Search

Describe patient-reported pain and function within 24 months of a pelvic fracture treated with posterior screw fixation and identify factors associated with increased pain.Prospective case series.Academic trauma center.Eighty-eight patients with adult pelvic fracture treated with sacroiliac or transiliac screws.Average pain measured with the Brief Pain Inventory (BPI); function measured with the Majeed Pelvic Outcome Score from 6 to 24 months postinjury.The mean pain from 6 to 24 months postinjury was 2.22 on the 10-point BPI scale (95% CI, 0.64-3.81). Sixty-nine patients (78.4%) reported mild to no pain at 6 months; 12 (13.6%) patients had severe pain. Two years after injury, 71 patients (80.6%) exhibited mild to no pain. Within 24 months of injury, the mean pelvic function was 71 on the 100-point Majeed scale (95% CI, 60-82). Half of the sample (n = 44) had good to excellent pelvis function by 6 months postinjury; 55 patients (62.5%) attained this level of function by 24 months. A history of chronic pain (1.31; 95% CI, 0.26-2.37; P = 0.02), initial fracture displacement (≥5 mm) (0.99; 95% CI, 0.23-1.69; P = 0.01), and socioeconomic deprivation (0.28; 95% CI, 0.11-0.44; P0.01) were significantly associated with increased pain.Our findings suggest that most patients with unstable pelvic ring fractures treated with posterior screw fixation achieve minimal to no pelvis pain and good to excellent pelvic function 6-24 months after injury.Therapeutic Level IV. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.

IMPORTANCE: Artificial intelligence (AI)–based retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) screening may improve ROP care, but its cost-effectiveness is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relative cost-effectiveness of autonomous and assistive AI-based ROP screening compared with telemedicine and ophthalmoscopic screening over a range of estimated probabilities, costs, and outcomes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: A cost-effectiveness analysis of AI ROP screening compared with ophthalmoscopy and telemedicine via economic modeling was conducted. Decision trees created and analyzed modeled outcomes and costs of 4 possible ROP screening strategies: ophthalmoscopy, telemedicine, assistive AI with telemedicine review, and autonomous AI with only positive screen results reviewed. A theoretical cohort of infants requiring ROP screening in the United States each year was analyzed. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Screening and treatment costs were based on Current Procedural Terminology codes and included estimated opportunity costs for physicians. Outcomes were based on the Early Treatment of ROP study, defined as timely treatment, late treatment, or correctly untreated. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios were calculated at a willingness-to-pay threshold of $100 000. One-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were performed comparing AI strategies to telemedicine and ophthalmoscopy to evaluate the cost-effectiveness across a range of assumptions. In a secondary analysis, the modeling was repeated and assumed a higher sensitivity for detection of severe ROP using AI compared with ophthalmoscopy. RESULTS: This theoretical cohort included 52 000 infants born 30 weeks’ gestation or earlier or weighed 1500 g or less at birth. Autonomous AI was as effective and less costly than any other screening strategy. AI-based ROP screening was cost-effective up to $7 for assistive and $34 for autonomous screening compared with telemedicine and $64 and $91 compared with ophthalmoscopy in the primary analysis. In the probabilistic sensitivity analysis, autonomous AI screening was more than 60% likely to be cost-effective at all willingness-to-pay levels vs other modalities. In a second simulated cohort with 99% sensitivity for AI, the number of late treatments for ROP decreased from 265 when ROP screening was performed with ophthalmoscopy to 40 using autonomous AI. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: AI-based screening for ROP may be more cost-effective than telemedicine and ophthalmoscopy, depending on the added cost of AI and the relative performance of AI vs human examiners detecting severe ROP. As AI-based screening for ROP is commercialized, care must be given to appropriately price the technology to ensure its benefits are fully realized.

To compare the performance of deep learning classifiers for the diagnosis of plus disease in retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) trained using 2 methods for developing models on multi-institutional data sets: centralizing data versus federated learning (FL) in which no data leave each institution.Evaluation of a diagnostic test or technology.Deep learning models were trained, validated, and tested on 5255 wide-angle retinal images in the neonatal intensive care units of 7 institutions as part of the Imaging and Informatics in ROP study. All images were labeled for the presence of plus, preplus, or no plus disease with a clinical label and a reference standard diagnosis (RSD) determined by 3 image-based ROP graders and the clinical diagnosis.We compared the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) for models developed on multi-institutional data, using a central approach initially, followed by FL, and compared locally trained models with both approaches. We compared the model performance (κ) with the label agreement (between clinical and RSD), data set size, and number of plus disease cases in each training cohort using the Spearman correlation coefficient (CC).Model performance using AUROC and linearly weighted κ.Four settings of experiment were used: FL trained on RSD against central trained on RSD, FL trained on clinical labels against central trained on clinical labels, FL trained on RSD against central trained on clinical labels, and FL trained on clinical labels against central trained on RSD (P = 0.046, P = 0.126, P = 0.224, and P = 0.0173, respectively). Four of the 7 (57%) models trained on local institutional data performed inferiorly to the FL models. The model performance for local models was positively correlated with the label agreement (between clinical and RSD labels, CC = 0.389, P = 0.387), total number of plus cases (CC = 0.759, P = 0.047), and overall training set size (CC = 0.924, P = 0.002).We found that a trained FL model performs comparably to a centralized model, confirming that FL may provide an effective, more feasible solution for interinstitutional learning. Smaller institutions benefit more from collaboration than larger institutions, showing the potential of FL for addressing disparities in resource access.

