Participatory development of a 3D telemedicine system during COVID: The future of remote consultations.

BACKGROUND: The COVID pandemic brought the need for more realistic remote consultations into focus. 2D Telemedicine solutions fail to replicate the fluency or authenticity of in-person consultations. This research reports on an international collaboration on the participatory development and first validated clinical use of a novel, real-time 360-degree 3D Telemedicine system worldwide. The development of the system - leveraging Microsoft's Holoportation™ communication technology - commenced at the Canniesburn Plastic Surgery Unit, Glasgow, in March 2020. METHODS: The research followed the VR CORE guidelines on the development of digital health trials, placing patients at the heart of the development process. This consisted of three separate studies - a clinician feedback study (23 clinicians, Nov-Dec 2020), a patient feedback study (26 patients, Jul-Oct 2021), and a cohort study focusing on safety and reliability (40 patients, Oct 2021-Mar 2022). "Lose, Keep, and Change" feedback prompts were used to engage patients in the development process and guide incremental improvements. RESULTS: Participatory testing demonstrated improved patient metrics with 3D in comparison to 2D Telemedicine, including validated measures of satisfaction (p<0.0001), realism or 'presence' (Single Item Presence scale, p<0.0001), and quality (Telehealth Usability Questionnaire, p = 0.0002). The safety and clinical concordance (95%) of 3D Telemedicine with a face-to-face consultation were equivalent or exceeded estimates for 2D Telemedicine. CONCLUSIONS: One of the ultimate goals of telemedicine is for the quality of remote consultations to get closer to the experience of face-to-face consultations. These data provide the first evidence that Holoportation™ communication technology brings 3D Telemedicine closer to this goal than a 2D equivalent.

The Best Services Trial (BeST?): a cluster randomised controlled trial comparing the clinical and cost-effectiveness of New Orleans Intervention Model with services as usual (SAU) for infants and young children entering care.

BACKGROUND: Abused and neglected children are at increased risk of health problems throughout life, but negative effects may be ameliorated by nurturing family care. It is not known whether it is better to place these children permanently with substitute (foster or adoptive) families or to attempt to reform their birth families. Previously, we conducted a feasibility randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the New Orleans Intervention Model (NIM) for children aged 0-60 months coming into foster care in Glasgow. NIM is delivered by a multidisciplinary health and social care team and offers families, whose child has been taken into foster care, a structured assessment of family relationships followed by a trial of treatment aiming to improve family functioning. A recommendation is then made for the child to return home or for adoption. In the feasibility RCT, families were willing to be randomised to NIM or optimised social work services as usual and equipoise was maintained. Here we present the protocol of a substantive RCT of NIM including a new London site. METHODS: The study is a multi-site, pragmatic, single-blind, parallel group, cluster randomised controlled superiority trial with an allocation ratio of 1:1. We plan to recruit approximately 390 families across the sites, including those recruited in our feasibility RCT. They will be randomly allocated to NIM or optimised services as usual and followed up to 2.5 years post-randomisation. The principal outcome measure will be child mental health, and secondary outcomes will be child quality of life, the time taken for the child to be placed in permanent care (rehabilitation home or adoption) and the quality of the relationship with the primary caregiver. DISCUSSION: The study is novel in that infant mental health professionals rarely have a role in judicial decisions about children's care placements, and RCTs are rare in the judicial context. The trial will allow us to determine whether NIM is clinically and cost-effective in the UK and findings may have important implications for the use of mental health assessment and treatment as part of the decision-making about children in the care system.

Thyroid Hormone Therapy for Older Adults with Subclinical Hypothyroidism.

BACKGROUND: The use of levothyroxine to treat subclinical hypothyroidism is controversial. We aimed to determine whether levothyroxine provided clinical benefits in older persons with this condition. METHODS: We conducted a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trial involving 737 adults who were at least 65 years of age and who had persisting subclinical hypothyroidism (thyrotropin level, 4.60 to 19.99 mIU per liter; free thyroxine level within the reference range). A total of 368 patients were assigned to receive levothyroxine (at a starting dose of 50 µg daily, or 25 µg if the body weight was <50 kg or the patient had coronary heart disease), with dose adjustment according to the thyrotropin level; 369 patients were assigned to receive placebo with mock dose adjustment. The two primary outcomes were the change in the Hypothyroid Symptoms score and Tiredness score on a thyroid-related quality-of-life questionnaire at 1 year (range of each scale is 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more symptoms or tiredness, respectively; minimum clinically important difference, 9 points). RESULTS: The mean age of the patients was 74.4 years, and 396 patients (53.7%) were women. The mean (±SD) thyrotropin level was 6.40±2.01 mIU per liter at baseline; at 1 year, this level had decreased to 5.48 mIU per liter in the placebo group, as compared with 3.63 mIU per liter in the levothyroxine group (P<0.001), at a median dose of 50 µg. We found no differences in the mean change at 1 year in the Hypothyroid Symptoms score (0.2±15.3 in the placebo group and 0.2±14.4 in the levothyroxine group; between-group difference, 0.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], -2.0 to 2.1) or the Tiredness score (3.2±17.7 and 3.8±18.4, respectively; between-group difference, 0.4; 95% CI, -2.1 to 2.9). No beneficial effects of levothyroxine were seen on secondary-outcome measures. There was no significant excess of serious adverse events prespecified as being of special interest. CONCLUSIONS: Levothyroxine provided no apparent benefits in older persons with subclinical hypothyroidism. (Funded by European Union FP7 and others; TRUST ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01660126 .).

