Effectiveness of Tofacitinib in Patients With Ulcerative Colitis: A Nationwide Veterans Administration Cohort Study.

INTRODUCTION: There is paucity of data on the effectiveness and safety of tofacitinib among elderly patients with ulcerative colitis (UC). METHODS: Through a retrospective cohort study among the US National Veterans Affairs Healthcare System, we evaluated effectiveness among the elderly (≥65) and young (<65) patients with UC initiated on tofacitinib. RESULTS: Among 158 patients (53 elderly, 105 young), effectiveness at 12 months was 50.94% in the elderly and 33.33% in the young ( P = 0.032). DISCUSSION: In a nationwide cohort of patients with UC initiating tofacitinib, effectiveness was seen in half of the elderly patients.

Lossless Encoding of Time-Aggregated Neuromorphic Vision Sensor Data Based on Point-Cloud Compression.

Neuromorphic Vision Sensors (NVSs) are emerging sensors that acquire visual information asynchronously when changes occur in the scene. Their advantages versus synchronous capturing (frame-based video) include a low power consumption, a high dynamic range, an extremely high temporal resolution, and lower data rates. Although the acquisition strategy already results in much lower data rates than conventional video, NVS data can be further compressed. For this purpose, we recently proposed Time Aggregation-based Lossless Video Encoding for Neuromorphic Vision Sensor Data (TALVEN), consisting in the time aggregation of NVS events in the form of pixel-based event histograms, arrangement of the data in a specific format, and lossless compression inspired by video encoding. In this paper, we still leverage time aggregation but, rather than performing encoding inspired by frame-based video coding, we encode an appropriate representation of the time-aggregated data via point-cloud compression (similar to another one of our previous works, where time aggregation was not used). The proposed strategy, Time-Aggregated Lossless Encoding of Events based on Point-Cloud Compression (TALEN-PCC), outperforms the originally proposed TALVEN encoding strategy for the content in the considered dataset. The gain in terms of the compression ratio is the highest for low-event rate and low-complexity scenes, whereas the improvement is minimal for high-complexity and high-event rate scenes. According to experiments on outdoor and indoor spike event data, TALEN-PCC achieves higher compression gains for time aggregation intervals of more than 5 ms. However, the compression gains are lower when compared to state-of-the-art approaches for time aggregation intervals of less than 5 ms.

Clinical Implications of COVID-19-Related Endothelial Dysfunction.

Endothelial dysfunction represents a measurable and early manifestation of vascular disease. Emerging evidence suggests cardiovascular risk remains elevated after COVID-19 infection for at least 12 months, regardless of cardiovascular disease status prior to infection. We review the relationship between the severity of endothelial dysfunction and the severity of acute COVID-19 illness, the degree of impairment following recovery in both those with and without postacute sequalae SARS-CoV-2 infection, and current therapeutic efforts targeting endothelial function in patients following COVID-19 infection. We identify gaps in the literature to highlight specific areas where clinical research efforts hold promise for progress in understanding the connections between endothelial function, COVID-19, and clinical outcomes that will lead to beneficial therapeutics.

In Silico and In Vitro Mapping of Receptor-Type Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Receptor Type D in Health and Disease: Implications for Asprosin Signalling in Endometrial Cancer and Neuroblastoma.

BACKGROUND: Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Receptor Type D (PTPRD) is involved in the regulation of cell growth, differentiation, and oncogenic transformation, as well as in brain development. PTPRD also mediates the effects of asprosin, which is a glucogenic hormone/adipokine derived following the cleavage of the C-terminal of fibrillin 1. Since the asprosin circulating levels are elevated in certain cancers, research is now focused on the potential role of this adipokine and its receptors in cancer. As such, in this study, we investigated the expression of PTPRD in endometrial cancer (EC) and the placenta, as well as in glioblastoma (GBM). METHODS: An array of in silico tools, in vitro models, tissue microarrays (TMAs), and liquid biopsies were employed to determine the gene and protein expression of PTPRD in healthy tissues/organs and in patients with EC and GBM. RESULTS: PTPRD exhibits high expression in the occipital lobe, parietal lobe, globus pallidus, ventral thalamus, and white matter, whereas in the human placenta, it is primarily localised around the tertiary villi. PTPRD is significantly upregulated at the mRNA and protein levels in patients with EC and GBM compared to healthy controls. In patients with EC, PTPRD is significantly downregulated with obesity, whilst it is also expressed in the peripheral leukocytes. The EC TMAs revealed abundant PTPRD expression in both low- and high-grade tumours. Asprosin treatment upregulated the expression of PTPRD only in syncytialised placental cells. CONCLUSIONS: Our data indicate that PTPRD may have potential as a biomarker for malignancies such as EC and GBM, further implicating asprosin as a potential metabolic regulator in these cancers. Future studies are needed to explore the potential molecular mechanisms/signalling pathways that link PTPRD and asprosin in cancer.

Levels of uric acid and increased diastolic blood pressure: Risk factors for atrial fibrillation in patients older than 60 years / Niveles de ácido úrico y presión arterial diastólica elevada: factores de riesgo de fibrilación atrial en pacientes mayores de 60 años

Summary Objective: To characterize the maximum P-wave duration (Pmax) and P-wave dispersion (PWD) according to blood pressure (BP) and uric acid (UA) levels in geriatric patients. Method: An analytical study was performed in 83 patients aged over 60 years treated at the Family Medical Office 5 of the Aracelio Rodríguez Castellón Polyclinic, in Cienfuegos, Cuba between January and December 2015. The sample was divided into two groups (patients with hyperuricemia and patients with normal UA levels). Results: We found a linear and significant correlation between diastolic BP and Pmax in patients with hyperuricemia (r=0.695; p=0.026), but not in patients with normal UA (r=0.048; p=0.757). A linear and significant correlation was demonstrated between diastolic BP and PWD in patients with hyperuricemia (r=0.657; p=0.039), but not in patients with normal UA (r=0.054; p=0.730). Conclusion: There is correlation between diastolic BP and Pmax plus PWD in elderly patients with hyperuricemia.

Resumen Objetivo: Caracterizar la máxima duración de la onda P (Pmáx) y la dispersión de la onda P (DP) según las cifras de tensión arterial (TA) y los niveles de ácido úrico en pacientes geriátricos. Método: Se realizó un estudio analítico en 83 pacientes mayores de 60 años pertenecientes al Consultorio Médico de la Familia 5 del Policlínico Aracelio Rodríguez Castellón, Cienfuegos, Cuba entre enero y diciembre de 2015. La muestra se dividió en dos grupos (pacientes con hiperuricemia y pacientes con AU normal). Resultados: Existe correlación lineal y significativa entre la tensión arterial diastólica y la Pmáx en los pacientes con hiperuricemia (r=0,695; p=0,026), mas no en los pacientes con AU normal (r=0,048; p=0,757). Se demuestra correlación lineal y significativa entre la tensión diastólica y la DP en los pacientes con hiperuricemia (r=0,657; p=0,039), aunque no en los pacientes con AU normal (r=0,054; p=0,730), respectivamente. Conclusión: Existe correlación entre la Pmáx y la DP y las cifras de tensión arterial diastólica en pacientes geriátricos con hiperuricemia.