In the 2010s, austerity measures had a severe impact on the level of spending on cultural activity. In England, the potential for this was especially great due to the reduction of resources available for local government, the largest funder in this field. Whilst prior work has attempted to establish overall reductions in spending, little attention has been paid to variations in cultural spending across the country in this period of austerity, or which types of cultural services have been cut and why. Here, we compare local authority spending in 2009/10 with 2018/19 to provide further detail on the varied picture that has emerged in this period. Whilst there is indeed a significant reduction in the level of spending on culture in this period, we identify significant variation in local experiences of austerity across England. We also show which types of cultural services are more vulnerable to cuts and explore a range of contextual factors as potential explanations of these patterns.

Single-cell RNA sequencing studies have suggested that total mRNA content correlates with tumor phenotypes. Technical and analytical challenges, however, have so far impeded at-scale pan-cancer examination of total mRNA content. Here we present a method to quantify tumor-specific total mRNA expression (TmS) from bulk sequencing data, taking into account tumor transcript proportion, purity and ploidy, which are estimated through transcriptomic/genomic deconvolution. We estimate and validate TmS in 6,590 patient tumors across 15 cancer types, identifying significant inter-tumor variability. Across cancers, high TmS is associated with increased risk of disease progression and death. TmS is influenced by cancer-specific patterns of gene alteration and intra-tumor genetic heterogeneity as well as by pan-cancer trends in metabolic dysregulation. Taken together, our results indicate that measuring cell-type-specific total mRNA expression in tumor cells predicts tumor phenotypes and clinical outcomes. ispartof: NATURE BIOTECHNOLOGY vol:40 issue:11 pages:1624-+ ispartof: location:United States status: published

We demonstrate a handheld swept-source optical coherence tomography (OCT) system with a 400 kHz vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) light source, a non-contact approach, and an unprecedented single shot 105° field of view (FOV). We also implemented a spiral scanning pattern allowing real-time visualization with improved scanning efficiency. To the best of our knowledge, this is the widest FOV achieved in a portable non-contact OCT retinal imaging system to date. Improvements to the FOV may aid the evaluation of retinal diseases such as retinopathy of prematurity, where important vitreoretinal changes often occur in the peripheral retina.

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a vasoproliferative retinal disorder that can have devastating visual sequelae if not managed appropriately. From an ophthalmology standpoint, ROP care is complex, since it spans multiple care settings and providers, including those in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), step down nurseries, and the outpatient clinic setting. This requires coordination and communication between providers, ancillary staff, and most importantly, effective communication with the patient's family members and caregivers. Often, factors related to the social determinants of health play a significant role in effective communication and care coordination with the family, and it is important for ophthalmologists to recognize these risk factors. The aim of this article is to (1) review the literature related to disparities in preterm birth outcomes and infants at risk for ROP; (2) identify barriers to ROP care and appropriate follow up, and (3) describe patient-oriented solutions and future directions for improving ROP care through a health equity lens.

Estimating heritability based on individual phenotypic and genotypic measurements can be expensive and labour-intensive in commercial aquaculture breeding. Here, the feasibility of estimating heritability using within-family means of phenotypes and allelic frequencies was investigated. Different numbers of full-sib families and family sizes across ten generations with phenotypic and genotypic information on 10 K SNPs were analysed in ten replicates. Three scenarios, representing differing numbers of pools per family (one, two and five) were considered. The results showed that using one pool per family did not reliably estimate the heritability of family means. Using simulation parameters appropriate for aquaculture, at least 200 families of 60 progeny per family divided equally in two pools per family was required to estimate the heritability of family means effectively. Although application of five pools generated more within- and between- family relationships, it reduced the number of individuals per pool and increased within-family residual variation, hence, decreased the heritability of family means. Moreover, increasing the size of pools resulted in increasing the heritability of family means towards one. In addition, heritability of family mean estimates were higher than family heritabilities obtained from Falconer’s formula due to lower intraclass correlation estimate compared to the coefficient of relationship.

