Associations between common contraceptive use and circulating inflammatory biomarkers.

Ovarian cancer incidence has declined in recent decades, due in part to oral contraceptive (OC) use and tubal ligation. However, intrauterine device (IUD) use has increasingly replaced OC use. As ovarian cancer is an inflammation-related disease, we examined the association of OC use, IUD use, and tubal ligation with plasma levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin 6 (IL-6), and soluble tumor necrosis factor α receptor 2 (sTNFR2), in the Nurses' Health Study (NHS) and NHSII. After adjusting for reproductive, hormonal, and lifestyle factors, and mutual adjustment for other methods of contraception, there were no differences in inflammatory markers between ever and never use of each method. However, CRP levels decreased from an average 30.4% (-53.6, 4.4) with every 5 years since initial IUD use (P-trend=0.03), while CRP increased an average 9.9% (95% CI: 5.7, 14.3) with every 5 years of use of OC (P-trend<0.0001) as well as differences by BMI and menopausal status. Our results suggest IUD use and tubal ligation are not associated with higher circulating inflammatory markers long term, although long duration of OC use may increase generalized inflammation, which may in part explain why its protective effect wanes over time.

Haemovigilance resources available for everyone: A report from the International Haemovigilance Tools Collaborative Project.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Haemovigilance systems are intended to collect and analyse data, and report findings relating to transfusion complications, such as blood product safety, procedural incidents, and adverse reactions in donors and patients. A common problem among developing haemovigilance programs is the lack of resources and tools available to countries striving to establish or enhance their haemovigilance system. MATERIALS AND METHODS: World Health Organization, in collaboration with International Society for Blood Transfusion (ISBT), International Haemovigilance Network and other haemovigilance experts embarked on a Haemovigilance Tools Project to collect and provide materials and resources to assist with the stepwise implementation of haemovigilance. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Resources are housed as a virtual compendium on the ISBT website under the Haemovigilance Working Party. These are managed by a subcommittee of the Working Party and are freely available and downloadable to all without requiring ISBT membership.

Use of Methenamine for Urinary Tract Infection Prophylaxis: Systematic Review of Recent Evidence.

INTRODUCTION AND HYPOTHESIS: Antibiotic resistance is an unavoidable consequence of antibiotic use and growing rates of resistance are an urgent issue. Methenamine is a non-antibiotic alternative used for urinary tract infection (UTI) prophylaxis. The objective of this review is to evaluate recently published literature regarding the efficacy and safety of methenamine for UTI prophylaxis. METHODS: PubMed, Embase, and CENTRAL databases were queried in March 2023 using the following search terms: urinary tract infection, cystitis, bacteriuria, or dysuria, and methenamine. Studies prior to 2012 were excluded from this review to focus on appraisal of the most recent evidence. Prospective and controlled retrospective trials were included for review. RESULTS: A total of seven studies (three prospective and four retrospective) met the inclusion criteria for review. Two of the 3 prospective studies demonstrated no or non-inferior differences in clinical efficacy to prevent recurrent UTIs between methenamine and antibiotic prophylaxis and the third showed decreased rates of UTI with methenamine use in patients with short-term indwelling catheters compared with cranberry alone. The retrospective studies consistently supported the efficacy and safety of methenamine for UTI prophylaxis in a variety of populations and clinical settings. Adverse effects reported with methenamine were similar to comparators and included nausea, abdominal pain, and headache. CONCLUSIONS: The use of methenamine for UTI prophylaxis was shown to be effective in a variety of settings without an increased risk of adverse effects compared with prophylactic antibiotics. Larger blinded clinical trials are needed to further define the role of methenamine in UTI prophylaxis.

How we forecast tomorrow's haemovigilance.

The field of haemovigilance continues to develop, building on more than forty years of international experience. This review considers the current scope and activities of haemovigilance around the world and explores aspects of preparation for the advent of new blood products and alternative therapies to transfusion; new tools for data acquisition (including patient- and donor-reported outcomes, and data from 'wearables') and the analysis and communication of haemovigilance results.

Prospective analysis of circulating biomarkers and ovarian cancer risk in the UK Biobank.

