Recent Publications
Shemy Carasso, Fabio Kusniec, Ibrahim Marai, Offer Amir: The Relationship Between Body Mass Index and In-Hospital Mortality in the Contemporary Era of an Acute Myocardial Infarction Management (Vasc Health Risk Manag . )
The association between body mass index (BMI) and clinical outcomes following an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) remains controversial. Our objective was to investigate the relationship between BMI and AMI presentation, in-hospital clinical course and mortality in the contemporary era of AMI management.
Moran Titelbaum, Boris Brant, Daniel Baumel, Alina Burstein-Willensky, Shira Perez, Yiftah Barsheshet, Orly Avni: Ezh2 harnesses the intranuclear actin cytoskeleton to remodel chromatin in differentiating Th cells (iScience .)
Following their first interaction with the antigen, quiescent naive T-helper (Th; CD4+) cells enlarge, differentiate, and proliferate; these processes are accompanied by substantial epigenetic alterations. We showed previously that the epigenetic regulators the polycomb-group (PcG) proteins have a dual function as both positive and negative transcriptional regulators; however, the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that during Th cell differentiation the methyltransferase activity of the PcG protein Ezh2 regulates post-transcriptionally inducible assembly of intranuclear actin filaments.
Sophia Eilat-Tsanani:Uptake of pneumococcal vaccination in older people in northern Israel (Prev Med Rep . )
The 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine is recommended for people aged 65 years and over, to prevent pneumonia, a leading cause of infectious morbidity in older people. This study assessed pneumococcal vaccination in people aged 65-74 years living in northern Israel who were eligible for the pneumococcal vaccine since introduction free of charge.
Ran Katz, Muhamad Abu Ahmed, Ali Safadi, Wasiem Abu Nasra, Alexander Visoki, Michael Huckim, Ibrahim Elias, Meital Nuriel-Ohayon, Hadar Neuman: Characterization of fecal microbiome in biopsy positive prostate cancer patients (BJUI Compass .)
Characterizes the fecal microbiome in newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients.
George Habib, Suheil Artul: The Effect of Medical Cannabis on Pain Level and Quality of Sleep among Rheumatology Clinic Outpatients (Pain Res Manag .)
Medical cannabis (MC) is becoming increasingly popular for the treatment of chronic pain conditions. In this study, we evaluated the effect of MC treatment on pain level and quality of sleep of patients with different medical conditions at the rheumatology clinic.
Kamal Hamoud: The Role of Vertebral Morphometry in the Pathogenesis of Degenerative Lumbar Spinal Stenosis (Biomed Res Int .)
The aim of the current study was to establish whether the vertebral morphometry (e.g., vertebral body width and spinal canal diameters) is associated with degenerative lumbar spinal stenosis (DLSS).
Khalaf Kridin: Immunologische Merkmale und Faktoren im Zusammenhang mit dem mukokutanen bullösen Pemphigoid - eine retrospektive Kohortenstudie (J Dtsch Dermatol Ges .)
Die besonderen Charakteristika von Patienten mit bullösem Pemphigoid (BP) mit Schleimhautbeteiligung sind weitgehend unbekannt. Unser Ziel war die Erforschung der klinischen und immunologische Charakteristika von BP-Patienten mit Schleimhautbeteiligung, um Faktoren zu identifizieren, die mit Schleimhautläsionen assoziiert sind.
Safety profile of Dupilumab during pregnancy: a data mining and disproportionality analysis of over 37,000 reports from the WHO individual case safety reporting database (VigiBase™) (Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci .)
Atopic dermatitis, known also as atopic eczema, represents a commonly diagnosed, chronic or recurrent/relapsing inflammatory disorder. From a clinical point of view, it is characterized by acute flare-ups of intense itching, eczematous pruritic lesions involving dry skin. Dupilumab is the only biologic agent approved to treat moderate to severe course of atopic dermatitis, which can be particularly severe during pregnancy causing distress and impacting on maternal and fetal health. However, there is a dearth of data concerning the safety profile of Dupilumab during gestation. (R Khamisy-Farah, G Damiani, J D Kong, J-H Wu, N L Bragazzi)
George Habib, Fahed Sakas: Initial Presentation of Pain in Patients with Fibromyalgia (Isr Med Assoc J .)