In this short chapter, Peter Campbell one of the founders of the UK psychiatric system survivors’ movement talks about his role in the developing movement, particularly in the establishment of the key organization Survivors Speak Out, the role of survivor knowledge and of the survivor movement in the UK.

ObjectiveAssess the impact of the pandemic on STI (sexually transmitted infections) testing in a college health setting.DesignExploratory analysis of the number of STI tests done, positive rates for those tests and of percentage of “compliance to follow-up” from March to December 2020 and its comparison with historical data at the University Health Services, UW-Madison.Samplestudents’ STI tests during the analyzed period.MeasurementObserved (2020) vs Expected (2015-2019, average) number of STI tests, positive rate, compliance to follow-up testing for STIs.ResultsThere was a significant decrease in the number of tests done and increase of positive rate when compared to historical for total sample and per sex. There was a decrease in the percentage of follow-up for the entire sample and females and an increase for males.ConclusionsConsidering the three outcomes assessed, we observe an impact in STI testing during the pandemic. In concordance with national data, our analysis shows significant declines in STI testing and follow-up during 2020 compared to previous years and an increase in positivity rate. The finding of higher positivity with lower number of tests is likely due to triaging patients, facilitating testing for those at highest risk of infection.

Introduction The combination of the BCL-2 inhibitor venetoclax with an HMA (HMA/Ven) has improved outcomes in previously untreated patients with AML not eligible for intensive induction therapy. In a phase Ib study, 67% of patients achieved a complete remission (CR) or CR with incomplete recovery of blood counts (CRi) with a median overall survival (OS) of 17.5 months (DiNardo CD et al. Blood 2019; 133(1):7-17). HMA/Ven has also demonstrated efficacy in a heavily pretreated population with relapsed or refractory (R/R) AML, the majority of whom had prior HMA exposure (DiNardo CD et al. Am J Hematol 2018; 93(3):401-7). Measurable residual disease (MRD) is recognized as an independent prognostic indicator important for risk stratification and treatment planning (Schuurhuis GJ et al. Blood 2018; 131(12):1275-91). To date, however, there have been few reports on the effect of HMA/Ven on MRD. Methods This is a retrospective case series of patients with AML at a single-center tertiary-care institution. Patients ≥ 18 years of age who were treated with HMA/Ven between January 2017 and June 2020, either in the upfront or salvage setting, for AML were included. Outcomes included CR/CRi rate, MRD response, relapse free survival (RFS), and OS. MRD was assessed via multicolor flow cytometry with a sensitivity of 10-3 (0.1%). Results Nineteen patients were identified, 12 (63%) of whom were female. The median age at the time of HMA/Ven initiation was 71 years (range, 21 - 87 years). Ten (53%) patients had de novo AML and 9 had secondary or therapy-related AML. By 2017 ELN criteria, 3 (16%) patients had favorable-risk, 9 (47%) had intermediate-risk, and 7 (37%) had adverse-risk AML. Nine (47%) patients had R/R AML; 5 received HMA/Ven as first salvage therapy, and 4 as 2nd or greater salvage. Three (16%) patients had prior HMA exposure. No patient had prior venetoclax exposure. Median follow-up was 9.1 months (range, 1-21.1 months). Ten (53%) patients received azacitidine and 9 (47%) were given decitabine. Venetoclax doses ranged from 50 to 400 mg daily, depending on participation in a clinical trial and concomitant medications. Eight patients achieved a CR and 7 patients achieved a CRi for a combined CR/CRi rate of 79%. The CR/CRi rate was 90% (9/10) in the upfront setting, and 66% (6/9) in the salvage setting. The median time and number of cycles to best clinical response was 2.3 months (range, 0.9-3.9 months) and 2 (range, 1-3 cycles), respectively. Eleven (73%) of the 15 responders achieved MRD clearance after a median of 2 cycles (range, 1-3 cycles) (Table 1). Two of 4 (50%) MRD-positive patients relapsed, while 4 (36%) of 11 MRD-negative patients relapsed (Figure 1). Relapse occurred at a median of 2.0 months (range, 1.3-2.7 months) in the MRD positive group and 11.0 months (range, 2.8-14 months) in the MRD negative group. One patient died of infectious complications while MRD negative. Three patients, all of whom were treated for R/R disease, proceeded to an allogeneic stem cell transplant (HSCT). Two were MRD negative at the time of HSCT and all remained in remission. At the time of data cutoff, 7 (64%) of 11 MRD-negative patients were alive, and all 4 MRD-positive patients were alive. Causes of death in the MRD-negative group included disease relapse (3 patients) and infection (1 patient). Median overall survival in the entire cohort (range, 32 days-NR) was not reached. Conclusions HMA/Ven was highly effective as both upfront and salvage therapy. Surprisingly, the salvage CR/CRi rate in this series was 66%, allowing half of the responders to proceed to HSCT. The majority (73%) of responders achieved MRD negativity. While MRD status influenced RFS, 36% of MRD-negative patients relapsed. Additionally, the same percentage of MRD-negative patients died during follow-up, versus none of the patients with MRD-positivity. This indicates the need for more sensitive methods to assess MRD and for novel therapeutic strategies to eliminate MRD, thereby improving long-term outcomes. Larger prospective studies are needed to define the role of MRD assessment with venetoclax-containing regimens. Disclosures Jurcic: AbbVie:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding;Celgene:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding;Syros Pharmaceuticals:Research Funding;PTC Therapeutics:Research Funding;Arog Pharmaceuticals:Research Funding;Kura Oncology:Research Funding;Forma Therapeutics:Research Funding;Astellas:Research Funding;Genentech:Research Funding;Novartis:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees;Daiichi-Sankyo:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding;BMS:Consultancy, Research Funding.Campbell:AstraZeneca:Consultancy.Lee:Genentech:Research Funding;Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Oncology, Inc.:Research Funding;AbbVie:Research Funding;Novartis:Research Funding;Bayer:Research Funding;Celgene:Consultancy;Forty Seven:Research Funding.Heaney:Blueprint Medicines Corporation:Research Funding;BMS:Research Funding;CTI Biopharma:Consultancy, Research Funding;Deciphera:Research Funding;Incyte:Research Funding;Novartis:Consultancy, Research Funding;Sierra Oncology:Research Funding;AbbVie:Consultancy;Partner Therapeutics:Consultancy.Lamanna:Janssen:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees;Octapharma:Research Funding;Juno:Other: Institutional research grants, Research Funding;Gilead:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees;Astra Zeneca:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Institutional research grants, Research Funding;Pharmacyclics:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees;Genentech:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Institutional research grants, Research Funding;Bei-Gene:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Institutional research grants, Research Funding;Abbvie:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Other: Institutional research grants, Research Funding;Oncternal, Verastem, TG Therapeutics:Other: Institutional research grants, Research Funding;MingSight:Other: Institutional research grants, Research Funding;Loxo:Research Funding;Celgene:Consultancy, Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees;Columbia University Medical Center:Current Employment.