BACKGROUND: Risk factors have limited ability to predict individuals at high risk of developing ovarian cancer among average risk women, highlighting the need for discovery of novel biomarkers. In the UK Biobank, we investigated serum biomarkers commonly measured in clinical laboratory tests and ovarian cancer risk. METHODS: We conducted a prospective analysis of 20 serum biomarkers and ovarian cancer risk in 232,037 female UK Biobank participants (including 1,122 incident ovarian cancer cases diagnosed from 2006-2020). Multivariable adjusted Cox proportional hazards models were used to examine associations between biomarkers and ovarian cancer risk overall and by histotype. False discovery rate was used to account for multiple testing. RESULTS: Overall, higher levels of IGF-1 (RRquartile 4 vs. 1=0.73, 95%CI=0.60-0.87; p-trend=0.002/FDR=0.04), HbA1c (RRquartile 4 vs. 1=0.74, 95%CI=0.62-0.89; p-trend=0.002/FDR=0.04), and alanine aminotransferase (RRquartile 4 vs. 1=0.76, 95%CI=0.63-0.91; p-trend=0.002/FDR=0.04) were significantly associated with lower ovarian cancer risk. When stratified by histotype, higher IGF-1 levels were associated with lower risk of serous (RRquartile 4 vs. 1=0.73, 95%CI=0.58-0.91; p-trend=0.01/FDR=0.20) and clear cell tumors (RRquartile 4 vs. 1=0.18, 95%CI=0.07-0.49; p-trend=0.001/FDR=0.02) and higher HbA1c levels were associated with lower risk of serous tumors (RRquartile 4 vs. 1=0.73, 95%CI=0.59-0.90; p-trend=0.004/FDR=0.08). CONCLUSION: We observed that higher levels of circulating IGF-1, HbA1c, and alanine aminotransferase were associated with lower ovarian cancer risk. IMPACT: These results suggest metabolism of glucose/amino acid and insulin/IGF-1 signaling pathway may be contributing to ovarian carcinogenesis. Further research is needed to replicate our findings and elucidate how systemic changes in metabolism impact ovarian carcinogenesis.

Associations of Temporal Cardiometabolic Patterns and Incident SARS-CoV-2 Infection Among U.S. Blood Donors With Serologic Evidence of Vaccination.

Introduction: Cardiometabolic diseases are associated with greater COVID-19 severity; however, the influences of cardiometabolic health on SARS-CoV-2 infections after vaccination remain unclear. Our objective was to investigate the associations between temporal blood pressure and total cholesterol patterns and incident SARS-CoV-2 infections among those with serologic evidence of vaccination. Methods: In this prospective cohort of blood donors, blood samples were collected in 2020-2021 and assayed for binding antibodies of SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid protein antibody seropositivity. We categorized participants into intraindividual pattern subgroups of blood pressure and total cholesterol (persistently, intermittently, or not elevated [systolic blood pressure <130 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure <80 mmHg, total cholesterol <200 mg/dL]) across the study time points. Results: Among 13,930 donors with 39,736 donations representing 1,127,071 person-days, there were 221 incident SARS-CoV-2 infections among those with serologic evidence of vaccination (1.6%). Intermittent hypertension was associated with greater SARS-CoV-2 infections among those with serologic evidence of vaccination risk (adjusted incidence rate ratio=2.07; 95% CI=1.44, 2.96; p<0.01) than among participants with consistent normotension on the basis of a multivariable Poisson regression. Among men, intermittently elevated total cholesterol (adjusted incidence rate ratio=1.90; 95% CI=1.32, 2.74; p<0.01) and higher BMI at baseline (adjusted hazard ratio=1.44; 95% CI=1.07, 1.93; p=0.01; per 10 units) were associated with greater SARS-CoV-2 infections among those with serologic evidence of vaccination probability; these associations were null among women (both p>0.05). Conclusions: Our findings underscore that the benefits of cardiometabolic health, particularly blood pressure, include a lower risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection after vaccination.

WITHDRAWN: Impact of spatial clustering of cytotoxic and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes on overall survival in women with high grade serous ovarian cancer.

The authors have withdrawn their manuscript owing to incorrect handling of multiple measures in the survival analyses. Therefore, the authors do not wish this work to be cited as reference for the project. If you have any questions, please contact the corresponding author.

Lifetime Exposure to Cigarette Smoke, B-Cell Tumor Immune Infiltration, and Immunoglobulin Abundance in Ovarian Tumors.

BACKGROUND: Cigarette smoke exposure has been linked to systemic immune dysfunction, including for B-cell and immunoglobulin (Ig) production, and poor outcomes in patients with ovarian cancer. No study has evaluated the impact of smoke exposure across the life-course on B-cell infiltration and Ig abundance in ovarian tumors. METHODS: We measured markers of B and plasma cells and Ig isotypes using multiplex immunofluorescence on 395 ovarian cancer tumors in the Nurses' Health Study (NHS)/NHSII. We conducted beta-binomial analyses evaluating odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for positivity of immune markers by cigarette exposure among cases and Cox proportional hazards models to evaluate hazard ratios (HR) and 95% CI for developing tumors with low (