Recent Publications
Emergency open surgery with a duodenotomy and successful removal of an impacted basket following a complicated endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography procedure: a case report (J Med Case Rep . )
Current management of choledocholithiasis entails the use of endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) and clearance of the common bile duct. A rare complication of this procedure is the impaction of the basket by a large stone, which necessitates lithotripsy. Here we report a case of an impacted basket during ERCP, which was managed by open surgery with a duodenotomy and the manual removal of the basket. (Ibrahim Abu Shakra, Amitai Bickel, Mahran Badran, Fahed Merei, Samer Ganam, Walid Kassis, Eli Kakiashvili)
Tawfik Khoury, Wisam Sbeit: Cost-Effectiveness of Rapid On-Site Evaluation of Endoscopic Ultrasound Fine Needle Aspiration in Gastrointestinal lesions (Cytopathology .)
Rapid on-site evaluation (ROSE) can improve adequacy rates of fine-needle aspiration (FNA) and thus save operational costs. Our aim was to assess cost-efficacy of ROSE performed during endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-FNA of gastrointestinal lesions.
George Habib, Adel Jabbour: The impact of medical cannabis consumption on the oral flora and saliva (PLoS One . )
Evaluates the effect of medical cannabis consumption on oral flora and saliva.
Impact of age, ethnicity, sex and prior infection status on immunogenicity following a single dose of the BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine: real-world evidence from healthcare workers, Israel, December 2020 to January 2021 (Euro Surveill .)
The BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine showed high efficacy in clinical trials but observational data from populations not included in trials are needed. We describe immunogenicity 21 days post-dose 1 among 514 Israeli healthcare workers by age, ethnicity, sex and prior COVID-19 infection. Immunogenicity was similar by ethnicity and sex but decreased with age. Those with prior infection had antibody titres one magnitude order higher than naïve individuals regardless of the presence of detectable IgG antibodies pre-vaccination. (Kamal Abu Jabal, Hila Ben-Amram, Karine Beiruti, Yunis Batheesh, Christian Sussan, Salman Zarka, Michael Edelstein)
Michal Werbner, Joel Alter, Moshe Dessau, Meital Gal-Tanamy: Multi-clonal SARS-CoV-2 neutralization by antibodies isolated from severe COVID-19 convalescent donors (PLoS Pathog . )
The interactions between antibodies, SARS-CoV-2 and immune cells contribute to the pathogenesis of COVID-19 and protective immunity. To understand the differences between antibody responses in mild versus severe cases of COVID-19, we analyzed the B cell responses in patients 1.5 months post SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Ola Jahshan-Doukhy, Jacob Bornstein: Long-Term Efficacy of Physical Therapy for Localized Provoked Vulvodynia (Int J Womens Health . )
The origin of provoked vulvodynia (PV), the main cause of entry dyspareunia, remains unclear, and the treatment is empiric. In this study, we aimed to investigate the long-term effects of physical therapy on PV in subjects using questionnaire concerning PV symptoms immediately after physical therapy and at least 10 years later.
Younis, Issawy, Ben-Shlomo, Soltsman, Perlitz, Ben-Ami: Protein C global assay evaluation in naturally conceived vs. assisted reproduction-achieved twin pregnancies: a prospective longitudinal study (Arch Gynecol Obstet .)
Protein C global assay tests the global function of the protein C pathway, the most clinically significant anticoagulant pathway in humans. The objective of this study is to assess the difference in protein C global assay levels, throughout twin gestation, in naturally conceiving and ART-treated women. (Johnny S Younis, Mariana Issawy, Izhar Ben-Shlomo, Sofia Soltsman, Yuri Perlitz, Moshe Ben-Ami)
Michael Edelstein: Tracking COVID-19 using online search (NPJ Digit Med .)
Previous research has demonstrated that various properties of infectious diseases can be inferred from online search behaviour. In this work we use time series of online search query frequencies to gain insights about the prevalence of COVID-19 in multiple countries.
Assaf Adar, Hiba Zayyad, Orna Nitzan, Avi Peretz: Clinical and Demographic Characteristics of Patients With a New Diagnosis of Carriage or Clinical Infection With Carbapenemase-Producing Enterobacterales: A Retrospective Study (Front Public Health .)
Examines the clinical, demographic, and microbiologic characteristics of new rectal carbapenemase-producing carbapenem-resistant Enterobacterales (CP-CRE) carriers vs. those with a clinical infection, hospitalized at Padeh-Poriya Medical Center between 2014 and 2017 and to examine the susceptibility profiles of isolates from clinical infections.
Karl Skorecki: A COVID-19 jab in the right direction (Lancet. )
While we believe that Israel should indeed offer the Palestinian Authority supplies of vaccine, the calumny by the Lancet Palestinian Health Alliance (LPHA) in The Lancet takes the cake. First, under international law and according to the Oslo Accords, Israel is actually under no legal obligation to offer medical aid to the Palestinian Authority, which is the statutory body responsible for the health of Palestinians. Certainly, not any more than the UK owes Ireland....We ask for a little perspective and fairness, please.
Limor Meoded Danon: The Parental Struggle With the Israeli Genital Socialization Process (Qual Health Res . )
The focus of this article is on how parents of children with "nonnormative" genitalia cope with the conflict between the genital socialization process and their children's genital autonomy in the Israeli medical-sociocultural context.
Tom Domovitz, Meital Gal-Tanamy: Tracking Down the Epigenetic Footprint of HCV-Induced Hepatocarcinogenesis (J Clin Med . )
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a major cause of death and morbidity globally and is a leading cause of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Incidence of HCV infections, as well as HCV-related liver diseases, are increasing. Although now, with new direct acting antivirals (DAAs) therapy available, HCV is a curable cancer-associated infectious agent, HCC prevalence is expected to continue to rise because HCC risk still persists after HCV cure. Understanding the factors that lead from HCV infection to HCC pre- and post-cure may open-up opportunities to novel strategies for HCC prevention. Herein, we provide an overview of the reported evidence for the induction of alterations in the transcriptome of host cells via epigenetic dysregulation by HCV infection and describe recent reports linking the residual risk for HCC post-cure with a persistent HCV-induced epigenetic signature.
Yaakov Maman: Image-based pooled whole-genome CRISPRi screening for subcellular phenotypes (J Cell Biol . )
Genome-wide CRISPR screens have transformed our ability to systematically interrogate human gene function, but are currently limited to a subset of cellular phenotypes. We report a novel pooled screening approach for a wider range of cellular and subtle subcellular phenotypes.
Alla Lubovich, Fabio Kusniec, Doron Sudarsky, Liza Grosman-Rimon, Shemy Carasso: Predictors of Mitral Regurgitation Severity Improvement in Patients With Severe Aortic Stenosis Undergoing Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation (Cardiol Res .)
Mitral regurgitation (MR) is frequently associated with severe aortic stenosis (AS). Significant MR is associated with less favorable prognosis after transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI), including higher early and late mortality rate. The severity of MR is improved in about half of patients undergoing TAVI. However, the predictors of MR improvement after TAVI are unknown. We sought to investigate whether several demographic, clinical, echocardiographic and laboratory parameters and procedure characteristics are predictive of MR severity improvement after TAVI procedure.