Retrospective evaluation of a deep learning-derived retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) vascular severity score in an operational ROP screening program demonstrated high diagnostic performance for detection of type 2 or worse ROP. To our knowledge, this is the first report in the literature that evaluated the use of artificial intelligence for ROP screening and represents a proof of concept. With further prospective validation, this technology might improve the accuracy, efficiency, and objectivity of diagnosis and facilitate earlier detection of disease progression in patients with potentially blinding ROP.

This article introduces a new theory of military innovation, military realism, which argues that senior military leaders spearhead major changes in military doctrine when existing doctrinal mission priorities and theories of victory do not address the most dangerous threats. What I call the military realist perspective drives this doctrinal innovation. Through a case study of change and continuity in US Army doctrine under President Kennedy, this article challenges bureaucratic, military cultural, and civilian realist theories of military innovation. Military realism provides a powerful explanation of a hard case, while the other theories struggle with what should be an easy case.

The research aimed to understand the impact of COVID-19 and responses to it on sustainable development in Somalia and its breakaway region Somaliland. It explored how sustainable development could be protected and promoted through, during and as a method of COVID-19 response. It explored the themes of lives, livelihoods and inclusion. Due to COVID-19, it used three non-face-to-face methods: desk-based analysis of literature and secondary data; 175 phone interviews; and five phone Focus Group Discussions. The research was co-produced with 40 participants, which ensured that the study was carried out with as well as for those who could potentially benefit from it. COVID-19 and responses to it have generated intense and multi-dimensional concerns and deprivation, especially among those on low incomes. Livelihoods are being destroyed but people are receiving little or no financial support. People are receiving too little help to cope with the many problems they face. Limited action to prevent COVID-19 infection is more due to structural and social factors than lack of information. Public health education is still necessary; it should include challenging stigmatisation, explaining that wearing a face covering does not mean a person is infectious, and explaining that those recovered from the virus are not still infectious. Health care is mostly unavailable, unaffordable and not trusted. There is broad and deep agreement across all major issues explored in the research, including the immediate actions needed and the fundamentals of what building back better would mean. Responses to COVID-19 have mainly had the effect of undermining the prospects for sustainable development in Somalia/Somaliland. Despite this, the existence of broad and deep agreement on the major issues explored in the research could form the basis of a new commitment to sustainable development.

