Recent Publications

Research with affiliate hospitals (Nazareth Hospital EMMS, Ziv Medical Center).

Tubo-ovarian abscess may develop in women with endometrioma following assisted reproductive technology (ART). The infection, though rare, is typically late in onset and may present several months after the procedure, and in pregnancy—with the risks of abortion and premature labor.... We discuss the challenges in diagnosis and treatment of this rare condition and the implications of the discovery that an organism previously dismissed as a contaminant has emerged as a causative organism in severe, deep-seated infections of soft tissues in recent literature. (Shimon Edelstein, Inbar Ben Shachar, Hila Ben-Amram, Seema Biswas, and Naama Marcus)

Research with affiliate hospitals (Nazareth Hospital EMMS, HaEmeq Hospital) - nephrology, internal medicine, lab, radiology.

We propose criteria that can retain ET/bcr-abl+ as a separate entity: clinical, laboratory and morphologic (morphology of bone marrow).

Non-alcoholic fatty liver (NAFLD) disease has become the commonest cause of end-stage liver disease. Patients with NAFLD have an increased risk of associated extrahepatic conditions, including structural and functional cardiovascular disease. Still, it is unknown if there is an association between NAFLD and valvular heart disease (VHD). (Research with affiliate hospitals - Nazareth Hospital EMMS; Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya)

Growing evidence suggests that environmental disruptors of maternal microbes may have significant detrimental consequences for the developing fetus. . . .  These data suggest that exposure of pregnant mice to even a low dose of penicillin through only the last week before birth is nonetheless sufficient to induce long-term sex-specific developmental changes in both male and female offspring. (Champagne-Jorgensen K, Firoz Mian M, Kay S, Hanani H, Ziv O, McVey Neufeld KA, Koren O, Bienenstock J)

Reviews the evidence on the association between routine palliative care and rate of advanced care planning, and concludes that if we wish to increase patients' awareness and compliance with advanced care planning we should improve access to early palliative care. (Shahar Koffler, Yishai Mintzker, Ayelet Shai)

To test the hypothesis that familial Mediterranean fever (FMF)-associated autoinflammation may exaggerate the tendency toward adaptive immunopathology or spondyloarthritis (SpA)-associated disorders including major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I associated disorders but not classical MHC class II-associated disorders that exhibit transplacental autoimmunity including myasthenia gravis and pemphigus.

Interactions between the gut microbiome and immunoglobulin A (IgA) in the gut during infancy are important for future health. IgM and IgG are also present in the gut; however, their interactions with the microbiome in the developing infant remain to be characterized. . . . results provide a better understanding of how these antibodies interact with the developing infant gut microbiome.

Fever of unknown origin (FUO) is a rare manifestation of cat scratch disease (CSD). Data regarding CSD associated FUO (CSD-FUO), particularly in adults, are limited. We aimed to study disease manifestations and long-term clinical outcome.

Sheathless guiding catheters are a valuable tool in the catheterization labor and may assist the operator when dealing with heavily calcified and tortuous vessels. Nevertheless, when hostile anatomy prevents successful percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI) from the radial access, transfemoral use of sheathless guide can assist in overcoming these challenges in a safe manner. (Zeev Israeli,  Irina Nordkin,  Alexander Goldberg,  Majdi Halabi)

We review the mechanisms and methods for predicting LOR and the currently used methods for overcoming the ineffectiveness of anti-TNFs.

Research with affiliate hospitals (Galilee Medical Center, Nahariya; The Nazareth Hospital, EMMS, Nazareth).

The Laboratory of Cancer Genomics and Biocomputing of Complex Diseases (Balamurali D, Gorohovski A, Detroja R, Palande V, Raviv-Shay D, Frenkel-Morgenstern M.)

This research compares the performance and diagnostic accuracy of three molecular tests for the detection of Clostridium difficile in stool samples, with the Xpert® C. difficile assay.