Association between cognition and gene polymorphisms involved in thrombosis and haemostasis.

An association between blood markers of thrombosis and haemostasis and cognitive decline has been described. These results may be confounded by lifestyle and environmental factors. We used a Mendelian randomisation approach to describe the association between thrombosis/haemostasis genotypes and cognition. We studied the genetic variants (single nucleotide polymorphisms) of circulating markers of thrombosis and haemostasis. Our chosen blood factors and associated polymorphisms were D-dimer [rs12029080], fibrinogen [rs1800789], plasminogen activator inhibitor [rs2227631], and von Willebrand factor [rs1063857]. We described association with multidomain cognitive test scores using data from the Scottish Family Health Study. Cognitive data were analysed for individual tests and combined to give a general cognitive factor. In 20,288 subjects, we found no evidence of association between cognitive function (individual tests and combined scores) and any of the above-mentioned single nucleotide polymorphisms. Lower scores on cognitive measures were associated with increasing age, socioeconomic deprivation, blood pressure, waist-hip ratio, smoking, and vascular comorbidity (all p < 0.001). In a post hoc sensitivity analysis restricted to those aged over 50 years, there was still no signal of association. Our data add to our understanding of determinants of cognition but are not definitive; the variation in blood levels explained by SNPs was modest and our sample size may have been insufficient to detect a modest association.

Effect of vitamin D supplementation on orthostatic hypotension: data from the vitamin D in isolated systolic hypertension randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVE: Orthostatic hypotension commonly accompanies supine hypertension, and is associated with low 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels. We tested whether high-dose intermittent oral vitamin D therapy could ameliorate orthostatic hypotension in older patients with isolated systolic hypertension. METHODS: We conducted a subgroup analysis of data from a parallel-group, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Patients aged over 70 years with supine office SBP above 140 mmHg and DBP below 90 mmHg received 100 000 units oral vitamin D3 or matching placebo every 3 months for 1 year. Office supine and standing blood pressure were measured at baseline, and 3, 6, 9 and 12 months, along with arterial stiffness and flow-mediated dilatation of the brachial artery. RESULTS: Of 159 patients randomized to the main trial, 75 patients with orthostatic hypotension at baseline were included in this analysis. The mean age was 78 (SD 5) years, baseline blood pressure was 162/76 mmHg and the mean baseline orthostatic fall in blood pressure on standing was 32/5 mmHg. After adjustment for baseline age, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, SBP and orthostatic fall, the fall in SBP was less in the vitamin D group at 3 months [treatment effect 6 mmHg, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0 to 12], but repeated-measures analysis showed no significant treatment effect (3 mmHg for systolic fall, 95% CI -1 to 8; 1 mmHg for diastolic fall, 95% CI -1 to 3). CONCLUSION: Twelve months of intermittent, high-dose oral vitamin D3 did not significantly improve orthostatic hypotension in older patients with isolated systolic hypertension.

A feasibility randomised controlled trial of the New Orleans intervention for infant mental health: a study protocol.

Child maltreatment is associated with life-long social, physical, and mental health problems. Intervening early to provide maltreated children with safe, nurturing care can improve outcomes. The need for prompt decisions about permanent placement (i.e., regarding adoption or return home) is internationally recognised. However, a recent Glasgow audit showed that many maltreated children "revolve" between birth families and foster carers. This paper describes the protocol of the first exploratory randomised controlled trial of a mental health intervention aimed at improving placement permanency decisions for maltreated children. This trial compares an infant's mental health intervention with the new enhanced service as usual for maltreated children entering care in Glasgow. As both are new services, the trial is being conducted from a position of equipoise. The outcome assessment covers various fields of a child's neurodevelopment to identify problems in any ESSENCE domain. The feasibility, reliability, and developmental appropriateness of all outcome measures are examined. Additionally, the potential for linkage with routinely collected data on health and social care and, in the future, education is explored. The results will inform a definitive randomised controlled trial that could potentially lead to long lasting benefits for the Scottish population and which may be applicable to other areas of the world. This trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NC01485510).