Purpose: To characterize retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) training practices in international residency and fellowship programs. Methods: A publicly available online-based platform ( http://www.SurveyMonkey.com ) was used to develop a 28-question multiple-choice survey that targeted ROP screening and treatment methods. The authors solicited training programs in the Philippines, Thailand, and Taiwan. Results: Programs from three countries participated in the survey, and a total of 95 responses collected from residents, fellows, and attending ophthalmologists were analyzed. A descriptive analysis demonstrated that 45 participants (47%) reported 1% to 33% of ROP screenings were performed under direct supervision of attending ophthalmologists, and 35 (37%) reported the use of formal assessments. The majority of participants (Country A: 87%, Country B: 71%, and Country C: 75%) estimated 1% to 33% of their practice was spent screening for ROP. Notably, 44 participants (46%) reported performing zero laser photocoagulation treatments for ROP during training (Country A: 65%, Country B: 38%, and Country C: 38%). Conclusions: International ophthalmology trainees perform a limited number of ROP examinations and laser interventions. ROP screenings are often unsupervised and lead to no formal evaluation by an attending ophthalmologist. Limited ROP training among ophthalmologists may lead to misdiagnosis and ultimately mismanagement of a patient. Loss of vision and exposure to unwarranted treatments are among the implications of such errors. The findings highlight the need to improve ROP training in international ophthalmology residency and fellowship programs. [ J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus . 2019;56(5):282–287.]

Military officers often oppose political interference in the conduct of war. Political leaders respond by citing Clausewitz’s contention that “war is the continuation of politics with the addition ...

Objective To determine which pediatric populations, if any, benefit from exogenous melatonin supplementation. Methods PubMed was utilized for the purposes of this systematic review. The studies selected evaluated melatonin use in pediatric special populations and included randomized controlled trials, crossover studies, and meta-analyses. Each study’s objectives, measures of outcomes, and dosing strategies of melatonin were reviewed along with the results and author’s conclusions. Results Our analysis of the available data offers mixed results and recommendations with regard to the decision of whether to add supplementation of melatonin. Conclusion With further regulation of melatonin supplements, it may be plausible to hold larger, multicenter trials and come to a firm recommendation in the future. At this time, we believe that the benefit of exogenous melatonin supplementation outweighs the risks of adverse events and therefore would recommend its use in aiding patients in improving their sleep. Exogenous supplementation with melatonin should be used at the physician’s and patient’s discretion.

ImportanceAnti–vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) therapy for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) has potential ocular and systemic advantages compared with laser, but we believe the systemic risks of anti-VEGF therapy in preterm infants are poorly quantified.ObjectiveTo determine whether there was an association with increased risk of pulmonary hypertension (PH) in preterm infants with ROP following treatment with anti-VEGF therapy as compared with laser treatment.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis multicenter retrospective cohort study took place at neonatal intensive care units of 48 children’s hospitals in the US in the Pediatric Health Information System database from 2010 to 2020. Participants included preterm infants with gestational age at birth 22 0/7 to 31 6/7 weeks who had ROP treated with anti-VEGF therapy or laser photocoagulation.ExposuresAnti-VEGF therapy vs laser photocoagulation.Main Outcomes and MeasuresNew receipt of pulmonary vasodilators at least 7 days after ROP therapy was compared between exposure groups, matched using propensity scores generated from preexposure variables, and adjusted for birth year and hospital. The odds of receiving an echocardiogram after 30 days of age was also included to adjust for secular trends and interhospital variation in PH screening.ResultsAmong 1577 patients (55.9% male) meeting inclusion criteria, 689 received laser photocoagulation and 888 received anti-VEGF treatment (95% bevacizumab, 5% ranibizumab). Patients were first treated for ROP at median 36.4 weeks’ postmenstrual age (IQR, 34.6-38.7). A total of 982 patients (491 in each group) were propensity score matched. Good covariate balance was achieved, as indicated by a model variance ratio of 1.15. More infants who received anti-VEGF therapy were treated for PH, but when adjusted for hospital and year, this was no longer statistically significant (6.7%; 95% CI, 2.6-6.9 vs 4.3% 95% CI, 4.4-10.2; adjusted odds ratio, 1.62; 95% CI, 0.90-2.89; P = .10).Conclusions and RelevanceAnti-VEGF therapy was not associated with greater use of pulmonary vasodilators after adjustment for hospital and year. Our findings suggest exposure to anti-VEGF may be associated with PH, although we cannot exclude the possibility of residual confounding based on systemic comorbidities or hospital variation in practice. Future studies investigating this possible adverse effect seem warranted.

