Recent Publications
Khalaf Kridin: COVID-19 hospitalisation, mortality, vaccination, and postvaccination trends among people with schizophrenia in Israel: a longitudinal cohort study (Lancet Psychiatry .)
Individuals with schizophrenia have an increased risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes, nonetheless, no previous study has provided a year-long account of this risk, or assessed postvaccination trends in this population. This study assessed temporal trends in COVID-19 hospitalisation and mortality among people with schizophrenia during the first year of the pandemic, the predictors for COVID-19 vaccination, postvaccination infection, admission to hospital, and mortality.
Layan Abu Rahmoun, Maya Azrad, Avi Peretz: Antibiotic Resistance and Biofilm Production Capacity in Clostridioides difficile (Front Cell Infect Microbiol .)
Clostridioides difficile (C. difficile) is one of the primary pathogens responsible for infectious diarrhea. Antibiotic treatment failure, occurring in about 30% of patients, and elevated rates of antibiotic resistance pose a major challenge for therapy. Reinfection often occurs by isolates that produce biofilm, a protective barrier impermeable to antibiotics. We explored the association between antibiotic resistance (in planktonic form) and biofilm-production in 123 C. difficile clinical isolates.
Esther Levi, Ohad Ronen: Physician adherence to acute rhinosinusitis antibiotic treatment guidelines (J Investig Med . )
Antibiotic treatment guidelines promote proper diagnosis and treatment and optimize antibiotic treatment, minimizing both antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics and financial expenditure. This study aimed to investigate whether community physicians and emergency department (ED) physicians diagnose and treat acute rhinosinusitis according to accepted guidelines.
C Peles, M C J Rudolf: "Over-preoccupation with healthy food is perceived as worship of the body": Food, culture and beliefs in Ultra-Orthodox Jewish families (Appetite .)
Eating behaviours vary by culture and religion, and an understanding of attitudes and practices are essential for providing culturally competent nutritional guidance. The Ultra-orthodox Jewish community is characterized by poor diet, high rates of obesity, anemia and diabetes. This study aimed to acquire insights that could influence the promotion of healthier eating in the Ultra-orthodox and other closed religious communities, particularly regarding children's eating habits and the food they consume.
Ayelet Shai: Feminism, gender medicine and beyond: a feminist analysis of "gender medicine" (Int J Equity Health .)
The feminist women's health movement empowered women's knowledge regarding their health and battled against paternalistic and oppressive practices within healthcare systems. Gender Medicine (GM) is a new discipline that studies the effect of sex/gender on general health. The international society for gender medicine (IGM) was embraced by the FDA and granted funds by the European Union to formulate policies for medical practice and research.We conducted a review of IGM publications and policy statements in scientific journals and popular media.
Tamar Hareuveni-Blum: Uveitis following the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 infection: a possible association (Retina .)
Describes uveitis cases following the BNT162b2 mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.
Nimrod Rahamimov, Elite Arnon-Sheleg: Identifying Multi-Level Vertebral Compression Fractures Following a Convulsive Seizure (Isr Med Assoc J . )
...Our patient presented with multi-level VCFs following a hyponatremic seizure and the diagnostic challenges encountered. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first description of 12 contiguous vertebral fractures after a single convulsion episode that was histologically proven and successfully treated by multilevel vertebroplasties.
Serum Albumin to Creatinine Ratio as Predictor for 30-Day All-Cause Mortality in Patients with Clostridium Dificile- Associated Diarrhea (Ann Clin Lab Sci .)
Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea (CDAD) is a significant cause of mortality and morbidity in hospitalized patients. Several scores have developed in order to assess the severity of CDAD. Determines the role of the serum albumin to creatinine ratio (sACR) in predicting the 30-day all-cause mortality of patients with CDAD in comparison with other known severity scores of CDAD.
(William Nseir, Jihad Njidat, Amir Amara, Avi Peretz, Hazem Kahatib, Amir Mari, Mahmud Mahamid, Raymond Farah)
Wisam Sbeit, Amir Mari, Tawfik Khoury: Gastroenterologists attitude in various clinical settings in the era of COVID-19 pandemic: An online Uni-National Israeli Survey (Medicine (Baltimore) . )
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has impacted our clinical practice. Many gastroenterologists have changed their attitudes toward various gastroenterological clinical settings. The aim of the present study is to explore the gastroenterologist's attitudes in several clinical settings encountered in the clinical practice.
Chaim Putterman: TWEAKing the Hippocampus: The Effects of TWEAK on the Genomic Fabric of the Hippocampus in a Neuropsychiatric Lupus Mouse Model (Genes (Basel) .)
