Which treatment is most effective for patients with Achilles tendinopathy?:A living systematic review with network meta-analysis of 29 randomised controlled trials

Objective: To provide a consistently updated overview of the comparative effectiveness of treatments for Achilles tendinopathy. Design: Living systematic review and network meta-analysis. Data sources: Multiple databases including grey literature sources were searched up to February 2019. Study eligibility criteria: Randomised controlled trials examining the effectiveness of any treatment in patients wit

Whole-genome sequencing to explore nosocomial transmission and virulence in neonatal methicillin-susceptible Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia

BACKGROUND: Neonatal Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) bacteremia is an important cause of morbidity and mortality. In this study, we examined whether methicillin-susceptible S. aureus (MSSA) transmission and genetic makeup contribute to the occurrence of neonatal S. aureus bacteremia. METHODS: A retrospective, single-centre study was performed. All patients were included who suffered from S. aureus bacteremia in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), Erasmus MC-Sophia, Rotterdam, the Netherlands, between January 2011 and November 2017. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) was used to characterize the S. aureus isolates, as was also done in comparison to reference genomes. Transmission was considered likely in case of genetically indistinguishable S. aureus isolates. RESULTS: Excluding coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), S. aureus was the most common cause of neonatal bacteremia. Twelve percent (n = 112) of all 926 positive blood cultures from neonates grew S. aureus. Based on core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST), 12 clusters of genetically indistinguishable MSSA isolates were found, containing 33 isolates in total (2-4 isolates per cluster). In seven of these clusters, at least two of the identified MSSA isolates were collected within a time period of one month. Six virulence genes were present in 98-100% of all MSSA isolates. In comparison to S. aureus reference genomes, toxin genes encoding staphylococcal enterotoxin A (sea) and toxic shock syndrome toxin 1 (tsst-1) were present more often in the genomes of bacteremia isolates. CONCLUSION: Transmission of MSSA is a contributing factor to the occurrence of S. aureus bacteremia in neonates. Sea and tsst-1 might play a role in neonatal S. aureus bacteremia

Which treatment is most effective for adults with Achilles tendinopathy?

__Introduction__ Achilles tendinopathy is a condition that affects both active and sedentary individuals. It is characterized by localized pain in relation to tendon-loading activities. As chronic Achilles tendinopathy results in substantial disease burden, it is vital to treat it effectively. There are many different conservative and surgical treatments available, but the comparative effectiveness of these treatments has never been evalu

Discovery and validation of plasma proteomic biomarkers relating to brain amyloid burden by SOMAscan assay.

Plasma proteins have been widely studied as candidate biomarkers to predict brain amyloid deposition to increase recruitment efficiency in secondary prevention clinical trials for Alzheimer's disease. Most such biomarker studies are targeted to specific proteins or are biased toward high abundant proteins. 4001 plasma proteins were measured in two groups of participants (discovery group = 516, replication group = 365) selected from the European Medical Information Framework for Alzheimer's disease Multimodal Biomarker Discovery study, all of whom had measures of amyloid. A panel of proteins (n = 44), along with age and apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4, predicted brain amyloid deposition with good performance in both the discovery group (area under the curve = 0.78) and the replication group (area under the curve = 0.68). Furthermore, a causal relationship between amyloid and tau was confirmed by Mendelian randomization. The results suggest that high-dimensional plasma protein testing could be a useful and reproducible approach for measuring brain amyloid deposition

Validation of plasma proteomic biomarkers relating to brain amyloid burden in the EMIF-Alzheimer's disease multimodal biomarker discovery cohort

We have previously investigated, discovered, and replicated plasma protein biomarkers for use to triage potential trials participants for PET or cerebrospinal fluid measures of Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. This study sought to undertake validation of these candidate plasma biomarkers in a large, multi-center sample collection. Targeted plasma analyses of 34 proteins with prior evidence for prediction of in vivo pathology were conducted in up to 1,000 samples from cognitively healthy elderly individuals, people with mild cognitive impairment, and in patients with AD-type dementia, selected from the EMIF-AD catalogue. Proteins were measured using Luminex xMAP, ELISA, and Meso Scale Discovery assays. Seven proteins replicated in their ability to predict in vivo amyloid pathology. These proteins form a biomarker panel that, along with age, could significantly discriminate between individuals with high and low amyloid pathology with an area under the curve of 0.74. The performance of this biomarker panel remained consistent when tested in apolipoprotein E ϵ4 non-carrier individuals only. This blood-based panel is biologically relevant, measurable using practical immunocapture arrays, and could significantly reduce the cost incurred to clinical trials through screen failure

Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in √s = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results

Search for displaced vertices arising from decays of new heavy particles in 7 TeV pp collisions at ATLAS

We present the results of a search for new, heavy particles that decay at a significant distance from their production point into a final state containing charged hadrons in association with a high-momentum muon. The search is conducted in a pp-collision data sample with a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1 collected in 2010 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. Production of such particles is expected in various scenarios of physics beyond the standard model. We observe no signal and place limits on the production cross-section of supersymmetric particles in an R-parity-violating scenario as a function of the neutralino lifetime. Limits are presented for different squark and neutralino masses, enabling extension of the limits to a variety of other models.Comment: 8 pages plus author list (20 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version to appear in Physics Letters

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced with large transverse momentum in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

This paper describes an analysis of the angular distribution of W->enu and W->munu decays, using data from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2010, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 35 pb^-1. Using the decay lepton transverse momentum and the missing transverse energy, the W decay angular distribution projected onto the transverse plane is obtained and analysed in terms of helicity fractions f0, fL and fR over two ranges of W transverse momentum (ptw): 35 < ptw < 50 GeV and ptw > 50 GeV. Good agreement is found with theoretical predictions. For ptw > 50 GeV, the values of f0 and fL-fR, averaged over charge and lepton flavour, are measured to be : f0 = 0.127 +/- 0.030 +/- 0.108 and fL-fR = 0.252 +/- 0.017 +/- 0.030, where the first uncertainties are statistical, and the second include all systematic effects.Comment: 19 pages plus author list (34 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, revised author list, matches European Journal of Physics C versio

Observation of a new chi_b state in radiative transitions to Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) at ATLAS

The chi_b(nP) quarkonium states are produced in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.4 fb^-1, these states are reconstructed through their radiative decays to Upsilon(1S,2S) with Upsilon->mu+mu-. In addition to the mass peaks corresponding to the decay modes chi_b(1P,2P)->Upsilon(1S)gamma, a new structure centered at a mass of 10.530+/-0.005 (stat.)+/-0.009 (syst.) GeV is also observed, in both the Upsilon(1S)gamma and Upsilon(2S)gamma decay modes. This is interpreted as the chi_b(3P) system.Comment: 5 pages plus author list (18 pages total), 2 figures, 1 table, corrected author list, matches final version in Physical Review Letter

Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02