ImportanceAccurate diagnosis of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is essential to provide timely treatment and reduce the risk of blindness. However, the components of an ROP examination are subjective and qualitative.ObjectiveTo evaluate whether optical coherence tomography (OCT)–derived retinal thickness measurements at the vascular-avascular junction are associated with clinical diagnosis of ROP stage.Design, Setting, and ParticipantsThis cross-sectional longitudinal study compared OCT-based ridge thickness calculated from OCT B-scans by a masked examiner to the clinical diagnosis of 2 masked examiners using both traditional stage classifications and a more granular continuous scale at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Hospital. Infants who met ROP screening criteria in the OHSU NICU between June 2021 and April 2022 and had guardian consent were included. One OCT volume and en face image per patient per eye showing at least 1 to 2 clock hours of ridge were included in the final analysis.Main Outcomes and MeasuresComparison of OCT-derived ridge thickness to the clinical diagnosis of ROP stage using an ordinal and continuous scale. Repeatability was assessed using 20 repeated examinations from the same visit and compared using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and coefficient of variation (CV). Comparison of ridge thickness with ordinal categories was performed using generalized estimating equations and with continuous stage using Spearman correlation.ResultsA total of 128 separate OCT eye examinations from 50 eyes of 25 patients were analyzed. The ICC was 0.87 with a CV of 7.0%. Higher ordinal disease classification was associated with higher axial ridge thickness on OCT, with mean (SD) thickness measurements of 264.2 (11.2) μm (P P P P Conclusions and RelevanceThese results suggest that OCT-based quantification of peripheral stage in ROP may be an objective and quantitative biomarker that may be useful for clinical diagnosis and longitudinal monitoring and may have implications for disease classification in the future.

Background: Patients with hematologic malignancies frequently develop febrile neutropenia (FN) and subsequently receive long courses of broad-spectrum antibiotics. Limited data is available on de-escalation strategies. Methods: This was a retrospective observational cohort study of adult patients with a hematologic malignancy, FN, and positive culture results from June 2017 to June 2020. A conventional group (patients who remained on empiric, broad-spectrum agents) was compared to a de-escalation group (patients whose antibiotic therapy was de-escalated based on culture results). The primary outcome was the incidence of recurrent fever or antibiotic escalation due to infection while neutropenic. Results: Of the 123 patients included, the composite primary outcome occurred in 35.3% in the de-escalation group and 39.3% in the conventional group ( P = .83). For secondary outcomes, median time to recurrent fever was 7 days in the de-escalation group and 7 days in the conventional group ( P = .73). Incidence of Clostridioides difficile was 5.9% in the de-escalation group and 6.7% in the conventional group ( P = 1.00). Development of multidrug resistant pathogens during hospital admission was 20.6% in the de-escalation group and 14.6% in the conventional group ( P = .59). Median length of broad-spectrum antibiotics was 3 days in the de-escalation group and 8 days in the conventional group ( P < .001). All-cause mortality within 30 days was 0 in the de-escalation group and 5.6% in the conventional group ( P = .32). Conclusion: In a small sample of patients with a hematologic malignancy and FN, de-escalating antibiotics based on positive cultures decreased the duration of antibiotic therapy without increasing the rate of antibiotic failure.

94 Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, remote cancer care, and video communication in particular, has become increasingly common in the context of routine visits and clinical trials. Though this medium has the potential to augment patient-provider communication, telehealth also raises concerns about the digital divide promoting disparities in access to cancer care. In this study, we surveyed oncology patients who declined to participate in a pilot study looking at a one-time pharmacist-led video visit for patients initiating oral anti-cancer medications to evaluate their primary reason for declining the intervention. Methods: Between June 2021 and June 2022, we conducted a prospective survey among adult oncology patients at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) who declined a pilot study looking at a video visit intervention for patients initiating oral anti-cancer medications to assess the primary barriers to participation. The survey categorized specific reasons for decline into telehealth-related barriers (no access to electronic device, inability to navigate video visits specifically, patient preference for in person care) and trial-related barriers (patient too tired/unwell, no time to participate, not interested in this study specifically, not interested in clinical trial participation in general), and patients were asked to select the primary reason for declining among the list of options. Results: Twenty-three patients completed the survey (82% completion rate). Among 23 respondents, 9 patients (39%) described a technology-related barrier to participation, including 7 (30%) who owned a mobile device with video capacity, but did not know how to use video technology well enough for the visit, 1 (4%) who did not own a device with video capacity, and 1 (4%) who preferred in person visits. Fourteen respondents cited a reason unrelated to telehealth for declining participation, including 7 (30%) who did not feel the study would benefit them, 3 (13%) who did not have time, 2 (9%) who were too tired to participate in a study, and 2 (9%) who were not interested in participating in any kind of clinical trial. Conclusions: Video-based telehealth visits have become increasingly common in routine cancer care and clinical trials. Among oncology patients who declined participation in a pilot study looking at a pharmacist-led video consultation, over a third cited telehealth-related barriers to participation, the majority of whom had a mobile device, but did not know how to use video technology well enough to participate. Focusing efforts on training patients to use technology, particularly video communication, may help address the digital divide in cancer care.

