Search

Objective: To describe variation in hospital organisational factors across high- and low-performing hospitals with regard to spontaneous vaginal birth (SVB) for Black women., Design: Cross-sectional descriptive., Setting: We conducted a cross-sectional study using three datasets in four states from 2016, including the American Hospital Association Annual Survey, administrative discharge abstracts and a survey in which nurses served as informants about the organisational factors in their hospitals. Hospitals were categorised based on whether they achieved (1) the SVB rate target for Black women at low risk for caesarean birth, (2) the SVB rate target for Black women at low risk for caesarean birth and equivalent SVB rates between Black and White women at low risk for caesarean birth, or (3) neither of these metrics. The first two categories above were considered 'high performing' and the third 'low performing'. Analysis of variances were used to compare organisational factors between hospital categories., Participants: There were 257 hospitals in the sample., Primary and Secondary Outcome Measures: Outcomes were meeting the SVB rate targets for Black women at low risk for caesarean birth and SVB rate equivalence between Blacks and White patients., Results: High-performing hospitals had better nurse work environments (2.84 vs 2.695, p =0.04), including better nurse-physician relationships (2.77 vs 2.695, p =0.02). There were statistically significantly more advanced practice nurses (APNs) on average in maternity units in high-performing hospitals compared with low performing (3.51 to 2.76; p=0.003)., Conclusions: Better rated nurse work environments and the presence of APNs were distinguishing characteristics of high-performing hospitals. These organisational factors may be system-level targets for hospital-level interventions to improve SVB rates and equity therein., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Background: Risk of preterm birth (PTB) and low birth weight (LBW) due to hydraulic fracturing (HF) exposure is a growing concern. Regional studies have demonstrated links, but results are often contradictory among studies., Objectives: This is the first US national study to our knowledge linking fracturing fluid ingredients to the human hormone pathways targeted-estrogen, testosterone, or other hormones (e.g., thyroid hormone)-to assess the effect of HF ingredients on rates of PTB and LBW., Methods: We constructed generalized linear regression models of the impact of HF well density and hormone targeting chemicals in HF fluids (2001-2018) on the county-level average period prevalence rates of PTB and LBW (2015-2018) with each outcome measured in separate models. Our data sources consisted of publicly available datasets, including the WellExplorer database, which uses data from FracFocus, the March of Dimes Peristats, the US Census Bureau, the US Department of Agriculture, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We conducted additional stratified analyses to address issues of confounding. We used stratification to address issues regarding outcomes in rural vs. urban communities by assessing whether our models achieved similar results in nonmetro counties, as well as farming and mining counties. We also stratified by the year of the HF data to include HF data that was closer to the time of the birth outcomes. We also added covariate adjustment to address other important factors linked to adverse birth outcomes, including the proportion of the population belonging to various racial and ethnic minority populations (each modeled as a separate variable); education (bachelor's degree and high school); use of fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides, acres of agricultural land per square mile; poverty; insurance status; marital status; population per square mile; maternal care deserts; and drug deaths per 100,000 people., Results: We found that the density of HF wells in a county was significantly associated with both PTB and LBW rates (percentage of live births) in our fully adjusted models. We report the results from our more restrictive stratified analysis with a subset including only the 2014-2018 data, because this resulted in the most meaningful time frame for comparison. Across all models, the magnitude of effect was highest for wells with ingredients that include estrogen targeting chemicals (ETCs), testosterone targeting chemicals (TTCs) and other hormone targeting chemicals (OHTCs), and, finally, all wells grouped regardless of chemical type. For every unit increase in well density per square mile of wells that use chemicals that include an ETC, we observed a 3.789-higher PTB rate (95% CI: 1.83, 5.74) compared with counties with no ETC wells from 2014 to 2018 and likewise, we observed a 1.964-higher LBW rate (95% CI: 0.41, 3.52). Similarly, for every unit increase in well density per square mile of wells that use TTC, we observed a 3.192-higher PTB rate (95% CI: 1.62, 4.77) compared with counties with no TTC wells. Likewise, for LBW, we found a 1.619-higher LBW rate (95% CI: 0.37, 2.87). We also found that an increase in well density per square mile among wells that use chemicals that include an OHTC resulting in a 2.276-higher PTB rate (95% CI: 1.25, 3.30) compared with counties with no OHTC wells, and for LBW, we found a 1.244-higher LBW rate (95% CI: 0.43, 2.06). We also explored the role of HF well exposure in general (regardless of the chemicals used) and found that an increase in total well density (grouped regardless of hormonal targeting status of the chemicals used) resulted in a 1.228-higher PTB rate (95% CI: 0.66, 1.80) compared with counties with no wells, and for LBW, we found a 0.602-higher LBW rate (95% CI: 0.15, 1.05) compared with counties with no wells. We found similar results in our primary analysis that used all data without any exclusions and the statistical significance did not change., Discussion: Our findings reinforce previously identified regional associations between HF and PTB and LBW, but on a national scale. Our findings point to dysregulation of hormonal pathways underpinning HF exposure risk on birth outcomes, which warrants further exploration. Future research must consider the specific ingredients used in HF fluids to properly understand the differential effects of exposure. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP12628.

