Anesthesiology Resident Performance on the US Medical Licensing Examination Predicts Success on the American Board of Anesthesiology BASIC Staged Examination: An Observational Study

BACKGROUND: Correlation has been found between the US Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 examination results and anesthesiology resident success on American Board of Anesthesiology (ABA) examinations. In 2014, the ABA instituted the BASIC examination at the end of the postgraduate year-2 year. We hypothesized a similar predictive value of USMLE scores on BASIC examination success. METHODS: After the Committee for the Protection of Human Subjects at UTHealth Institutional Review Board approved and waived written consent, we retrospectively evaluated USMLE Step examination performance on first-time BASIC examination success in a single academic department from 2014-2018. RESULTS: Over 5 years, 120 residents took the ABA BASIC examination and 108 (90%) passed on the first attempt. Ten of 12 first-time failures were successful on repeat examination but analyzed in the failure group. Complete data was available for 92 residents (76.7%), with absent scores primarily reflecting osteopathic graduates who completed Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination of the United States level examinations rather than USMLE. In the failure cohort, all 3 USMLE examination step scores were lower ( CONCLUSIONS: In anesthesiology residency training, our preliminary single-center data is the first to suggest that USMLE Step 1 performance could be used as a predictor of success on the recently introduced ABA BASIC Examination. These findings do not support recent action to change USMLE scoring to a pass/fail report

Pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of medication in asphyxiated newborns during controlled hypothermia. The PharmaCool multicenter study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In the Netherlands, perinatal asphyxia (severe perinatal oxygen shortage) necessitating newborn resuscitation occurs in at least 200 of the 180–185.000 newly born infants per year. International randomized controlled trials have demonstrated an improved neurological outcome with therapeutic hypothermia. During hypothermia neonates receive sedative, analgesic, anti-epileptic and antibiotic drugs. So far little information is available how the pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics (PD) of these drugs are influenced by post resuscitation multi organ failure and the metabolic effects of the cooling treatment itself. As a result, evidence based dosing guidelines are lacking. This multicenter observational cohort study was designed to answer the question how hypothermia influences the distribution, metabolism and elimination of commonly used drugs in neonatal intensive care.</p> <p>Methods/Design</p> <p>Multicenter cohort study. All term neonates treated with hypothermia for Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy (HIE) resulting from perinatal asphyxia in all ten Dutch Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) will be eligible for this study. During hypothermia and rewarming blood samples will be taken from indwelling catheters to investigate blood concentrations of several antibiotics, analgesics, sedatives and anti-epileptic drugs. For each individual drug the population PK will be characterized using Nonlinear Mixed Effects Modelling (NONMEM). It will be investigated how clearance and volume of distribution are influenced by hypothermia also taking maturation of neonate into account. Similarly, integrated PK-PD models will be developed relating the time course of drug concentration to pharmacodynamic parameters such as successful seizure treatment; pain assessment and infection clearance.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>On basis of the derived population PK-PD models dosing guidelines will be developed for the application of drugs during neonatal hypothermia treatment. The results of this study will lead to an evidence based drug treatment of hypothermic neonatal patients. Results will be published in a national web based evidence based paediatric formulary, peer reviewed journals and international paediatric drug references.</p> <p>Trial registration</p> <p>NTR2529.</p

Comprehensive Molecular Characterization of Pheochromocytoma and Paraganglioma

SummaryWe report a comprehensive molecular characterization of pheochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PCCs/PGLs), a rare tumor type. Multi-platform integration revealed that PCCs/PGLs are driven by diverse alterations affecting multiple genes and pathways. Pathogenic germline mutations occurred in eight PCC/PGL susceptibility genes. We identified CSDE1 as a somatically mutated driver gene, complementing four known drivers (HRAS, RET, EPAS1, and NF1). We also discovered fusion genes in PCCs/PGLs, involving MAML3, BRAF, NGFR, and NF1. Integrated analysis classified PCCs/PGLs into four molecularly defined groups: a kinase signaling subtype, a pseudohypoxia subtype, a Wnt-altered subtype, driven by MAML3 and CSDE1, and a cortical admixture subtype. Correlates of metastatic PCCs/PGLs included the MAML3 fusion gene. This integrated molecular characterization provides a comprehensive foundation for developing PCC/PGL precision medicine

Формирование эмоциональной культуры как компонента инновационной культуры студентов

