95% CI 18.0–32.7) of 1975 pig samples; 17.8% (95% CI 12.6–24.5) of 2907 goat samples; 12.6% (95% CI 8.4–18.5) of 2382 sheep samples; and 12.3% (95% CI 9.5–15.8) of 6545 cattle samples. Salmonella were detected in 13.9% (95% CI 11.7–16.4) of 25,430 poultry samples; 13.1% (95% CI 9.3–18.3) of 5467 pig samples; 9.3% (95% CI 7.2–12.1) of 2988 camel samples; 5.3% (95% CI 4.0–6.8) of 72,292 cattle samples; 4.8% (95% CI 3.6–6.3) of 11,335 sheep samples; and 3.4% (95% CI 2.2–5.2) of 4904 goat samples. ‘External’ samples (e.g. hide, feathers) were significantly more likely to be contaminated by both pathogens than ‘gut’ (e.g. faeces, cloaca) while meat and organs were significantly less likely to be contaminated than gut samples. Conclusions: This study demonstrated widespread prevalence of Campylobacter species and Salmonella serovars in African food animals and meat, particularly in samples of poultry and pig origin. Source attribution studies could help ascertain which food animals are contributing to human campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis and direct potential food safety interventions

Identification and validation of copy number variants in Italian Brown Swiss dairy cattle using Illumina Bovine SNP50 Beadchip®

The determination of copy number variation (CNV) is very important for the evaluation of genomic traits in several species because they are a major source for the genetic variation, influencing gene expression, phenotypic variation, adaptation and the development of diseases. The aim of this study was to obtain a CNV genome map using the Illumina Bovine SNP50 BeadChip data of 651 bulls of the Italian Brown Swiss breed. PennCNV and SVS7 (Golden Helix) software were used for the detection of the CNVs and Copy Number Variation Regions (CNVRs). A total of 5,099 and 1,289 CNVs were identified with PennCNV and SVS7 software, respectively. These were grouped at the population level into 1101 (220 losses, 774 gains, 107 complex) and 277 (185 losses, 56 gains and 36 complex) CNVR. Ten of the selected CNVR were experimentally validated with a qPCR experiment. The GO and pathway analyses were conducted and they identified genes (false discovery rate corrected) in the CNVR related to biological processes cellular component, molecular function and metabolic pathways. Among those, we found the FCGR2B, PPAR\u3b1, KATNAL1, DNAJC15, PTK2, TG, STAT family, NPM1, GATA2, LMF1, ECHS1 genes, already known in literature because of their association with various traits in cattle. Although there is variability in the CNVRs detection across methods and platforms, this study allowed the identification of CNVRs in Italian Brown Swiss, overlapping those already detected in other breeds and finding additional ones, thus producing new knowledge for association studies with traits of interest in cattle

Recommendations on the most suitable quality-of-life measurement instruments for bariatric and body contouring surgery:a systematic review

Objective: The objective of this study is to systematically assess the quality of existing patient-reported outcome measures developed and/or validated for Quality of Life measurement in bariatric surgery (BS) and body contouring surgery (BCS). Methods: We conducted a systematic literature search in PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Cochrane Database Systematic Reviews and CENTRAL identifying studies on measurement properties of BS and BCS Quality of Life instruments. For all eligible studies, we evaluated the methodological quality of the studies by using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments checklist and the quality of the measurement instruments by applying quality criteria. Four degrees of recommendation were assigned to validated instruments (A–D). Results: Out of 4,354 articles, a total of 26 articles describing 24 instruments were included. No instrument met all requirements (category A). Seven instruments have the potential to be recommended depending on further validation studies (category B). Of these seven, the BODY-Q has the strongest evidence for content validity in BS and BCS. Two instruments had poor quality in at least one required quality criterion (category C). Fifteen instruments were minimally validated (category D). Conclusion: The BODY-Q, developed for BS and BCS, possessed the strongest evidence for quality of measurement properties and has the potential to be recommended in future clinical trials

Redundant roles of photoreceptors and cytokinins in regulating photosynthetic acclimation to canopy density