Background: The prevention of locoregional recurrence (LRR) is crucial in breast cancer, as it translates directly into reduced breast cancer-related death. Breast cancer is subclassified into distinct intrinsic biological subtypes with varying clinical outcomes., Aims: To perform a systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA) to determine the rate of LRR by breast cancer molecular subtype., Methods: A NMA was performed as per PRISMA-NMA guidelines. Molecular subtypes were classified by St Gallen expert consensus statement (2013). Analysis was performed using R and Shiny., Results: Five studies were included including 6731 patients whose molecular subtypes were available. Overall, 47.3% (3182/6731) were Luminal A (LABC: estrogen receptor (ER) + /human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) - /progesterone receptor (PR) + or Ki-67 < 20%), 25.5% (1719/6731) were Luminal B (LBBC: ER + /HER2 - /PR - or Ki-67 ≥ 20%), 11.2% (753/6731) were Luminal B-HER2 + (LBBC-HER2: ER + /HER2 +), 6.9% (466/6731) were HER2 + (HER2 ER - /HER2 +), and finally 9.1% (611/6731) were triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC: ER - /HER2 -). The median follow-up was 74.0 months and the overall LRR rate was 4.0% (271/6731). The LRR was 1.7% for LABC (55/3182), 5.1% for LBBC (88/1719), 6.0% for LBBC-HER2 (45/753), 6.0% for HER2 (28/466), and 7.9% for TNBC (48/611). At NMA, patients with TNBC (odds ratio (OR) 3.73, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.80-7.74), HER2 (OR 3.24, 95% CI 1.50-6.99), LBBC-HER2 (OR 2.38, 95% CI 1.09-5.20), and LBBC (OR 2.20, 95% CI 1.07-4.50) were significantly more likely to develop LRR compared to LABC., Conclusion: TNBC and HER2 subtypes are associated with the highest risk of LRR. Multidisciplinary team discussions should consider these findings to optimize locoregional control following breast cancer surgery., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.)

Background: Hospitalizations for exacerbations of congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) are costly in the United States. The purpose of this study was to predict in-hospital charges for each condition using machine learning (ML) models., Results: We conducted a retrospective cohort study on national discharge records of hospitalized adult patients from January 1st, 2016, to December 31st, 2019. We constructed six ML models (linear regression, ridge regression, support vector machine, random forest, gradient boosting and extreme gradient boosting) to predict total in-hospital cost for admission for each condition. Our models had good predictive performance, with testing R-squared values of 0.701-0.750 (mean of 0.713) for CHF; 0.694-0.724 (mean 0.709) for COPD; and 0.615-0.729 (mean 0.694) for DKA. We identified important key features driving costs, including patient age, length of stay, number of procedures, and elective/nonelective admission., Conclusions: ML methods may be used to accurately predict costs and identify drivers of high cost for COPD exacerbations, CHF exacerbations and DKA. Overall, our findings may inform future studies that seek to decrease the underlying high patient costs for these conditions., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Surgical management of the axilla has evolved considerably in recent years, with a strong focus on de-escalation to minimise morbidity whilst maintaining oncological outcomes. Current trials will focus on the omission of Sentinel node biopsy in select groups of patients, while axillary lymph node dissection will be reserved for those with more aggressive disease., (© 2024 The Authors. Journal of Surgical Oncology published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.)

Background: Hospitalizations for exacerbations of congestive heart failure (CHF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) are costly in the United States. The purpose of this study was to predict in-hospital charges for each condition using machine learning (ML) models., Results: We conducted a retrospective cohort study on national discharge records of hospitalized adult patients from January 1st, 2016, to December 31st, 2019. We used numerous ML techniques to predict in-hospital total cost. We found that linear regression (LM), gradient boosting (GBM) and extreme gradient boosting (XGB) models had good predictive performance and were statistically equivalent, with training R-square values ranging from 0.49-0.95 for CHF, 0.56-0.95 for COPD, and 0.32-0.99 for DKA. We identified important key features driving costs, including patient age, length of stay, number of procedures. and elective/nonelective admission., Conclusions: ML methods may be used to accurately predict costs and identify drivers of high cost for COPD exacerbations, CHF exacerbations and DKA. Overall, our findings may inform future studies that seek to decrease the underlying high patient costs for these conditions., Competing Interests: Competing interests: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Background: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an acute injury that is understudied in civilian cohorts, especially among women, as TBI has historically been considered to be largely a condition of athletes and military service people. Both the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Department of Defense (DOD)/Veterans Affairs (VA) have developed case definitions to identify patients with TBI from medical records; however, their definitions differ. We sought to re-examine these definitions to construct an expansive and more inclusive definition among a cohort of women with TBI., Methods: In this study, we use electronic health records (EHR) from a single healthcare system to study the impact of using different case definitions to identify patients with TBI. Specifically, we identified adult female patients with TBI using the CDC definition, DOD/VA definition and a combined and expanded definition herein called the Penn definition., Results: We identified 4446 adult-female TBI patients meeting the CDC definition, 3619 meeting the DOD/VA definition, and together, 6432 meeting our expanded Penn definition that includes the CDC ad DOD/VA definitions., Conclusions: Using the expanded definition identified almost two times as many patients, enabling investigations to more fully characterise these patients and related outcomes. Our expanded TBI case definition is available to other researchers interested in employing EHRs to investigate TBI., Competing Interests: Competing interests: ALCS is an Associate Editor at Neurology. DJW provides consulting services on the topic of concussion/TBI epidemiology to the NCAA., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2024. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Study Objectives: The objectives of this study were to understand the relative comorbidity burden of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), determine whether these relationships were modified by sex or age, and identify patient subtypes defined by common comorbidities., Methods: Cases with OSA and noncases (controls) were defined using a validated electronic health record (EHR)-based phenotype and matched for age, sex, and time period of follow-up in the EHR. We compared prevalence of the 20 most common comorbidities between matched cases and controls using conditional logistic regression with and without controlling for body mass index. Latent class analysis was used to identify subtypes of OSA cases defined by combinations of these comorbidities., Results: In total, 60,586 OSA cases were matched to 60,586 controls (from 1,226,755 total controls). Patients with OSA were more likely to have each of the 20 most common comorbidities compared with controls, with odds ratios ranging from 3.1 to 30.8 in the full matched set and 1.3 to 10.2 after body mass index adjustment. Associations between OSA and these comorbidities were generally stronger in females and patients with younger age at diagnosis. We identified 5 distinct subgroups based on EHR-defined comorbidities: High Comorbidity Burden, Low Comorbidity Burden, Cardiovascular Comorbidities, Inflammatory Conditions and Less Obesity, and Inflammatory Conditions and Obesity., Conclusions: Our study demonstrates the power of leveraging the EHR to understand the relative health burden of OSA, as well as heterogeneity in these relationships based on age and sex. In addition to enrichment for comorbidities, we identified 5 novel OSA subtypes defined by combinations of comorbidities in the EHR, which may be informative for understanding disease outcomes and improving prevention and clinical care. Overall, this study adds more evidence that OSA is heterogeneous and requires personalized management., Citation: Te TT, Keenan BT, Veatch OJ, Boland MR, Hubbard RA, Pack AI. Identifying clusters of patient comorbidities associated with obstructive sleep apnea using electronic health records. J Clin Sleep Med . 2024;20(4):521-533., (© 2024 American Academy of Sleep Medicine.)

Objective: To characterize the interplay between multiple medical conditions across sites and account for the heterogeneity in patient population characteristics across sites within a distributed research network, we develop a one-shot algorithm that can efficiently utilize summary-level data from various institutions. By applying our proposed algorithm to a large pediatric cohort across four national Children's hospitals, we replicated a recently published prospective cohort, the RISK study, and quantified the impact of the risk factors associated with the penetrating or stricturing behaviors of pediatric Crohn's disease (PCD)., Methods: In this study, we introduce the ODACoRH algorithm, a one-shot distributed algorithm designed for the competing risks model with heterogeneity. Our approach considers the variability in baseline hazard functions of multiple endpoints of interest across different sites. To accomplish this, we build a surrogate likelihood function by combining patient-level data from the local site with aggregated data from other external sites. We validated our method through extensive simulation studies and replication of the RISK study to investigate the impact of risk factors on the PCD for adolescents and children from four children's hospitals within the PEDSnet, A National Pediatric Learning Health System. To evaluate our ODACoRH algorithm, we compared results from the ODACoRH algorithms with those from meta-analysis as well as those derived from the pooled data., Results: The ODACoRH algorithm had the smallest relative bias to the gold standard method (-0.2%), outperforming the meta-analysis method (-11.4%). In the PCD association study, the estimated subdistribution hazard ratios obtained through the ODACoRH algorithms are identical on par with the results derived from pooled data, which demonstrates the high reliability of our federated learning algorithms. From a clinical standpoint, the identified risk factors for PCD align well with the RISK study published in the Lancet in 2017 and other published studies, supporting the validity of our findings., Conclusion: With the ODACoRH algorithm, we demonstrate the capability of effectively integrating data from multiple sites in a decentralized data setting while accounting for between-site heterogeneity. Importantly, our study reveals several crucial clinical risk factors for PCD that merit further investigations., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: The aim of this multicentre prospective audit was to describe the current practice in the management of mastitis and breast abscesses in the UK and Ireland, with a specific focus on rates of surgical intervention., Methods: This audit was conducted in two phases from August 2020 to August 2021; a phase 1 practice survey and a phase 2 prospective audit. Primary outcome measurements for phase 2 included patient management pathway characteristics and treatment type (medical/radiological/surgical)., Results: A total of 69 hospitals participated in phase 2 (1312 patients). The key findings were a high overall rate of incision and drainage (21.0 per cent) and a lower than anticipated proportion of ultrasound-guided aspiration of breast abscesses (61.0 per cent). Significant variations were observed regarding the rate of incision and drainage (range 0-100 per cent; P < 0.001) and the rate of needle aspiration (range 12.5-100 per cent; P < 0.001) between individual units. Overall, 22.5 per cent of patients were admitted for inpatient treatment, out of whom which 72.9 per cent were commenced on intravenous antibiotics. The odds of undergoing incision and drainage for a breast abscess or being admitted for inpatient treatment were significantly higher if patients presented at the weekend compared with a weekday (P ≤ 0.023). Breast specialists reviewed 40.9 per cent of all patients directly, despite the majority of patients (74.2 per cent) presenting within working hours on weekdays., Conclusions: Variation in practice exists in the management of mastitis and breast abscesses, with high rates of incision and drainage in certain regions of the UK. There is an urgent need for a national best-practice toolbox to minimize practice variation and standardize patient care., (© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of BJS Society Ltd.)