Clinical validity of plasma and urinary desmosine as biomarkers for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

BACKGROUND: Although an increased concentration of degraded elastin products in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been reported for many years, its clinical validity and utility remain uncertain due to technical difficulties, small study groups and the unknown relationship between exacerbation and elastin degradation. The objectives of this study were to determine the validity of urinary and blood total desmosine/isodesmosine in patients with COPD and asthma and to evaluate their relationship to exacerbation status and lung function. METHODS: Urinary and blood desmosine levels were measured using validated isotopic dilution liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry methods. RESULTS: 390 study participants were recruited from the following groups: healthy volunteers, stable asthma, stable and 'during an exacerbation' COPD. Compared with healthy non-smokers, we found increased urinary or blood desmosine levels in patients with COPD, but no differences in patients with asthma or healthy smokers. The elevation of urinary desmosine levels was associated with the exacerbation status in patients with COPD. Approximately 40% of patients with stable and 'during an exacerbation' COPD showed elevated blood desmosine levels. Blood desmosine levels were strongly associated with age and were negatively correlated with lung diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that urinary desmosine levels are raised by exacerbations of COPD whereas blood desmosine levels are elevated in a subgroup of patients with stable COPD and reduced lung diffusing capacity. The authors speculate that a raised blood desmosine level may identify patients with increased elastin degradation suitable for targeted therapy. Future prospective studies are required to investigate this hypothesis.

External validation of nomogram for the decline in serum anti-Müllerian hormone in women: a population study of 15,834 infertility patients.

The value of anti-müllerian hormone (AMH) as a marker of the ovarian reserve is becoming clear in a range of clinical contexts.This study reports the external validation of a quadratic model-based AMH­age nomogram using a cohort of 15,834 US women. All models previously investigated for the decline in ovarian reserve (i.e. linear, bi-linear, decay curve, power and quadratic models) tended to overestimate AMH by approximately 11% versus the published nomogram, indicating some between-population heterogeneity. Bootstrapping of 1000 datasets indicated that the quadratic model provided the best fit, confirming the choice of this model in the AMH­age nomogram. This nomogram can therefore be used with confidence for the interpretation of AMH in clinical populations.

Nomogram for the decline in serum antimüllerian hormone: a population study of 9,601 infertility patients.

OBJECTIVE: To define an optimal model for the decline in circulating antimüllerian hormone (AMH) with age and develop a validated age-related nomogram. DESIGN: Cohort study with validation of linear, biphasic linear, differential, power, and quadratic equations undertaken in two additional cohorts. SETTING: United Kingdom infertility clinics. PATIENT(S): Training cohort of 4,590 infertile women. Two separate validation cohorts; 4,588 infertile women, and 423 women with confirmed ovulation and normal pelvic ultrasound who have a male partner with severe oligospermia. INTERVENTION(S): Serum AMH measurement. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S): Optimal fit and age-related AMH nomogram. RESULT(S): The linear model had the largest sum of absolute and squared residuals and provided a less adequate fit than the four nonlinear models. Of these, the R(2) ranged from 19.45% to 19.48% in the training dataset, from 21.30% to 21.36% in the validation dataset, and from 13.29% to 13.75% in the partners of oligospermic males. The parameters of the differential model were difficult to estimate, and the goodness-of-fit of the power model was slightly inferior to the quadratic model. CONCLUSION(S): Circulating AMH concentrations decline with increasing reproductive age in a manner optimally described by a quadratic equation. This validated age-related AMH nomogram will enable counseling of infertility patients regarding reproductive performance.

Phospholipid transfer protein in hemodialysis patients.

INTRODUCTION: Phospholipid transfer protein (PLTP) is mainly involved in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) metabolism. The role of PLTP in atherogenesis is still controversial. We aimed to investigate PLTP activity in hemodialysis (HD) patients, a population which has an increased risk for the development of atherosclerosis. METHODS: PLTP activity and other markers were analyzed in blood samples from 68 HD patients and in a matched group of 68 healthy controls. RESULTS: Serum PLTP activity was nearly doubled in HD patients in comparison to healthy controls (median 43.0 vs. 22.4 pmol/mul/h, p < 0.001). In HD patients, PLTP activity correlated with HDL-C (r = 0.342, p = 0.004), but not with CRP (r = -0.057, p = 0.644) or leukocyte count (r = 0.116, p = 0.345). After a follow-up of 2 years, 26 HD patients had died. Kaplan-Meier analyses showed that low CRP (p = 0.047) but neither high HDL-C (p = 0.071) nor low PLTP activity (p = 0.853) were relevantly related to survival of HD patients. CONCLUSION: An elevated PLTP activity in HD patients may be considered as a further aspect of uremic dyslipidemia in HD patients. However, PLTP activity was not related to markers of inflammation or to survival of HD patients, even though it correlated with HDL-C. Thus, we conclude that PLTP does not influence the prognostically relevant inflammatory process in HD patients although it does influence the composition of HDL particles.