Recent Publications

Characterizes the fecal microbiome in newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients.

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.

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). 

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.

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)

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.

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).

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.

Compares the efficacy of fixed-time-interval oral analgesia and spinal-morphine for management of post-Cesarean pain.

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.

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. 

Gene fusions can give rise to somatic alterations in cancers. Fusion genes have the potential to create chimeric RNAs, which can generate the phenotypic diversity of cancer cells, and could be associated with novel molecular functions related to cancer cell survival and proliferation. The expression of chimeric RNAs in cancer cells might impact diverse cancer-related functions, including loss of apoptosis and cancer cell plasticity, and promote oncogenesis. Due to their recurrence in cancers and functional association with oncogenic processes, chimeric RNAs are considered biomarkers for cancer diagnosis. Several recent studies demonstrated that chimeric RNAs could lead to the generation of new functionality for the resistance of cancer cells against drug therapy. Therefore, targeting chimeric RNAs in drug resistance cancer could be useful for developing precision medicine. So, understanding the functional impact of chimeric RNAs in cancer cells from an evolutionary perspective will be helpful to elucidate cancer evolution, which could provide a new insight to design more effective therapies for cancer patients in a personalized manner.

Medical education refers to education and training delivered to medical students in order to become a practitioner. In recent decades, medicine has been radically transformed by scientific and computational/digital advances-including the introduction of new information and communication technologies, the discovery of DNA, and the birth of genomics and post-genomics super-specialties (transcriptomics, proteomics, interactomics, and metabolomics/metabonomics, among others)-which contribute to the generation of an unprecedented amount of data, so-called 'big data'. While these are well-studied in fields such as medical research and methodology, translational medicine, and clinical practice, they remain overlooked and understudied in the field of medical education. For this purpose, we carried out an integrative review of the literature. Twenty-nine studies were retrieved and synthesized in the present review.

Tinea capitis is a common cutaneous infection of the scalp and hair follicles, typically diagnosed by direct examination and culture. Treatment with oral antifungals is usually withheld until mycology results are available. In Israel, African refugee children demonstrate higher susceptibility to Tinea capitis and generally fail to undergo follow-up evaluations. This study aimed to identify the clinical characteristics and treatment responses of refugee children in Israel with Tinea capitis, in order to formulate a treatment plan for primary care physicians.

Recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB) is a rare genodermatosis caused by mutations in the gene coding for type VII collagen (COL7A1). More than 800 different pathogenic mutations in COL7A1 have been described to date; however, the ancestral origins of many of these mutations have not been precisely identified. In this study, 32 RDEB patient samples from the Southwestern United States, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia carrying common mutations in the COL7A1 gene were investigated to determine the origins of these mutations and the extent to which shared ancestry contributes to disease prevalence.