Background: Breast cancer surveillance programmes ensure early identification of recurrence which maximises overall survival. Programmes include annual clinical examination and radiological assessment. There remains debate around the value of annual clinical exam in diagnosing recurrent disease/second primaries. The aim was to assess diagnostic modalities for recurrent breast cancer with a focus on evaluating the role of annual clinical examination., Patients and Methods: A prospectively maintained database from a symptomatic breast cancer service between 2010-2020 was reviewed. Patients with biopsy-proven recurrence/second breast primary were included. The primary outcome was the diagnostic modality by which recurrences/secondary breast cancers were observed. Diagnostic modalities included (i) self-detection by the patient, (ii) clinical examination by a breast surgeon or (iii) radiological assessment., Results: A total of 233 patients were identified and, following application of exclusion criteria, a total of 140 patients were included. A total of 65/140 (46%) patients were diagnosed clinically, either by self-detection or clinical examination, while 75/140 (54%) were diagnosed radiologically. A total of 59/65 (91%) of patients clinically diagnosed with recurrence presented to the breast clinic after self-detection of an abnormality. Four (6%) patients had cognitive impairment and recurrence was diagnosed by a carer. Two (3%) patients were diagnosed with recurrence by a breast surgeon at clinical examination. The median time to recurrence in all patients was 48 months (range 2-263 months)., Conclusion: Clinical examination provides little value in diagnosing recurrence (< 5%) and surveillance programmes may benefit from reduced focus on such a modality. Regular radiological assessment and ensuring patients have urgent/easy access to a breast clinic if they develop new symptoms/signs should be the focus of surveillance programmes., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Importance: Postoperative urinary retention (POUR) is a well-recognized complication of inguinal hernia repair (IHR). A variable incidence of POUR has previously been reported in this context, and contradictory evidence surrounds potential risk factors., Objective: To ascertain the incidence of, explore risk factors for, and determine the health service outcomes of POUR following elective IHR., Design, Setting, and Participants: The Retention of Urine After Inguinal Hernia Elective Repair (RETAINER I) study, an international, prospective cohort study, recruited participants between March 1 and October 31, 2021. This study was conducted across 209 centers in 32 countries in a consecutive sample of adult patients undergoing elective IHR., Exposure: Open or minimally invasive IHR by any surgical technique, under local, neuraxial regional, or general anesthesia., Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was the incidence of POUR following elective IHR. Secondary outcomes were perioperative risk factors, management, clinical consequences, and health service outcomes of POUR. A preoperative International Prostate Symptom Score was measured in male patients., Results: In total, 4151 patients (3882 male and 269 female; median [IQR] age, 56 [43-68] years) were studied. Inguinal hernia repair was commenced via an open surgical approach in 82.2% of patients (n = 3414) and minimally invasive surgery in 17.8% (n = 737). The primary form of anesthesia was general in 40.9% of patients (n = 1696), neuraxial regional in 45.8% (n = 1902), and local in 10.7% (n = 446). Postoperative urinary retention occurred in 5.8% of male patients (n = 224), 2.97% of female patients (n = 8), and 9.5% (119 of 1252) of male patients aged 65 years or older. Risk factors for POUR after adjusted analyses included increasing age, anticholinergic medication, history of urinary retention, constipation, out-of-hours surgery, involvement of urinary bladder within the hernia, temporary intraoperative urethral catheterization, and increasing operative duration. Postoperative urinary retention was the primary reason for 27.8% of unplanned day-case surgery admissions (n = 74) and 51.8% of 30-day readmissions (n = 72)., Conclusions: The findings of this cohort study suggest that 1 in 17 male patients, 1 in 11 male patients aged 65 years or older, and 1 in 34 female patients may develop POUR following IHR. These findings could inform preoperative patient counseling. In addition, awareness of modifiable risk factors may help to identify patients at increased risk of POUR who may benefit from perioperative risk mitigation strategies.

Purpose: To measure associations of area-level racial and economic residential segregation with severe maternal morbidity (SMM)., Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of births at two Philadelphia hospitals between 2018 and 2020 to analyze associations of segregation, quantified using the Index of Concentration at the Extremes (ICE), with SMM. We used stratified multivariable, multilevel, logistic regression models to determine whether associations of ICE with SMM varied by self-identified race or hospital catchment., Results: Of the 25,979 patients (44.1% Black, 35.8% White), 1381 (5.3%) had SMM (Black [6.1%], White [4.4%]). SMM was higher among patients residing outside (6.3%), than inside (5.0%) Philadelphia (P < .001). Overall, ICE was not associated with SMM. However, ICE race (higher proportion of White vs. Black households) was associated with lower odds of SMM among patients residing inside Philadelphia (aOR 0.87, 95% CI: 0.80-0.94) and higher odds outside Philadelphia (aOR 1.12, 95% CI: 0.95-1.31). Moran's I indicated spatial autocorrelation of SMM overall (P < .001); when stratified, autocorrelation was only evident outside Philadelphia., Conclusions: Overall, ICE was not associated with SMM. However, higher ICE race was associated with lower odds of SMM among Philadelphia residents. Findings highlight the importance of hospital catchment area and referral patterns in spatial analyses of hospital datasets., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Heather H. Burris reports financial support was provided by the National Institutes of Health., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Per-/poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a group of manmade compounds with known human toxicity and evidence of contamination in drinking water throughout the US. We augmented our electronic health record data with geospatial information to classify PFAS exposure for our patients living in New Jersey. We explored the utility of three different methods for classifying PFAS exposure that are popularly used in the literature, resulting in different boundary types: public water supplier service area boundary, municipality, and ZIP code. We also explored the intersection of the three boundaries. To study the potential for bias, we investigated known PFAS exposure-disease associations, specifically hypertension, thyroid disease and parathyroid disease. We found that both the significance of the associations and the effect size varied by the method for classifying PFAS exposure. This has important implications in knowledge discovery and also environmental justice as across cohorts, we found a larger proportion of Black/African-American patients PFAS-exposed., (©2023 AMIA - All rights reserved.)