Purpose of review The development of deep learning (DL) systems requires a large amount of data, which may be limited by costs, protection of patient information and low prevalence of some conditions. Recent developments in artificial intelligence techniques have provided an innovative alternative to this challenge via the synthesis of biomedical images within a DL framework known as generative adversarial networks (GANs). This paper aims to introduce how GANs can be deployed for image synthesis in ophthalmology and to discuss the potential applications of GANs-produced images. Recent findings Image synthesis is the most relevant function of GANs to the medical field, and it has been widely used for generating 'new' medical images of various modalities. In ophthalmology, GANs have mainly been utilized for augmenting classification and predictive tasks, by synthesizing fundus images and Optical coherence tomography images with and without pathologies such as age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. Despite their ability to generate high-resolution images, the development of GANs remains data intensive, and there is a lack of consensus on how best to evaluate the outputs produced by GANs. Summary Although the problem of artificial biomedical data generation is of great interest, image synthesis by GANs represents an innovation with yet unclear relevance for ophthalmology.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is a leading cause of childhood blindness. Screening and treatment reduces this risk, but requires multiple examinations of infants, most of whom will not develop severe disease. Previous work has suggested that artificial intelligence may be able to detect incident severe disease (treatment-requiring retinopathy of prematurity [TR-ROP]) before clinical diagnosis. We aimed to build a risk model that combined artificial intelligence with clinical demographics to reduce the number of examinations without missing cases of TR-ROP. METHODS Infants undergoing routine ROP screening examinations (1579 total eyes, 190 with TR-ROP) were recruited from 8 North American study centers. A vascular severity score (VSS) was derived from retinal fundus images obtained at 32 to 33 weeks’ postmenstrual age. Seven ElasticNet logistic regression models were trained on all combinations of birth weight, gestational age, and VSS. The area under the precision-recall curve was used to identify the highest-performing model. RESULTS The gestational age + VSS model had the highest performance (mean ± SD area under the precision-recall curve: 0.35 ± 0.11). On 2 different test data sets (n = 444 and n = 132), sensitivity was 100% (positive predictive value: 28.1% and 22.6%) and specificity was 48.9% and 80.8% (negative predictive value: 100.0%). CONCLUSIONS Using a single examination, this model identified all infants who developed TR-ROP, on average, >1 month before diagnosis with moderate to high specificity. This approach could lead to earlier identification of incident severe ROP, reducing late diagnosis and treatment while simultaneously reducing the number of ROP examinations and unnecessary physiologic stress for low-risk infants.

The rising prevalence of retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in low- and middle-income countries has increased the need for screening at-risk infants. The purpose of this article was to review the impact of tele-medicine and technology on ROP screening programs. Adhering to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a systematic review was performed using PubMed, Pro-Quest, and Google Scholar bibliographic search engine. Terms searched included retinopathy of prematurity, telemedicine, and tele-ophthalmology. Data regarding internet access and gross domestic product per capita were obtained from the World Bank. Information was also obtained about internet access, speeds, and costs in low-income countries. There has been increasing integration of telemedicine and technology for ROP screening and management. Low-income countries are using available internet options and information and communications technology for ROP screening, which can aid in addressing the unique challenges faced by low-income countries. This provides a promising solution to the third epidemic of ROP by expanding and improving screening and management. Although telemedicine systems may serve as a cost-effective approach to facilitate delivery of health care, programs (especially in lowand middle-income countries) require national support to maintain its infrastructure. [ J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus . 2021;58(4):261–269.]