Fibromyalgia is characterized by diffuse musculoskeletal pain at the time of diagnosis, but many patients report their initial symptoms as being focal or local. Evaluates, prospectively, the initial location of body pain in recently diagnosed patients with fibromyalgia.
Tawfik Khoury: Endoscopic ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation for solid pseudopapillary neoplasm of the pancreas (Endoscopy .)
A solid pseudopapillary neoplasm (SPN) is considered a low-grade malignant neoplasm, more often composed of both solid and cystic components with pseudopapillary areas but predominantly solid in 15 % of cases. It is estimated to account for 1 % to 3 % of all pancreatic tumors. Immunostaining of SPNs for beta-catenin is specific. The natural history of these lesions is unknown, but the malignant potential is demonstrated especially in large lesions. The gold standard therapy is surgical resection. Nonetheless, an alternative such as endoscopic ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation (EUS-RFA), which is less invasive, should be discussed, especially for young patients with small lesions. All cases of SPN seen and treated with EUS-RFA between 2018 and 2020 were reviewed (IRB 00010835).
Ali Sakhnini, Shemy Carasso, Zyad Abu Znait, Shalabi Amjad, Lisa Grossman, Ibrahim Marai: Does Duration of Symptoms Reliably Predict Detection of Left Atrial Thrombus in Newly Diagnosed Atrial Fibrillation (J Atr Fibrillation .)
Large prospective trials attribute minimal thromboembolic risk for cardioversion of atrial fibrillation (AF) when duration of symptoms is shorter than 48 hours. Our goal is to compare the prevalence of left atrial appendage (LAA) thrombus as demonstrated by a Trans esophageal echocardiography (TEE) exam between patients presenting with less or more than 48 hours of AF symptoms.
Enav Yefet: Oral analgesia in fixed-time interval administration versus spinal morphine for post-Cesarean pain: a randomised controlled trial (Arch Gynecol Obstet . )
Compares the efficacy of fixed-time-interval oral analgesia and spinal-morphine for management of post-Cesarean pain.
Muhammad Mansour, Rola Khamisy-Farah, Raymond Farah: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Tocilizumab Therapy versus Standard of Care in over 15,000 COVID-19 Pneumonia Patients during the First Eight Months of the Pandemic (Int J Environ Res Public He
Tocilizumab is an anti-IL-6 therapy widely adopted in the management of the so-called "cytokine storm" related to SARS-CoV-2 virus infection, but its effectiveness, use in relation to concomitant corticosteroid therapy and safety were unproven despite widespread use in numerous studies, mostly open label at the start of the pandemic. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control studies utilising tocilizumab in COVID-19 on different databases (PubMed/MEDLINE/Scopus) and preprint servers (medRxiv and SSRN) from inception until 20 July 2020 (PROSPERO CRD42020195690). Subgroup analyses and meta-regressions were performed. The impact of tocilizumab and concomitant corticosteroid therapy or tocilizumab alone versus standard of care (SOC) on the death rate, need for mechanical ventilation, ICU admission and bacterial infections were assessed.
Basem Hijazi, Karl Skorecki: HIV Viremia Is Associated With APOL1 Variants and Reduced JC-Viruria (Front Med (Lausanne) .)
Variants in the Apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) gene (G1-rs60910145, rs73885319, G2-rs71785313) are common in Africans and in individuals of recent African ancestry and are associated with an increased risk of non-diabetic chronic kidney disease (CKD) and in particular of HIV associated nephropathy (HIVAN). In light of the significantly increased risk of HIVAN in carriers of two APOL1 risk alleles, a role in HIV infectivity has been postulated in the mechanism of APOL1 associated kidney disease. Herein, we aim to explore the association between HIV viremia and APOL1 genotype.