Objective: To determine whether women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) had a higher incidence of testing positive for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) than those without PCOS and evaluate whether PCOS diagnosis independently increased the risk of moderate or severe disease in those with positive SARS-CoV-2 test results., Design: Retrospective cohort study using the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C)., Setting: National COVID Cohort Collaborative., Patient(s): Adult nonpregnant women (age, 18-65 years) enrolled in the N3C with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 testing for any indication. Sensitivity analyses were conducted in women aged 18-49 years and who were obese (body mass index, ≥30 kg/m 2 )., Intervention(s): The exposure was PCOS as identified by the N3C clinical diagnosis codes and concept sets, which are a compilation of terms, laboratory values, and International Classification of Diseases codes for the diagnosis of PCOS. To further capture patients with the symptoms of PCOS, we also included those who had concept sets for both hirsutism and irregular menses., Main Outcome Measure(s): Odds of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and odds of moderate or severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the PCOS cohort compared with those in the non-PCOS cohort., Result(s): Of the 2,089,913 women included in our study, 39,459 had PCOS. In the overall cohort, the adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of SARS-CoV-2 positivity was 0.98 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.97-0.98) in women with PCOS compared to women without PCOS. The aORs of disease severity were as follows: mild disease, 1.02 (95% CI, 1.01-1.03); moderate disease, 0.99 (95% CI, 0.98-1.00); and severe disease, 0.99 (95% CI, 0.99-1.00). There was no difference in COVID-19-related mortality (aOR, 1.00; 95% CI, 0.99-1.00). These findings were similar in the reproductive-age and obese reproductive-age cohorts., Conclusion(s): Women with PCOS had a similar likelihood of testing positive for SARS-CoV-2. Among those who tested positive, they were no more likely to have moderate or severe COVID-19 than the non-PCOS cohort. Polycystic ovary syndrome is a chronic condition associated with several comorbidities, including cardiovascular disease and mental health issues. Although these comorbidities are also associated with COVID-19 morbidity, our findings suggest that the comorbidities themselves, rather than PCOS, drive the risk of disease severity., (Copyright © 2023 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Clinical acumen and experience are critical in the diagnosis of the commonest surgical emergency, acute appendicitis. However, there is an increasing focus on haematological and radiological parameters in reaching the diagnosis of appendicitis, which can negate the importance of clinical findings. The aim was to assess the accuracy of each grade of the surgical team in diagnosing acute appendicitis using clinical acuity alone and compare them to each other as well as validated predictive scores., Methods: A prospective single-centre study was performed over a six-month period (Dec 2020-May 2021). All patients presenting to the emergency department with right iliac fossa pain were included., Results: A total of 180 patients were included of whom 35% were male. Mean age was 36.2 years (range 16-91). 51.1% had a final diagnosis of appendicitis, of which 91.3% were managed surgically and 8.7% were treated conservatively with antibiotics. Consultants were correct in their prediction of appendicitis in 84.6% of cases (females-83.4%, males-86.6%). Registrars accurately predicted appendicitis in 82.2% of patients (females-80.3%, males-85.7%), whilst house officers (SHOs) and interns were right in 73.8% (females-69.2%, males-82.5%) and 72.7% (females-66.6%, males-83.9%) of cases, respectively. In patients with a histological or radiological diagnosis of appendicitis, the mean Acute Inflammatory Response Score and Acute Appendicitis Score were 7.0 (high risk ≥ 9) and 12.5 (high risk ≥ 16), respectively. Clinicians had superior diagnostic accuracy when compared with both the clinical scores used., Conclusion: Seniority was associated with improved diagnostic accuracy in clinically predicting acute appendicitis. This study showed that the clinical judgement of experienced surgeons is more reliable than clinical scores in the diagnosis of appendicitis., (© 2022. The Author(s) under exclusive licence to Société Internationale de Chirurgie.)

Background: The use of acellular dermal matrices (ADMs) and synthetic mesh as part of implant-based breast reconstruction (IBBR) has been widely adopted. The authors investigated the clinical efficacy and safety of human ADM (HADM), xenograft ADM (XADM), and synthetic mesh as part of IBBR in postmastectomy patients as compared with previous standard implant reconstruction techniques using only a submuscular pocket for coverage., Methods: A systematic search for randomized controlled trials and observational studies was performed. A frequentist network meta-analysis was conducted using the R packages netmeta and Shiny., Results: Thirty-one of 2375 studies identified met the predefined inclusion criteria. Traditional submuscular placement (no ADM or mesh) had fewer overall complications compared with HADM [OR, 0.51; credible interval (CrI), 0.34 to 0.74], but there was no significant difference between no ADM or mesh and XADM (OR, 0.63; CrI, 0.29 to 1.32) or synthetic mesh (OR, 0.77; CrI, 0.44 to 1.30). No one treatment was superior with regards to implant loss. No ADM or mesh was associated with fewer infectious complications than HADM (OR, 0.6; CrI, 0.39 to 0.89). Both no ADM or mesh (OR, 0.45; CrI, 0.27 to 0.75) and XADM (OR, 0.46; CrI, 0.23 to 0.88) had reduced seroma compared with HADM., Conclusions: Selecting the appropriate IBBR should evaluate effectiveness, adverse events, and cost. Although it is difficult to select a universal ideal IBBR, evaluation using this network analysis may help guide both physicians and patients in their choice of procedure, especially in the case of HADM, which in this study was shown to be significantly predisposed to complications of infection and seroma. Randomized data are required comparing XADM versus synthetic meshes, given the similar risk profiles but significant cost discrepancy between the techniques., (Copyright © 2022 by the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.)

