Recent Publications

The COVID-19 outbreak has unearthed new opportunities for pharmacists: community and hospital pharmacists have, indeed, played a key role during the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that a fully integrated, inter-sectoral and inter-professional collaboration is necessary to face crises and public health emergencies. Preliminary, emerging evidence seems to suggest that, probably, a new era in the history of pharmacies ("the post-COVID-19 post-pharmaceutical care era") has begun, with community pharmacists acquiring more professional standing, being authentic heroes and frontline health workers.

Assesses the incidence of ocular hypertension (OHTN) following penetrating keratoplasty (PKP) versus deep anterior lamellar keratoplasty (DALK) corneal transplant surgeries, and to assess the impact of indication for transplantation versus surgery type on OHTN development.

Epiphora due to refractory bicanalicular obstructions is typically managed by conjunctivodacryocystorhinostomy (CDCR) with or without the assistance of nasal endoscopy. However, the evidence for its benefit is unclear. A systematic review of the literature on the treatment of epiphora by CDCR was performed (March 1, 2018). All studies reporting original data on patients suffering from epiphora treated with CDCR surgery were included. Primary outcomes were success and satisfaction rates. Secondary outcomes were CDCR complications. A comparison was made between the results obtained in patients undergoing CDCR with vs without assistance of nasal endoscopy. (Netanel Eisenbach, Ohad Karni, Eyal Sela,  Amiel Dror, Einat Levy, Yanir Kassif, Relli Ovadya, Ohad Ronen, Tal Marshak)

Recent modifications in the management of well-differentiated thyroid cancer have resulted in significant alterations in clinical approach. Utilizing a series of preoperative and postoperative risk factors involving both the patient and the disease pathology, we offer the term "staged thyroidectomy" to help organize these risk factors for patients and the endocrine team to optimize management. This approach is intended to incorporate our latest nuanced understanding of certain endocrine pathology and may serve to optimize patient outcomes.

Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is becoming increasingly common among children. We aimed to estimate the risk of end-stage renal disease (ESKD) and mortality among adolescents with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and normal renal function compared with non-diabetics. We hypothesized that childhood onset T1DM vs. T2DM would be associated with a different risk profile for developing ESKD and its complications.

Coronary artery calcium measured by CT predicts future coronary events. Similarly, carotid artery calcium on dental panoramic radiographs has been associated with increased cardiovascular events. Pre-procedural assessment of candidates for valve replacement in our institution includes panoramic radiographs and chest tomography. We aimed to assess the association of carotid calcium on panoramic radiographs with coronary artery calcium on chest tomography. (Shemy Carasso, Dalit Porat Ben Amy, Mariana Issawy, Fabio Kusniec, Diab Ghanim, Doron Sudarsky, Gabby Elbaz-Greener, Wadi Kinany, Chen Shmuel , Imad Abu El-Naaj, Erez Kachel, Offer Amir

Characterizes ocular adverse events (oAEs) caused by immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs).

Concomitant common bile duct (CBD) stone in the setting of acute calculous cholecystitis (ACC) should be suspected once abnormal liver indices are noticed. We aimed to identify predictors of CBD stone in patients hospitalized with ACC.

Despite considerable efforts to control tuberculosis (TB) among Ethiopian immigrants in Israel, an outbreak of TB among second-generation Ethiopian immigrants that also involved native Israelis occurred between January 2011 and December 2019. The aim of this article is to report on this outbreak and discuss the patient and health system barriers that led to its propagation.

Personalized cancer immunotherapy targeting patient-specific cancer/testis antigens (CTA) and neoantigens may benefit from large-scale tumor human leukocyte antigen (HLA) peptidome (immunopeptidome) analysis, which aims to accurately identify antigens presented by tumor cells. Although significant efforts have been invested in analyzing the HLA peptidomes of fresh tumors, it is often impossible to obtain sufficient volumes of tumor tissues for comprehensive HLA peptidome characterization. This work attempted to overcome some of these obstacles by using patient-derived xenograft tumors (PDX) in mice as the tissue sources for HLA peptidome analysis. 

The current retrospective study evaluated safety and efficacy of venetoclax-based combinations in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM/RR) amyloidosis (AL) and the role of anti-infection prophylaxis in the real-life setting.

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia in clinical practice. AF is associated with approximately a threefold to fivefold increased risk for stroke. Hypokalaemia is associated with ventricular arrhythmias and cardiac arrest. Little is known about the association of serum potassium with atrial fibrillation. The aims of this study are to assess the association of low serum potassium (hypokalaemia) and the risk of AF.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a set of chronic inflammatory diseases associated with significant morbidity. Generally, IBD patients have twice the risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) compared to healthy controls. VTE can occur both, during hospital stay or after discharge. We aimed to assess the incidence among IBD patients who were hospitalized for disease exacerbation.

ASD is a neurodevelopmental disorder that is defined by impairments in social communication, restricted interests, and repetitive behaviors (American Psychiatric Association 2013). Despite the unitary definition, individuals with ASD exhibit a wide variety of different core and secondary symptoms, which include dramatic differences in the level of adaptive behaviors, language, and cognitive abilities. This heterogeneity suggests that the ASD diagnostic category includes a variety of distinct disorders (Happé et al. 2006) that develop due to different causes (State and Levitt 2011; Jeste and Geschwind 2014) and are likely to require different interventions and therapies (Zwaigenbaum et al. 2015).

Consequently, conducting ASD research with small groups of participants in isolated laboratories yields findings that are not likely to be replicated across sites. The alternative, which has gained considerable momentum over the last decade, is to develop collaborative research efforts that involve identical data collection at multiple sites and the establishment of a common shared database. Such efforts enable data collection from a larger number of participants who are more likely to represent the true heterogeneity of ASD characteristics in the community. This approach can, therefore, enable researchers to pursue a personalized medicine approach with the goal of dividing the heterogeneous population into distinct subgroups that share specific phenotypic features, etiologies and/or treatment response patterns. These efforts are considerably more difficult and expensive to establish, and require multidisciplinary collaboration.

Liver diseases are amongst the most common diseases worldwide and manifest as a parenchymatic and/or biliary injury due to several causes as well as focal liver lesions, ranging from benign to malignant ones. The diagnosis of liver diseases is based mainly on biochemical and advanced imaging studies and, when required, on liver biopsy. Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), which combines endoscopy and ultrasonography, is one of the main examination techniques used in gastroenterology as it is applied to evaluate abnormalities in the lumen of the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract and to define pancreatic and hepato-biliary features, often in chronic patients. Given its high spatial resolution and its proximity to the liver, EUS is gaining popularity in the diagnostic work up of liver diseases. This is a comprehensive overview of the current literature on the diagnostic indications for EUS use in patients with liver diseases.