Neuropsychiatric manifestations of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), specifically cognitive dysfunction and mood disorders, are widely prevalent in SLE patients, and yet poorly understood. TNF-like weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK) has previously been implicated in the pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric lupus (NPSLE), and we have recently shown its effects on the transcriptome of the cortex of the lupus-prone mice model MRL/lpr. As the hippocampus is thought to be an important focus of NPSLE processes, we explored the TWEAK-induced transcriptional changes that occur in the hippocampus, and isolated several genes (Dnajc28, Syne2, transthyretin) and pathways (PI3K-AKT, as well as chemokine-signaling and neurotransmission pathways) that are most differentially affected by TWEAK activation.
David Azoulay:Brain-derived neurotrophic factor in hematological malignancies: From detrimental to potentially beneficial (Blood Rev .)
Emerging studies have highlighted brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a neuronal growth factor abundant in the peripheral blood, and its tyrosine kinase receptor TRKB, as onco-genes and proteins that support the survival of malignant hematological cells. In contrast, other researchers reported on a favorable association between BDNF blood levels and prognosis, chemotherapy response and neurological side effects in patients with hematological malignancies. Here, we review the accumulated data regarding the expression of BDNF and its receptors in normal hematopoietic and lymphatic cells and tissue.
Doron Sagi, Sivan Spitzer-Shohat, Ligat Daudi, Mary Catharine Joy Rudolf: Teaching plain language to medical students: improving communication with disadvantaged patients (BMC Med Educ .)
Low health literacy underpins health inequality and leads to poor adherence to medical care and higher risk of adverse events and rehospitalization. Communication in plain language, therefore, is an essential skill for health professionals to acquire. Most medical education communication skill programs focus on verbal communication, while written communication training is scarce. ETGAR is a student delivered service for vulnerable patients after hospital discharge in which, amongst other duties, students 'translate' the medical discharge letters into plain language and share them with patients at a home visit. This study ascertains how this plain language training impacted on students' written communication skills using a tool designed for purpose.
Sondra Turjerman, Omry Koren: Pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2 Infection in the Upper Respiratory Tract and Its Relation to Breath Volatile Organic Compounds (mSystems .)
Among the many products of metabolic processes are volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In the airways, these volatile metabolites are emitted through breathing and thus are easily sampled for analysis. Recent work has connected the functions and structure of the human microbiome with health and disease. Alteration in microbial function in this context can result in differences in metabolite composition, including that of VOCs, presenting the possibility of a new noninvasive method for clinical diagnosis. Screening methods that assess VOCs arising from changes in the airway microbiome could be highly useful in diagnosing viral upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs), e.g., COVID-19, which are highly contagious and have an enormous public health impact worldwide. A rapid noninvasive screening test for URTIs would pose major advantages in containing the disease. As early evidence shows that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection alters the human microbiome (both in the gut and the respiratory tract), we propose that detection of a VOC signature of an altered nasal microbiome could be fruitful as a rapid noninvasive measure of URTI in general and of SARS-CoV-2 in particular.
Orly Weissberg, Evan Elliott: The Mechanisms of CHD8 in Neurodevelopment and Autism Spectrum Disorders (Genes (Basel) . )
Chromodomain-helicase-DNA-binding protein 8 (CHD8) has been identified as one of the genes with the strongest association with autism. The CHD8 protein is a transcriptional regulator that is expressed in nearly all cell types and has been implicated in multiple cellular processes, including cell cycle, cell adhesion, neuronal development, myelination, and synaptogenesis. Considering the central role of CHD8 in the genetics of autism, a deeper understanding of the physiological functions of CHD8 is important to understand the development of the autism phenotype and potential therapeutic targets. Different CHD8 mutant mouse models were developed to determine autism-like phenotypes and to fully understand their mechanisms. Here, we review the current knowledge on CHD8, with an emphasis on mechanistic lessons gained from animal models that have been studied.
Amiel A Dror, Asaf Zigron, Mona Shehadeh, Eyal Sela, Samer Srouji: Unified platform for genetic and serological detection of COVID-19 with single-molecule technology (PLoS One .)
The COVID-19 pandemic raises the need for diverse diagnostic approaches to rapidly detect different stages of viral infection. The flexible and quantitative nature of single-molecule imaging technology renders it optimal for development of new diagnostic tools. Here we present a proof-of-concept for a single-molecule based, enzyme-free assay for detection of SARS-CoV-2.