Objective: As the opioid epidemic continues across the United States, methods are needed to accurately and quickly identify patients at risk for opioid use disorder (OUD). The purpose of this study is to develop two predictive algorithms: one to predict opioid prescription and one to predict OUD., Materials and Methods: We developed an informatics algorithm that trains two deep learning models over patient Electronic Health Records (EHRs) using the MIMIC-III database. We utilize both the structured and unstructured parts of the EHR and show that it is possible to predict both challenging outcomes., Results: Our deep learning models incorporate elements from EHRs to predict opioid prescription with an F1-score of 0.88 ± 0.003 and an AUC-ROC of 0.93 ± 0.002. We also constructed a model to predict OUD diagnosis achieving an F1-score of 0.82 ± 0.05 and AUC-ROC of 0.94 ± 0.008., Discussion: Our model for OUD prediction outperformed prior algorithms for specificity, F1 score and AUC-ROC while achieving equivalent sensitivity. This demonstrates the importance of a) deep learning approaches in predicting OUD and b) incorporating both structured and unstructured data for this prediction task. No prediction models for opioid prescription as an outcome were found in the literature and therefore our model is the first to predict opioid prescribing behavior., Conclusion: Algorithms such as those described in this paper will become increasingly important to understand the drivers underlying this national epidemic., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in patients with breast cancer who are initially node-positive but convert to clinically/radiologically node-negative remains controversial. The primary aim was to assess pooled 5-year disease-free (DFS) and overall (OS) survival for patients who are initially node-positive but have a negative SLNB after NACT, and do not proceed to axillary lymph node dissection (ALND)., Methods: The study was performed using PRISMA guidelines. A systematic literature search of relevant databases was conducted. The Der Simonian-Laird and Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel methods were used to calculate weighted pooled estimates for OS and DFS for this group compared with patients who had NACT and proceeded to ALND after a negative or positive SLNB., Results: Seven studies involving 915 patients who had a negative SLNB after NACT were included. Pooled estimates of 5-year DFS and OS in patients with a negative SLNB after NACT were 86 (95 per cent c.i. 82.1 to 90.3) and 93.1 (87.8 to 97.0) per cent respectively. Patients with a positive SLNB who underwent ALND had reduced 5-year DFS (OR 0.49, 95 per cent c.i. 0.35 to 0.69; P < 0.001) and OS (OR 0.41, 0.16 to 1.02; P = 0.06) compared with those who had a negative SLNB after NACT. There were no differences in DFS for patients who had a negative SLNB only compared with those undergoing ALND with a pCR (OR 1.65, 0.71 to 3.79; P = 0.24)., Conclusion: Patients who are initially node-positive and who achieve a complete clinical/radiological axillary response after NACT with a subsequent negative SLNB have high rates of DFS and OS after 5 years. Patients with residual disease have significantly reduced DFS and further axillary treatment may still be warranted., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of BJS Society Ltd. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Purpose: Breast cancer is the primary cause of cancer-related death in women. Women diagnosed with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer have prolonged treatment durations. Owing to the paucity of research and lack of consensus regarding conception planning and pregnancy for patients with ER-positive breast cancer, we aimed to assess pregnancy and survival outcomes in women with ER-positive breast cancer during and after treatment., Methods: We conducted a systematic review of the available studies on pregnancy after ER-positive breast cancer. The assessed outcomes included overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), hormonal therapy duration, and pregnancy outcomes., Results: Ultimately, 2,669 patients from five studies were included in this study. When all breast cancer receptor subtypes were included in the analysis, pregnancy after breast cancer was associated with a time-dependent protective effect on both DFS and OS. This protective effect was not evident when examining ER-positive patients with subsequent pregnancies, and no significant differences in DFS were observed. ER-positive patients who became pregnant received significantly lower rates of hormonal therapy. Hormonal treatment at the time of pregnancy was correlated with increased rates of termination owing to concerns about teratogenic effects., Conclusions: Pregnancy after breast cancer did not significantly affect DFS in ER-positive patients over a follow-up period of 5-10 years from diagnosis, although did significantly affect hormonal treatment duration in the reviewed studies. Further analysis and in-depth studies are required to assess the effects of altered hormonal treatment times, as well as patient management related to pregnancy planning after breast cancer., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests., (© 2022 Korean Breast Cancer Society.)