The regulation of photosynthetic acclimation to canopy density was investigated in tobacco canopies and in tobacco and Arabidopsis plants with part of their foliage experimentally shaded. Both species acclimated to canopy light gradients and partial shading by allocating photosynthetic capacity to leaves in high light and adjusting chloroplast organization to the local light conditions. An investigation was carried out to determine whether signalling mediated by photoreceptors, sugars, cytokinin, and nitrate is involved in and necessary for proper photosynthetic acclimation. No evidence was found for a role for sugars, or for nitrate. The distribution of cytokinins in tobacco stands of contrasting density could be explained in part by irradiance-dependent delivery of cytokinins through the transpiration stream. Functional studies using a comprehensive selection of Arabidopsis mutants and transgenics showed that normal wild-type responses to partial shading were retained when signalling mediated by photoreceptors or cytokinins was disrupted. This indicates that these pathways probably operate in a redundant manner. However, the reduction of the chlorophyll a/b ratio in response to local shade was completely absent in the Arabidopsis Ws-2 accession mutated in PHYTOCHROME D and in the triple phyAphyCphyD mutant. Moreover, cytokinin receptor mutants also showed a reduced response, suggesting a previously unrecognized function of phyD and cytokinins

Caenorhabditis elegans Cyclin D/CDK4 and Cyclin E/CDK2 Induce Distinct Cell Cycle Re-Entry Programs in Differentiated Muscle Cells

Cell proliferation and differentiation are regulated in a highly coordinated and inverse manner during development and tissue homeostasis. Terminal differentiation usually coincides with cell cycle exit and is thought to engage stable transcriptional repression of cell cycle genes. Here, we examine the robustness of the post-mitotic state, using Caenorhabditis elegans muscle cells as a model. We found that expression of a G1 Cyclin and CDK initiates cell cycle re-entry in muscle cells without interfering with the differentiated state. Cyclin D/CDK4 (CYD-1/CDK-4) expression was sufficient to induce DNA synthesis in muscle cells, in contrast to Cyclin E/CDK2 (CYE-1/CDK-2), which triggered mitotic events. Tissue-specific gene-expression profiling and single molecule FISH experiments revealed that Cyclin D and E kinases activate an extensive and overlapping set of cell cycle genes in muscle, yet failed to induce some key activators of G1/S progression. Surprisingly, CYD-1/CDK-4 also induced an additional set of genes primarily associated with growth and metabolism, which were not activated by CYE-1/CDK-2. Moreover, CYD-1/CDK-4 expression also down-regulated a large number of genes enriched for catabolic functions. These results highlight distinct functions for the two G1 Cyclin/CDK complexes and reveal a previously unknown activity of Cyclin D/CDK-4 in regulating metabolic gene expression. Furthermore, our data demonstrate that many cell cycle genes can still be transcriptionally induced in post-mitotic muscle cells, while maintenance of the post-mitotic state might depend on stable repression of a limited number of critical cell cycle regulators

Spread of non-typhoidal Salmonella in the beef supply chain in northern Tanzania: Sensitivity in a probabilistic model integrating microbiological data and data from stakeholder interviews

East Africa is a hotspot for foodborne diseases, including infection by nontyphoidal Salmonella (NTS), a zoonotic pathogen that may originate from livestock. Urbanization and increased demand for animal protein drive intensification of livestock production and food processing, creating risks and opportunities for food safety. We built a probabilistic mathematical model, informed by prior beliefs and dedicated stakeholder interviews and microbiological research, to describe sources and prevalence of NTS along the beef supply chain in Moshi, Tanzania. The supply chain was conceptualized using a bow tie model, with terminal livestock markets as pinch point, and a forked pathway postmarket to compare traditional and emerging supply chains. NTS was detected in 36 (7.7%) of 467 samples throughout the supply chain. After combining prior belief and observational data, marginal estimates of true NTS prevalence were 4% in feces of cattle entering the beef supply and 20% in raw meat at butcheries. Based on our model and sensitivity analyses, true NTS prevalence was not significantly different between supply chains. Environmental contamination, associated with butchers and vendors, was estimated to be the most likely source of NTS in meat for human consumption. The model provides a framework for assessing the origin and propagation of NTS along meat supply chains. It can be used to inform decision making when economic factors cause changes in beef production and consumption, such as where to target interventions to reduce risks to consumers. Through sensitivity and value of information analyses, the model also helps to prioritize investment in additional research