Clinical utility of a non-invasive urine test for risk assessing patients with no obvious benign cause of hematuria: a physician-patient real world data analysis.

BACKGROUND: The non-invasive Cxbladder urine test system has demonstrated clinical utility in ruling out urothelial carcinoma (UC) in patients with asymptomatic microscopic hematuria (AMH), suggesting that the number of invasive diagnostic tests, including cystoscopy, used in this patient population may be reduced by Cxbladder testing prior to conducting a full urological work-up. The aim of this study was to demonstrate the enhanced clinical utility of communicating objective information on diagnostic decisions made by individual physicians on individual patients with AMH. METHODS: Three hundred ninety-six physician-patient decisions were generated from twelve participant physicians evaluating real world case notes from the same 33 patients presenting with AMH. Each physician reviewed and recommended diagnostic tests and procedures based on each patient's referral data and then re-evaluated their clinical recommendation following disclosure of the non-invasive Cxbladder urine test result. Changes assessed were the total number of requested diagnostic procedures and the number of invasive procedures, including cystoscopy, following addition of information from Cxbladder in the Triage and Triage and Detect modalities. RESULTS: Physicians made significant changes to their diagnostic behavior for patients with AMH when presented with Cxbladder test results, including a reduction in the number of total and invasive procedures including cystoscopy for individuals identified as having a low probability of UC. The intensity of investigation was targeted and increased, including use of total procedures and cystoscopy, for patients identified by Cxbladder tests as having a high probability of UC: urologists increased the level of investigation for both total procedures and invasive procedures. The outcome resulted in patients with a high risk of UC receiving appropriate guideline-recommended invasive diagnostic tests. Patients who tested negative were offered fewer and significantly less invasive procedures. This change in physician behavior results in an increased clinical and patient utility, lower risk of missed UC and invasive test-related harm incidents. CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated the potential for increased clinical resolution and significantly enhanced patient management, when physicians consider Cxbladder test results in their clinical evaluation. The change in physician behavior led to more appropriate diagnostic procedure selection and resource allocation to the benefit of both patients and healthcare systems.

Morphogenetic aspects of deer antler development.

Deer antlers are unique mammalian appendages that have potential for application as a valuable model for biomedical research, such as organ regeneration, bone development and growth control. In this review we described the morphogenetic aspects of antler development, by summarizing relevant information accumulated over the course of our antler research in combine with other published papers. Antler development consists of two distinct phenomena: generation and regeneration. Generation starts with the initiation of a pair of pedicles, permanent bony protuberances on the skull of a male deer, when the animal approaches puberty; proceeds to transformation to antlers when the pedicles reach a species-specific height (around 5 cm in red deer); and terminates with total antler calcification and velvet (antler skin) shedding. Regeneration commences in the spring of the subsequent year with the initiation of new soft antlers growing from the pedicle stumps that remain following the casting of the previous hard antlers; proceeds to the elaboration of multi-branched antlers in summer; and ends up with total antler calcification and velvet shedding in autumn, resulting in the formation of hard bony antlers in winter. Therefore, this paper not only lays the foundation for further development of this valuable biomedical model, but also provides comprehensive background knowledge that will be of use to readers when reading the papers featured in this special issue.