Information on effects of medication therapies during pregnancy is lacking as pregnant patients are often excluded from clinical trials. This retrospective study explores the potential of using electronic health record (EHR) data to inform safety profiles of repurposed COVID medication therapies on pregnancy outcomes using pre-COVID data. We conducted a medication-wide association study (MWAS) on prescription medication exposures during pregnancy and the risk of cesarean section, preterm birth, and stillbirth, using EHR data between 2010-2017 on deliveries at PennMedicine. Repurposed drugs studied for treatment of COVID-19 were extracted from ClinicalTrials.gov (n = 138). We adjusted for known comorbidities diagnosed within 2 years prior to birth. Using previously developed medication mapping and delivery-identification algorithms, we identified medication exposure in 2,830 of a total 63,334 deliveries; from 138 trials, we found 31 medications prescribed and included in our cohort. We found 21 (68%) of the 31 medications were not positively associated with increased risk of the outcomes examined. With caution, these medications warrant potential for inclusion of pregnant individuals in future studies, while drugs found to be associated with pregnancy outcomes require further investigation. MWAS facilitates hypothesis-driven evaluation of drug safety across all prescription medications, revealing potential drug candidates for further research., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Background: Stenting is the management of choice for many benign and malignant oesophageal conditions and in the interest of safety stent insertion has traditionally been performed under fluoroscopic guidance. But this incurs additional expense, time, radiation risk and for the foreseeable future, an increased risk of Covid infection to patients and healthcare personnel. We describe a protocol that obviates the need for fluoroscopic guidance, relying instead on a systematic checklist to ensure safe positioning of the guidewire and the accurate positioning of the stent. The aim of this retrospective study was to review our experience of stent insertion employing a checklist system and compare our outcomes with outcomes using fluoroscopy in the literature., Methods: We performed a retrospective review of a prospectively collected dataset of all patients undergoing oesophageal stent insertion between December 2007 and October 2019. The primary end points were patient safety parameters and complications of stent insertion., Results: Total of 163 stents were deployed of which 93 (57%) were in males and the median age was 67.9 years (25-92 years). Partially covered self-expanding metallic stents (SEMS) were used in 80% of procedures (130/163). One hundred nineteen stents (73%) were for malignant strictures and 127 (78%) were deployed for strictures in the lower third of the oesophagus. There was no stent misplacement, injury, perforation or death associated with the procedure. Vomiting was the main post-operative complication (14%). Severe odynophagia necessitated stent removal in 3 patients. Stent migration occurred in 17 (10%) procedures with a mean time to stent migration of 6.4 weeks (range 1-20 weeks)., Conclusions: Oesophageal stent placement without fluoroscopy is safe provided that a strict checklist is adhered to. The outcomes are comparable to the results of fluoroscopic stent placement in the literature, with considerable saving in time, cost, personnel, and risks of radiation and Covid exposure., (© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.)

Introduction: B3 lesions are a heterogeneous group of breast lesions of uncertain malignant potential which usually require excision. The aim was to assess the efficacy of 5 years routine radiological or clinical follow-up of patients who had "high-risk" B3 lesions surgically excised, by analyzing recurrence and subsequent development of invasive/in-situ cancer., Patients and Methods: A 10-year retrospective review from 2010 to 2019 was performed of B3 lesions diagnosed on core needle biopsy, including patients who proceeded to surgical excision with a high-risk lesion on final histology. The database recorded 6 specific B3 lesion categories: 1. Atypical ductal hyperplasia (ADH), 2. Radial scars/complex sclerosing lesions (CSLs) with epithelial atypia 3. Classical Lobular neoplasia (ALH/LCIS), 4. Papillary lesions with epithelial atypia, 5. Mixed, 6. Flat epithelial atypia (FEA), including radiological and clinical follow-up data., Results: Six hundred sixteen patients had a B3 lesion after core biopsy. 110 patients had "high risk" lesions. This included 17 (15.5%) Atypical Ductal Hyperplasia (ADH), 22 (20%) radial scars/CSLs with epithelial atypia, 47 (42.7%) classical lobular neoplasia (LCIS/ALH), 7 (6.4%) papillary lesions with epithelial atypia, 13 (11.8%) mixed lesions & 4 (3.6%) Flat Epithelial Atypia (FEA) lesions. 4 of 110 (3.6%) developed invasive/in-situ disease and 4 of 110 (3.6%) developed recurrence during follow-up. 33 of 616 (5.4%) upgraded to invasive/preinvasive disease after surgical excision., Conclusion: Five years of routine radiological surveillance may not be necessary in patients who undergo surgical excision of "high-risk" B3 lesions. Clinical surveillance appears to be of little benefit, especially in patients with radial scars, papillary lesions, and FEA. Subsequent development of invasive/in-situ disease in patients who undergo surgical excision of atypical B3 lesions remains low., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Medication-wide association studies (MWAS) have been applied to assess the risk of individual prescription use and a wide range of health outcomes, including cancer, acute myocardial infarction, acute liver failure, acute renal failure, and upper gastrointestinal ulcers. Current literature on the use of preconception and periconception medication and its association with the risk of multiple gestation pregnancies (eg, monozygotic and dizygotic) is largely based on assisted reproductive technology (ART) cohorts. However, among non-ART pregnancies, it is unknown whether other medications increase the risk of multifetal pregnancies., Objective: This study aimed to investigate the risk of multiple gestational births (eg, twins and triplets) following preconception and periconception exposure to prescription medications in patients who delivered at Penn Medicine., Methods: We used electronic health record data between 2010 and 2017 on patients who delivered babies at Penn Medicine, a health care system in the Greater Philadelphia area. We explored 3 logistic regression models: model 1 (no adjustment); model 2 (adjustment for maternal age); and model 3-our final logistic regression model (adjustment for maternal age, ART use, and infertility diagnosis). In all models, multiple births (MBs) were our outcome of interest (binary outcome), and each medication was assessed separately as a binary variable. To assess our MWAS model performance, we defined ART medications as our gold standard, given that these medications are known to increase the risk of MB., Results: Of the 63,334 distinct deliveries in our cohort, only 1877 pregnancies (2.96%) were prescribed any medication during the preconception and first trimester period. Of the 123 medications prescribed, we found 26 (21.1%) medications associated with MB (using nominal P values) and 10 (8.1%) medications associated with MB (using Bonferroni adjustment) in fully adjusted model 3. We found that our model 3 algorithm had an accuracy of 85% (using nominal P values) and 89% (using Bonferroni-adjusted P values)., Conclusions: Our work demonstrates the opportunities in applying the MWAS approach with electronic health record data to explore associations between preconception and periconception medication exposure and the risk of MB while identifying novel candidate medications for further study. Overall, we found 3 novel medications linked with MB that could be explored in further work; this demonstrates the potential of our method to be used for hypothesis generation., (©Lena Davidson, Silvia P Canelón, Mary Regina Boland. Originally published in JMIR Medical Informatics (https://medinform.jmir.org), 07.06.2022.)