Homozygosity has long been associated with rare, often devastating, Mendelian disorders1 and Darwin was one of the first to recognise that inbreeding reduces evolutionary fitness2. However, the effect of the more distant parental relatedness common in modern human populations is less well understood. Genomic data now allow us to investigate the effects of homozygosity on traits of public health importance by observing contiguous homozygous segments (runs of homozygosity, ROH), which are inferred to be homozygous along their complete length. Given the low levels of genome-wide homozygosity prevalent in most human populations, information is required on very large numbers of people to provide sufficient power3,4. Here we use ROH to study 16 health-related quantitative traits in 354,224 individuals from 102 cohorts and find statistically significant associations between summed runs of homozygosity (SROH) and four complex traits: height, forced expiratory lung volume in 1 second (FEV1), general cognitive ability (g) and educational attainment (nominal p<1 × 10−300, 2.1 × 10−6, 2.5 × 10−10, 1.8 × 10−10). In each case increased homozygosity was associated with decreased trait value, equivalent to the offspring of first cousins being 1.2 cm shorter and having 10 months less education. Similar effect sizes were found across four continental groups and populations with different degrees of genome-wide homozygosity, providing convincing evidence for the first time that homozygosity, rather than confounding, directly contributes to phenotypic variance. Contrary to earlier reports in substantially smaller samples5,6, no evidence was seen of an influence of genome-wide homozygosity on blood pressure and low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, or ten other cardio-metabolic traits. Since directional dominance is predicted for traits under directional evolutionary selection7, this study provides evidence that increased stature and cognitive function have been positively selected in human evolution, whereas many important risk factors for late-onset complex diseases may not have been

The FANCM:p.Arg658* truncating variant is associated with risk of triple-negative breast cancer

Abstract: Breast cancer is a common disease partially caused by genetic risk factors. Germline pathogenic variants in DNA repair genes BRCA1, BRCA2, PALB2, ATM, and CHEK2 are associated with breast cancer risk. FANCM, which encodes for a DNA translocase, has been proposed as a breast cancer predisposition gene, with greater effects for the ER-negative and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) subtypes. We tested the three recurrent protein-truncating variants FANCM:p.Arg658*, p.Gln1701*, and p.Arg1931* for association with breast cancer risk in 67,112 cases, 53,766 controls, and 26,662 carriers of pathogenic variants of BRCA1 or BRCA2. These three variants were also studied functionally by measuring survival and chromosome fragility in FANCM−/− patient-derived immortalized fibroblasts treated with diepoxybutane or olaparib. We observed that FANCM:p.Arg658* was associated with increased risk of ER-negative disease and TNBC (OR = 2.44, P = 0.034 and OR = 3.79; P = 0.009, respectively). In a country-restricted analysis, we confirmed the associations detected for FANCM:p.Arg658* and found that also FANCM:p.Arg1931* was associated with ER-negative breast cancer risk (OR = 1.96; P = 0.006). The functional results indicated that all three variants were deleterious affecting cell survival and chromosome stability with FANCM:p.Arg658* causing more severe phenotypes. In conclusion, we confirmed that the two rare FANCM deleterious variants p.Arg658* and p.Arg1931* are risk factors for ER-negative and TNBC subtypes. Overall our data suggest that the effect of truncating variants on breast cancer risk may depend on their position in the gene. Cell sensitivity to olaparib exposure, identifies a possible therapeutic option to treat FANCM-associated tumors

Retrospective evaluation of whole exome and genome mutation calls in 746 cancer samples

Funder: NCI U24CA211006Abstract: The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC) curated consensus somatic mutation calls using whole exome sequencing (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS), respectively. Here, as part of the ICGC/TCGA Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes (PCAWG) Consortium, which aggregated whole genome sequencing data from 2,658 cancers across 38 tumour types, we compare WES and WGS side-by-side from 746 TCGA samples, finding that ~80% of mutations overlap in covered exonic regions. We estimate that low variant allele fraction (VAF < 15%) and clonal heterogeneity contribute up to 68% of private WGS mutations and 71% of private WES mutations. We observe that ~30% of private WGS mutations trace to mutations identified by a single variant caller in WES consensus efforts. WGS captures both ~50% more variation in exonic regions and un-observed mutations in loci with variable GC-content. Together, our analysis highlights technological divergences between two reproducible somatic variant detection efforts

Nocturnal Oxygen Desaturation and Disordered Sleep as a Potential Factor in Executive Dysfunction in Sickle Cell Anemia

Previous research has identified cognitive impairment in children with sickle cell anemia (SCA, Hemoglobin SS) compared with controls, partly accounted for by overt neuropathology after clinical stroke, covert (silent) infarction, and severity of anemia. However, cognitive deficits have also been identified in children with SCA with no history of stroke and a normal T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan. Our aim was to investigate whether nocturnal hemoglobin oxygen desaturation and sleep fragmentation could be associated with cognitive impairment in children with SCA. We assessed 10 children with SCA (9 with normal MRI) using neuropsychological measures of executive function. Cognitive assessment was immediately followed by overnight polysomnography to record nocturnal hemoglobin oxygen saturation and sleep arousals. Decreases in hemoglobin oxygen saturation and/or increased sleep arousals were associated with reduced performance on cognitive assessment. Nocturnal hemoglobin oxygen desaturation and sleep fragmentation may be a contributing factor to executive dysfunction in SCA.</p