Category: 8. Health

  • Woman dying of cancer sent to osteopath by her mum, inquest told

    Woman dying of cancer sent to osteopath by her mum, inquest told

    Nathan Bevan & Sara Smith

    BBC News, South East

    Gabriel & Sebastian Shemirani Paloma, smiling at the camera as she sits on the wall outside King's College, Cambridge, with the windows of the chapel illuminated and a dark blue twilight sky behind her. She is wearing a warm black jacket but has bold make-up with pink eyeshadow for a night out.Gabriel & Sebastian Shemirani

    The 23-year-old, from Uckfield in East Sussex, died from a heart attack caused by her tumour

    An osteopath who saw a woman with cancer shortly before her death has told her inquest he had “never seen anything like” her case in 43 years of practice.

    Paloma Shemirani, 23, who had declined chemotherapy for non-Hodgkin lymphoma, suffered a fatal heart attack caused by her tumour at the Royal Sussex County Hospital last July.

    Days before, she visited Nick Gosset on the instructions of her mother Kate, a prominent online Covid conspiracy theorist who had been involved in her “treatment programme”.

    Mr Gosset told the hearing in Maidstone that he felt “deeply aggrieved” he had been put in a professional position of trying to treat Paloma when there was clear advice from her GP to go to A&E.

    He told the hearing on Wednesday that Paloma, a Cambridge graduate who was originally from Uckfield, East Sussex, had come to him complaining about shortness of breath and that he could only offer her palliative treatment at that stage as she was “clearly very ill”.

    “My understanding was this was an advanced disease process that she was no longer winning,” he said.

    “It was obvious to me I was not the right person to be treating her and I made it very clear there were more qualified agencies that would (help her).

    “She was very upset by that.”

    Mr Gosset said that any referral to a GP was “refused” and all suggestions of going through “normal medical channels” were “dismissed”.

    He explained he would have offered to treat her again in the vain hope of possibly persuading her to seek help elsewhere, adding he had been “horrified” to learn she had subsequently died.

    Also at the inquest was Linda Scotson who said she was qualified in hyperbaric oxygen therapy.

    She said Paloma had not been sure she had cancer and was aiming to “improve her immediate quality of life”, after which she had claimed to feel “better in herself”.

    Asked by Kate Shemirani if she had seen others in Paloma’s situation coming to her centre, Ms Scotson replied: “We have people with a whole variety of problems, such as ME, Long Covid, sprains and fractures.

    “It’s amazing what a little extra oxygen can do for the body. You are lifting stress.”

    Paloma’s twin brother Gabriel asked her: “Did you explicitly tell her this will not treat her cancer?”

    Ms Scotson said: “She knew it wasn’t treating her cancer in a direct way. I was treating her whole body and her wellbeing.”

    When asked by Gabriel if she had left it “deliberately vague”, she replied: “I never said I was treating her cancer and she wasn’t certain that she had cancer.”

    The inquest continues.

    Continue Reading

  • Rare flu complication causing brain swelling is rising in kids, doctors warn

    Rare flu complication causing brain swelling is rising in kids, doctors warn

    Severe flu seasons in recent years have brought to light a little-known danger of influenza infections in kids: a rare brain disease called acute necrotizing encephalopathy, or ANE.

    It’s a fast-moving condition usually triggered by the flu, causing sudden brain swelling. It’s thought that the virus prompts the immune system to go haywire.

    Affected children can go from having mild flu symptoms to seizures, coma, or even death within days. Most are kids without any other health problems.

    Historically, the inflammatory disease is diagnosed in just a handful of children each year. But this past January and February, pediatric neurologists began to see an unusual uptick in ANE cases — and started comparing notes.

    Dr. Molly Wilson-Murphy, a pediatric neurologist at Boston Children’s Hospital said, “We were reaching out to colleagues across the country and saying, ‘hey, are you seeing this?’ and very briskly getting responses back from a number of folks saying, ‘yes, us, too.’”

    The collaboration led to the first large, multi-center look at ANE cases in the U.S. Wilson-Murphy is one of more than 60 physicians who published their data Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

    The doctors identified 41 cases over the past two flu seasons. Most children were around age 5.

    Brain inflammation was swift and severe in many cases. Eleven children (27%) died within 3 days, usually because of a buildup of pressure in their brain tissue.

    Children who were able to survive for at least 3 months often had long-lasting complications, such as trouble walking, eating and ongoing seizures.

    Because ANE is so rare, there’s no specific treatment protocol. Most of the 41 children in the new study received steroids, antiviral medications, intravenous immunoglobulin or a plasma exchange, which is like dialysis.