Purpose: Mammographic screening programmes have increased detection rates of non-palpable breast cancers. In these cases, wire-guided localization (WGL) is the most common approach used to guide breast conserving surgery (BCS). Several RCTs have compared WGL to a range of novel localization techniques. We aimed to perform a network meta-analysis (NMA) of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing methods of non-palpable breast cancer localization., Methods: A NMA was performed according to PRISMA-NMA guidelines. Analysis was performed using R packages and Shiny., Results: 24 RCTs assessing 9 tumour localization methods in 4236 breasts were included. Margin positivity and reoperation rates were 16.9% (714/4236) and 14.3% (409/2870) respectively. Cryo-assisted localization had the highest margin positivity (28.2%, 58/206) and reoperation (18.9%, 39/206) rates. Compared to WGL (n = 2045 from 24 RCTs) only ultrasound guided localization (USGL) (n = 316 from 3 RCTs) significantly lowered margin positivity (odds ratio (OR): 0.192, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.079-0.450) and reoperation rates (OR: 0.182, 95%CI: 0.069-0.434). Anchor-guided localization (n = 52, 1 RCT) significantly lowered margin positivity (OR: 0.229, 95%CI: 0.050-0.938) and magnetic-marker localization improved patient satisfaction (OR: 0.021, 95%CI: 0.001-0.548). There was no difference in operation duration, overall complications, haematoma, seroma, surgical site infection rates, or specimen size/vol/wt between methods., Conclusion: USGL and AGL are non-inferior to WGL for the localization of non-palpable breast cancers. The reported data suggests that these techniques confer reduced margin positivity rates and requirement for re-operation. However, caution when interpreting results relating to RCTs with small sample sizes and further validation is required in larger prospective, randomized studies., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Introduction and Importance: Acute appendicitis is one of the most common presentations to the emergency department, particularly in young adults. A combination of clinical suspicion, inflammatory blood markers and imaging modalities such as ultrasound and CT are used for its definitive diagnosis. Early detection and intervention are paramount to reduce morbidity and mortality. Laparoscopic appendicectomy is the current gold standard in the management of appendicitis, especially if complicated according to EAES guidelines. There are few documented cases in the literature of acute appendicitis secondary to foreign body ingestion. On account of this, there are currently no guidelines for its management. Our literature review highlights the importance of surgical management of foreign body acute appendicitis., Case Presentation: This case report describes the rare presentation of acute complicated appendicitis caused by an ingested toothpick in a 64 year old woman. The patient was admitted with a 3 day history of lower abdominal pain, localizing to the right iliac fossa with raised inflammatory markers. CT imaging reported acute complicated appendicitis. Laparoscopic appendicectomy was performed during which a toothpick was seen protruding through the appendiceal wall. Post operatively the patient was treated with IV antibiotics for 5 days prior to discharge., Clinical Discussion: Due to the rare nature of foreign body appendicitis there are no specific guidelines on the respective surgical approach. A literature review showed that in the setting of foreign body appendicitis, surgical intervention is paramount with no scope for conservative management., Conclusion: Surgical approach is based on the clinical judgement and skillset of the operating surgeon., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Objective: The purpose of this study was to measure the association between neighborhood deprivation and cesarean delivery following labor induction among people delivering at term (≥37 weeks of gestation)., Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of people ≥37 weeks of gestation, with a live, singleton gestation, who underwent labor induction from 2010 to 2017 at Penn Medicine. We excluded people with a prior cesarean delivery and those with missing geocoding information. Our primary exposure was a nationally validated Area Deprivation Index with scores ranging from 1 to 100 (least to most deprived). We used a generalized linear mixed model to calculate the odds of postinduction cesarean delivery among people in 4 equally-spaced levels of neighborhood deprivation. We also conducted a sensitivity analysis with residential mobility., Results: Our cohort contained 8672 people receiving an induction at Penn Medicine. After adjustment for confounders, we found that people living in the most deprived neighborhoods were at a 29% increased risk of post-induction cesarean delivery (adjusted odds ratio = 1.29, 95% confidence interval, 1.05-1.57) compared to the least deprived. In a sensitivity analysis, including residential mobility seemed to magnify the effect sizes of the association between neighborhood deprivation and postinduction cesarean delivery, but this information was only available for a subset of people., Conclusions: People living in neighborhoods with higher deprivation had higher odds of postinduction cesarean delivery compared to people living in less deprived neighborhoods. This work represents an important first step in understanding the impact of disadvantaged neighborhoods on adverse delivery outcomes., (© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.)