Purpose: Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) is the leading cause of visual impairment in premature infants, and middle-income nations are currently experiencing the “third epidemic” of ROP. Screening programs are essential to prevent negative visual outcomes, but screening efforts require a great amount of resources from healthcare systems and are difficult to marshal, particularly in geographically isolated or resource-limited settings. Telemedical screening programs using remote digital fundus imaging (RDFI) systems hold the promise of alleviating many of the burdens that currently make screening for ROP logistically challenging. Methods: Literature review of the current evidence for RDFI telescreening for ROP, with editorial discussion and recommendations. Results: In this review, we summarize the robust body of literature regarding the efficacy of RDFI, the feasibility of telescreening programs, and experiences from current live telescreening programs. We discuss the strengths and limitations of the current evidence and of the screening programs and consider the best practices in developing de novo telemedical screening programs for ROP. The review concludes with a discussion of promising future areas of research and development. Conclusions: RDFI ROP screening programs can be accurate and reliable. They show promise in improving many current challenges in screening infants for ROP, may be able to improve some aspects of care, and have been demonstrated to be cost-effective.

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are deep learning (DL) models that can create and modify realistic-appearing synthetic images, or deepfakes, from real images. The purpose of our study was to evaluate the ability of experts to discern synthesized retinal fundus images from real fundus images and to review the current uses and limitations of GANs in ophthalmology.Development and expert evaluation of a GAN and an informal review of the literature.A total of 4282 image pairs of fundus images and retinal vessel maps acquired from a multicenter ROP screening program.Pix2Pix HD, a high-resolution GAN, was first trained and validated on fundus and vessel map image pairs and subsequently used to generate 880 images from a held-out test set. Fifty synthetic images from this test set and 50 different real images were presented to 4 expert ROP ophthalmologists using a custom online system for evaluation of whether the images were real or synthetic. Literature was reviewed on PubMed and Google Scholars using combinations of the termsExpert ability to discern real versus synthetic images was evaluated using percent accuracy. Statistical significance was evaluated using a Fisher exact test, withThe expert majority correctly identified 59% of images as being real or synthetic (Generative adversarial networks can create synthetic fundus images that are indiscernible from real fundus images by expert ROP ophthalmologists. Synthetic images may improve dataset augmentation for DL, may be used in trainee education, and may have implications for patient privacy.

In Cambodia, information on common pathogens causing reproductive losses in cattle and buffalo are lacking, despite there being a need to address livestock health to enhance food security. We analysed stored buffalo (n = 29) and cattle (n = 471) serum samples collected in 2016 using commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay kits. Antibodies to Neospora caninum, bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV), Leptospira interrogans serovar Hardjo and Brucella abortus were detected in buffalo samples at 79.3% (95% CI 64.6-94.0), 3.4% (95% CI 0-10.0), 0% and 0%, respectively, and in cattle at 4.2% (95% CI 2.4-6.0), 6.4% (95% CI 4.2-8.6), 8.1% (95% CI 5.6-10.6) and 0%, respectively. The high N. caninum seroprevalence in buffalo was associated with increasing age, with buffalo having a 13.1% chance of being seropositive at birth, increasing to 99.4% by age 7 (p = 0.045). This suggests a predominance of horizontal transmission, possibly from exposure to faeces from free-roaming village dogs. Cattle L. interrogans serovar Hardjo seroprevalence was highest in Tbong Khmum province (20.4%) compared to other provinces (p 0.001), and may be compromising bovine fertility and creating a zoonotic risk for smallholders who may contract leptospirosis from farm work. These high infection rates prompt further research to determine: to what extent these pathogens are linked to the low reproductive efficiency observed in large ruminants in Cambodia, the risk factors to pathogen exposure and appropriate strategies to reduce these risks. Low BVDV and B. abortus exposure is an important observation. Increasing large ruminant livestock trade into the country will require improved biosecurity and disease surveillance to prevent their emergence. An enhanced understanding of the status of infectious reproductive livestock pathogens in Cambodia can assist development projects to make evidence-based strategies to enhance cattle and buffalo health and improve food security.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) enable noninvasive structural and angiographic imaging of the eye. Portable handheld OCT/OCTA systems are required for imaging patients in the supine position. Examples include infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and operating room (OR). The speed of image acquisition plays a pivotal role in acquiring high quality OCT/OCTA images, particularly with the handheld system, since both the operator hand tremor and subject motion can cause significant motion artifacts. In addition, having a large field of view and the ability of real-time data visualization are critical elements in rapid disease screening, reducing imaging time, and detecting peripheral retinal pathologies. The arrangement of optical components is less flexible in the handheld system due to the limitation of size and weight. In this paper, we introduce a 400-kHz, 55-degree field of view handheld OCT/OCTA system that has overcome many technical challenges as a portable OCT system as well as a high-speed OCTA system. We demonstrate imaging premature infants with retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) in the NICU, and patients with incontinentia pigmenti (IP) in the OR using our handheld OCT system. Our design may have potential for improving the diagnosis of retinal diseases and help provide a practical guideline for designing a flexible and portable OCT system.