    Reasons for the increase in ANE cases are not known. But the report comes after the U.S. has experienced one of the deadliest flu seasons for kids on record: 266 pediatric flu deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. At least three of those children died in June and July of this year, far outside of the typical flu season.

    Until now, there’s been no official tally of ANE cases. The CDC began to track them in February after hearing anecdotal reports from the study authors.

    The CDC’s Dr. Timothy Uyeki wrote an editorial accompanying the new study.

    “From the public health perspective, implementation of multiyear national surveillance” is necessary, Uyeki wrote, to understand how often ANE occurs and whether some children have specific risk factors.

    Why flu shots are important for kids

    Study authors emphasized the importance of annual flu shots for kids. Just six of the 41 children with ANE had been vaccinated.

    It’s especially critical for kids who’ve already had ANE because they’re at risk for getting it again with a subsequent influenza infection, Wilson-Murphy of Boston Children’s Hospital said.

    Fewer kids are getting flu shots in general.

    During the 2023-2024 season, just over half of kids, 55%, got the vaccine — the lowest rate in more than a decade.

    “It’s possible that’s playing a small role in this bump in cases,” said study co-author Dr. Keith Van Haren, a pediatric neurologist at Stanford Medicine in Palo Alto, California. “It doesn’t account for all of it, though.”

    And among the 266 children who died of flu this past year, 90% hadn’t been fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.

    The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends all children 6 months or older get an annual flu shot, ideally by the end of October.

    Young children who’ve never had the shot may need two doses, about a month apart.

    ANE warning signs

    In early stages, ANE resembles typical flu symptoms. Children tend to have high fevers — 103 degrees on average — as well as a sore throat, cough and vomiting or diarrhea.

    Within about two days after symptoms begin, doctors say there is a marked difference in kids’ mental status. They may have seizures and become unusually weak and tired.

    The behavior is different from the typical lethargy associated with flu, Wilson-Murphy said. Affected children don’t perk up, even after ibuprofen or acetaminophen. They’re not making sense and can’t interact meaningfully.

    “You get that ‘mom gut’ feeling that something isn’t right,” she said. “Parents should listen to their intuition and get their kids checked out as soon as they feel like something is off, neurologically.”

    Continue Reading

  • Data transparency is lacking for FDA-cleared Alzheimer’s AI technology

    Data transparency is lacking for FDA-cleared Alzheimer’s AI technology

    Data transparency appears lacking for some AI- and machine learning (ML)-enabled medical devices cleared for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia, according to research presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) in Toronto.

    Lack of transparency raises concerns about algorithmic bias impacting care planning for patients with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD), said presenter Krista Chen from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. The findings were published July 30 in JAMA.

    The investigators assessed U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-authorized devices for characteristics and data quality of evidence, evaluating availability and representativeness (i.e., disease type and demographics) of data supporting authorization.

    First, the team’s data search identified 24 AI- and ML-based devices for ADRD authorized by the FDA between January 2015 and December 2024. Of them, 22 (91.7%) were cleared through the 510(k) pathway and two (8.3%) through de novo classification, both low-risk pathways with lower evidence standards, Chen said during her AAIC talk. 

    Using FDA summaries and peer-reviewed articles as reference documents, Chen and colleagues looked for available training data and validation data. The group found the following:

    • For 12 devices, they found no information on training or validation datasets available in either FDA summaries or peer-reviewed articles.
    • FDA-approval summaries provided training data for 10 devices (41.7%), with peer-reviewed articles offering training data for five (20.8%). Data regarding disease type and age varied, with race and ethnicity rarely disclosed.
    • Very few FDA summaries provided external validation data — only two (8.3%) — but peer-reviewed articles provided external validation data for 10 (41.7%). Again, patient disease status, age, and sex varied in validation data, with race and ethnicity rarely reported.

    The researchers also found no justification for 23 devices with incomplete reporting across the domains of disease status, age, sex, race, and ethnicity.

    Lack of data raises uncertainty about real-world generalizability and clinical accuracy in intended populations, according to Chen and colleagues. The devices were primarily diagnostic, Chen noted at AAIC.

    Indications and number of AI- and machine learning-based medical devices for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias*

    Volumetric quantification of brain structures using MRI / including for hippocampal quantification only

    20/3

    Functional testing for memory, learning, or visuospatial awareness

    3

    Quantification of amyloid deposition using PET

    2

    *Cleared for two indications

    1

    Most (21) of the FDA-cleared AI- and machine learning-based medical devices for ADRD were reviewed by radiology panels. Three were reviewed by neurology panels.

    “Data transparency — particularly regarding demographic representativeness of training and validation datasets — is essential to understanding performance variability and ensuring appropriate application in intended populations,” Chen and colleagues wrote.

