Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency–Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

Pulmonary hypertension in bronchopulmonary dysplasia

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a major complication in prematurely born infants. Pulmonary hypertension (PH) associated with BPD (BPD-PH) is characterized by alveolar diffusion impairment, abnormal vascular remodeling, and rarefication of pulmonary vessels (vascular growth arrest), which lead to increased pulmonary vascular resistance and right heart failure. About 25% of infants with moderate to severe BPD develop BPD-PH that is associated with high morbidity and mortality. The recent evolution of broader PH-targeted pharmacotherapy in adults has opened up new treatment options for infants with BPD-PH. Sildenafil became the mainstay of contemporary BPD-PH therapy. Additional medications, such as endothelin receptor antagonists and prostacyclin analogs/mimetics, are increasingly being investigated in infants with PH. However, pediatric data from prospective or randomized controlled trials are still sparse. We discuss comprehensive diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for BPD-PH and briefly review the relevant differential diagnoses of parenchymal and interstitial developmental lung diseases. In addition, we provide a practical framework for the management of children with BPD-PH, incorporating the modified definition and classification of pediatric PH from the 2018 World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension, and the 2019 EPPVDN consensus recommendations on established and newly developed therapeutic strategies. Finally, current gaps of knowledge and future research directions are discussed. IMPACT: PH in BPD substantially increases mortality. Treatment of BPD-PH should be conducted by an interdisciplinary team and follow our new treatment algorithm while still kept tailored to the individual patient.We discuss recent developments in BPD-PH, make recommendations on diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of PH in BPD, and address current gaps of knowledge and potential research directions.We provide a practical framework, including a new treatment algorithm, for the management of children with BPD-PH, incorporating the modified definition and classification of pediatric PH (2018 WSPH) and the 2019 EPPVDN consensus recommendations on established and newly developed therapeutic strategies for BPD-PH

An update on patent ductus arteriosus and what is coming next

Patent ductus arteriosus is the most common cardiovascular condition in preterm infants. There is a significant uncertainty about when and how to close ductus arteriosus in preterm infants due to a high spontaneous closure rate even in very immature preterm infants. Diagnosis and management of patent ductus arteriosus remain a challenge for both neonatologists and pediatric cardiologists. Researchers have tried to define a balance between an expectant approach and active treatment in selected infants. This review aimed to focus on the pathophysiology and management of patent ductus arteriosus and to make suggestions about approaches that might eliminate the association of morbidities with patent ductus arteriosus

Does long-term survival in patients with pancreatic cancer really exist? Results from the CONKO-001 study

BACKGROUND: Long-term survival (LTS) in patients (pts) with pancreatic cancer is still uncommon, little data is available to identify long-term survivors. The CONKO-001 study, which established gemcitabine after resection as adjuvant therapy, may provide data to answer this question. METHODS: CONKO-001 pts with an overall survival >/=5 years were compared to those who survived /=5 years were identified. It was possible to obtain tumor specimens of 39 pts (72%). Histological re-evaluation confirmed adenocarcinoma in 38 pts, 1 showed a high-grade neuroendocrine tumor. Univariate analysis for all 53 LTS pts with adenocarcinoma compared to the remaining 300 non-LTS pts revealed as relevant active treatment, tumor grading, tumor size, lymph nodes. No significance could be demonstrated for resection margin, sex, age, Karnofsky performance status, CA 19-9 at study entry. In multivariate analysis, tumor grading, active treatment, tumor size, lymph node involvement were independent prognostic factors for LTS. CONCLUSION: Long-term survival can be achieved in adenocarcinoma of the pancreas

Recommendations from the Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology for training in pulmonary hypertension.

Pulmonary hypertension is a complex and progressive condition that is either idiopathic or heritable, or associated with one or multiple health conditions, with or without congenital or acquired cardiovascular disease. Recent developments have tremendously increased the armamentarium of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches in children and young adults with pulmonary hypertension that is still associated with a high morbidity and mortality. These modalities include non-invasive imaging, pharmacotherapy, interventional and surgical procedures, and supportive measures. The optimal, tailored diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for pulmonary hypertension in the young are rapidly evolving but still face enormous challenges: Healthcare providers need to take the patient's age, development, disease state, and family concerns into account when initiating advanced diagnostics and treatment. Therefore, there is a need for guidance on core and advanced medical training in paediatric pulmonary hypertension. The Association for European Paediatric and Congenital Cardiology working group "pulmonary hypertension, heart failure and transplantation" has produced this document as an expert consensus statement; however, all recommendations must be considered and applied in the context of the local and national infrastructure and legal regulations

Neue hämodynamische Definition der pulmonalen Hypertonie

Eine pathologische Druckerhöhung im pulmonalen Gefäßsystem (pulmonale Hypertonie, PH) wurde bisher definiert durch einen invasiv gemessenen mittleren pulmonalarteriellen Druck (mPAP) ≥25 mm Hg in Ruhe. Auf dem 6th World Symposium on Pulmonary Hypertension (WSPH) in Nizza 2018 wurde eine neue Definition der PH vorgeschlagen, die die Senkung der Obergrenze des normalen mPAP von 24 auf 20 mm Hg beinhaltet. Obwohl keine Evidenz aus pädiatrischen Studien hierfür vorliegt, wurde diese neue PH-Definition (mPAP >20 mm Hg) aus Gründen der Einheitlichkeit auch von der pädiatrischen „Task Force“ des WSPH 2018 übernommen. Die vorliegende Stellungnahme der Arbeitsgemeinschaft Pulmonale Hypertonie (AGPH) der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Pädiatrische Kardiologie und angeborene Herzfehler e. V. (DGPK) erläutert die zugrunde liegende Rationale und mögliche Konsequenzen dieser Definitionsänderung. Insbesondere stellt sie klar, dass diese Änderung der Definition aktuell keinen Einfluss auf die Verschreibung von Medikamenten zur gezielten spezifischen Therapie der pulmonalarteriellen Hypertonie hat