חדשות המחקר

Uveitis and neuro-ophthalmic manifestations may indicate an underlying systemic and/or neurologic condition. A systematic approach to patients in the form of comprehensive anamnesis and thorough ocular and physical examination helps to reveal an undiagnosed condition or an evolving illness. Prompt diagnosis is of utmost importance in such cases because of potential sight-threatening and life-threatening nature of such conditions. Both subspecialties of neuro-ophthalmology and uveitis require, in many instances, a multidisciplinary approach, as emphasized in this special issue.

During the past 74 years since its establishment, Israel has evolved into a modernized country with well-established and effective public health care system. Thoracic surgeons in Israel play a central role in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with diseases of the chest wall, diaphragm, mediastinum, airways, Lung, and esophagus as well are taking part in designated trauma teams....

Accurate mediastinal staging of lung cancer patients is critical for determining appropriate treatment. Mediastinoscopy and endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS)-guided transbronchial needle aspiration are the most commonly utilized techniques. Limited data exist on training and practice trends among thoracic surgeons. We aimed to determine training and practice patterns and find whether there is a paradigm shift in mediastinal staging after the introduction of EBUS into practice among thoracic surgeons in the United States.

The last two decades have witnessed a substantial increase in the incidence of bullous pemphigoid (BP) worldwide. One of the most compelling interpretations accounting for this epidemiological observation is the growing exposure to novel drug classes that might be implicated in eliciting the disease. Multiple lines of evidence have recently accumulated to suggest that exposure to dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) inhibitors and checkpoint inhibitors (CPIs) is associated with an elevated risk of BP. As these drugs were introduced only in the past two decades, their rising utilization underlies, at least in part, the growing incidence of BP.

There is consensus that medical schools have a duty to educate students about social determinants of health (SDOH) and equip them with skills required to ameliorate health disparities. Although the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) urged the development of experiential long term programs, teaching is usually conducted in the pre-clinical years or as voluntary courses. ETGAR a required health disparities course, based on the social ecological model, was initiated to answer the NAM call. This study aimed to ascertain the course impact on students learning of SDOH and health disparities.

Hair thread tourniquet syndrome (HTS) is a pediatric condition in which human hair or synthetic fiber encircles and strangulates a body appendage causing tissue necrosis. Few epidemiologic studies have been done. Our objective was to better define the demographics, clinical features, and predisposing factors for this condition.

Pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (PEI) is a disorder causing symptoms such as maldigestion, malnutrition, diarrhoea, bloating, vitamin deficiency and weight loss [...].

Patients suffering from cardiogenic shock (CS) and mitral regurgitation (MR) demonstrate worse prognosis, with higher mortality rates. We sought to evaluate the effectiveness of urgent valve intervention of the mitral valve, using transcatheter edge-to-edge repair (TEER) procedures in patients presenting with CS in a tertiary Intensive Coronary Care Unit (ICCU). 

The most notable changes in the eighth edition of the AJCC Cancer Staging System include incorporating the depth of invasion (DOI) into T staging and extranodal extension (ENE) into N staging. In this study, we retrospectively assessed the prognostic and clinical implications of the eighth TNM staging system.

Janus kinase 2 (JAK2-V617F) mutations can cause thrombocytosis, polycythemia and hyper viscosity leading to cerebral sinus venous thrombosis (CSVT). However, data regarding the characteristics and prevalence of JAK2-V617F mutation in patients with CSVT are currently lacking. We aimed to evaluate the characteristics of CSVT patients that carry the JAK2 mutation.

This study aimed to examine the effects of a multi-day mountain bike race on amateur master athlete cyclists (AMA).

Ovarian reserve depletion secondary to an intact endometrioma continues to be actively debated and has been recently challenged. Conversely, endometriotic cyst surgery, specifically endometriotic ovarian cystectomy, seems to have an irreversible damaging impact and is of concern for women and practitioners alike. Past histological studies have demonstrated inadvertent primordial follicle removal adjacent to the endometrioma, which seems inevitable even in experienced hands. Furthermore, well-performed systematic reviews and meta-analyses have resulted in a significant irreversible reduction in serum AMH levels, suggesting potentially lasting damage to the reproductive life span.

Corticosteroids, often known as steroids, are anti-inflammatory medicine prescribed for various conditions. There is accumulating evidence of immune dysregulation in major psychiatric disorders. Significant changes in concentrations of inflammatory biomarkers (i.e., IL-6 and TNF-a) have been previously reported in individuals with schizophrenia, autistic individuals, and depressive patients. Thus, systemic corticosteroids can be used as an adjuvant treatment to reduce inflammation in major psychiatric disorders. However, despite their well-known potent anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant properties, this treatment is often associated with increased severity of several psychiatric symptoms and relapse. This article reviews the available literature on psychiatric and cognitive changes during corticosteroid therapy.

To the Editor: Recently, atenolol has generated interest as an alternative to propranolol in the treatment of Infantile hemangioma (IH), due to comparable efficacy and better safety profile, in terms of CNS-related adverse effects. Despite the promising benefits of atenolol treatment, its effects on CNS development in children have not been evaluated to date. Theoretically, atenolol, unlike propranolol which is lipophilic, has a hydrophilic structure that prevents it from crossing the blood-brain barrier (BBB). However, animal studies have shown that atenolol is actively effluxed into the brain and is able to induce central toxicity.  Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the effects of atenolol treatment on CNS development in infants with IH. 

Vici Syndrome is a rare, severe, neurodevelopmental/neurodegenerative disorder with multi-systemic manifestations presenting in infancy. It is mainly characterized by global developmental delay, seizures, agenesis of the corpus callosum, hair and skin hypopigmentation, bilateral cataract, and varying degrees of immunodeficiency, among other features. Vici Syndrome is caused by biallelic pathogenic variants in EPG5, resulting in impaired autophagy. Thus far, the condition has been reported in less than a hundred individuals. Objective and Methods: We aimed to characterize the clinical and molecular findings in individuals harboring biallelic EPG5 variants, recruited from four medical centers in Israel. Furthermore, we aimed to utilize a machine learning-based tool to assess facial features of Vici syndrome.