    The group also highlighted FDA guiding principles for good machine-learning practice for medical device development, as well as updated draft guidance in 2025, both of which set forth recommendations around demographics with AI and machine-learning medical devices.

    “To this day, it is unknown whether these practices have actually been enforced,” Chen said during her talk. 

    Enforcing guidelines for data transparency and device labeling would help regulators identify potential biases and promote safe and effective AI and machine-learning deployment in dementia, the investigators noted.

    “While truly representative datasets may be an impractical goal, transparency and better understanding of what goes into datasets is essential,” Chen said at the conference.

    Read the complete paper here.

    Continue Reading

  • The Transition of Care from Pediatric to Adult Neurology: Leaving the Cocoon

    The Transition of Care from Pediatric to Adult Neurology: Leaving the Cocoon

    Susan Duberstein, MD, PhD

    “I never did that before!”

    Growing up brings many new experiences, some especially challenging. The transition from pediatric to adult healthcare involves more than just a change in doctors; it’s a juncture in life that affects medical, emotional, and psychosocial aspects of care. Many “pediatric” patients, despite a legal adult age, may never have called for an appointment on their own, let alone navigated the complexities of an insurance system or an online electronic medical record.

    This transition can be difficult for patients with conditions like epilepsy, static encephalopathy or neurogenetic disorders, which typically require ongoing, specialized care that adapts to the evolving needs of the patient.In addition, the surveillance of some of these conditions may be less familiar to adult clinicians. Such patients require advance planning and ongoing support to ensure that they continue to receive optimal care in adulthood. Key factors in the successful transition of care from pediatric to adult neurology include healthcare continuity, patient education, psychosocial support, and the involvement of a multidisciplinary team.

    1. Healthcare Continuity and Coordination

    One of the most crucial aspects of a successful transition from pediatric to adult neurology is ensuring continuity and coordination of care. Pediatric and adult healthcare systems often differ in their approach, facilities, and available services. In the pediatric system, care is typically family-centered, with parents or guardians playing a central role in decision-making. In contrast, adult neurology care shifts to an emphasis on patient autonomy and independence. This difference can create challenges in ensuring that care remains consistent and integrated as patients age.

    Both pediatric and adult clinicians need to work closely together to ensure a smooth handover. This may involve transferring medical records, sharing treatment plans, and the “warm hand-off” —directly discussing the patient’s condition in detail. Ideally, a transition plan should be developed that includes timelines, goals, and any necessary resources for the patient and their family, and this plan should be initiated long before the patient’s age-out of the pediatric clinic, and a standardized approach within a hospital system or clinical home can help make the transition even smoother. Effective coordination between healthcare teams also ensures that the patient does not experience any gaps in care, which is particularly important for patients with chronic neurological conditions who require regular monitoring and treatment.

    Another practical consideration in the transition process is the shift in health insurance coverage. Losing pediatric coverage may lead to a need to negotiate complex insurance options, which should be addressed well before adulthood. Access to necessary services, including medications and therapies, is essential to prevent interruptions in treatment and avoid exacerbations of the neurological condition.

    2. Patient Education and Self-Management

    “I don’t know what to do next.”

    Probably the single most essential factor in the transition process is empowering the patient to take an active role in managing their healthcare while still of pediatric age. During pediatric care, parents obviously take the primary role in the management of their child’s condition. However, as patients move towards adulthood, they need to begin to take age- and ability-appropriate responsibility for their own healthcare decisions. This shift requires both ongoing patient education and clinic visits focusing on not just the medical aspects of their condition, but the logistics of managing their own healthcare.

    Education should begin early, ideally several years before the transition occurs, to allow the patient to gradually take on more responsibility. Key topics might include understanding their diagnosis, recognizing warning signs, managing medications, navigating healthcare systems, and accessing necessary resources. For example, a patient with epilepsy may need to learn how to track seizures, create systems for remembering to take medications, and understand the implications of their condition for driving, work, and social activities. By gradually increasing their involvement in their own care, patients can gain confidence and independence, which leads to better adherence to treatment plans and improved overall health outcomes.

    3. Psychosocial Considerations

    “This feels so different and strange!”

    The transition to adult neurology is not just a medical process—it is a highly emotional and psychosocial one. Patients with chronic neurological conditions may experience feelings of loss and anxiety as they move away from the supportive pediatric environment, where healthcare is typically more familial and holistic, to an adult system that may feel more clinical and impersonal. In addition, young adults with neurological disorders may face common challenges, such as navigating education, employment, and relationships, while also managing a long-term medical condition.

    Psychosocial support is essential to help patients adjust to these changes. This may include counseling, support groups, and mental health services to address issues like depression, anxiety, or identity crises that often accompany chronic illness in young adulthood. Family members also need support, as they must adjust to the shift in their role in the patient’s care. Effective psychosocial support helps mitigate the emotional stress of the transition, reduces feelings of isolation, and promotes overall well-being.

    4. Multidisciplinary Involvement

    “I have so many different appointments!”

    The complexity of many neurological conditions can mean that the patient’s care requires a multidisciplinary approach. This might include neurologists, psychiatrists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists, social workers, and nurses, all working together to provide comprehensive care. During the transition from pediatrics to adult care, it is essential that the patient’s care team in the adult system is fully aware of the patient’s history, current health status, and future needs.

    For example, a patient with static encephalopathy may need not only medical management from a neurologist but also physical therapy to maintain mobility and speech therapy to address communication difficulties. These services, easily accessible in childhood, may be difficult to obtain in adulthood, especially if there is any lapse in services. Involving multiple specialists in the transition helps to ensure that the patient receives care that addresses all aspects of their health.

    Conclusion

    “I’m ready to go…but I’ll miss you!”

    The transition of care from pediatric to adult neurology is a multifaceted process that requires careful planning, coordination, and support. Healthcare continuity, patient education, psychosocial support, multidisciplinary collaboration, and access to care all play vital roles in ensuring a successful transition. Given the complexity of neurological conditions and the unique challenges faced by young adults with these conditions, a well-structured, patient-centered approach is essential to facilitate this transition and promote long-term health and well-being. Ultimately, the goal is to empower patients to take control of their healthcare, fostering independence and ensuring that they continue to receive the care and support they need as they move into adulthood.

    Continue Reading

  • Lenacapavir Demonstrates 100% Efficacy in PURPOSE Trials for Twice-Yearly HIV PrEP

    Lenacapavir Demonstrates 100% Efficacy in PURPOSE Trials for Twice-Yearly HIV PrEP

    In an interview with Pharmacy Times, Namrata Shah, MD, highlighted key considerations for pharmacists regarding lenacapavir storage, handling, and administration. Unlike many injectable therapies, lenacapavir does not require refrigeration, making it suitable for a range of healthcare settings, including mobile and community clinics. The injection kit includes oral loading doses for days 1 and 2, with day 1 often administered alongside the injection. Shah emphasized the importance of counseling patients to take the day 2 oral dose as scheduled. Because the injection is viscous, Shah explains that it requires a specific technique and is administered as 2 subcutaneous injections in separate quadrants of the abdomen, thigh, or upper gluteal area.

    Shah also discussed lenacapavir’s role in expanding HIV prevention options, particularly for patients with adherence challenges or limited access to care. Pharmacists can play a crucial role by providing education, counseling, adherence support, and, depending on state regulations, administering the injection. Shah noted the empowering potential of twice-yearly dosing, which reduces the daily reminder of HIV risk and may help reach underserved populations more effectively.

    Pharmacy Times: What are the key considerations pharmacists should be aware of regarding storage, handling, and administration of lenacapavir in various practice settings?

    Namrata Shah, MD: One of the key things to keep in mind is that lenacapavir for prevention does not need to be refrigerated. This makes it adaptable to various healthcare delivery settings—whether community-based or mobile outreach. The injection kit comes with all the components needed for administration, including the oral loading doses for day 1 and day 2. In the PURPOSE 2 trial, where I was an investigator, we watched participants take the day 1 oral dose at the time of the day 1 injection. It’s easy to administer at the same time.

    It’s important to remind patients to take the Day 2 oral dose the following day—2 tablets total. The injection is viscous, so providers should familiarize themselves with the injection technique. It is not like a typical subcutaneous injection and requires more effort to deliver. At each time point, 2 subcutaneous injections are administered in two separate quadrants. Currently approved sites include the abdomen, thigh, and upper gluteal area.

    Pharmacy Times: As new long-acting HIV prevention tools emerge, how do you see lenacapavir fitting into the broader PrEP landscape, and what role can pharmacists play in expanding equitable access?

    Shah: With every new prevention option, there’s potential to engage high-priority populations and diversify the prevention toolkit. Lenacapavir can be transformative for those who struggle with daily oral adherence, prefer less frequent injections, or have conditions that make intramuscular gluteal injections—like cabotegravir—less favorable. From the IQVIA database, we know that typical urban PrEP seekers travel 6.2 miles to reach a provider, while rural seekers travel 36 to 39 miles. Distance to a provider is a barrier. Pharmacists are uniquely positioned to expand access—especially in areas with provider shortages. Pharmacists can provide education and counseling and help patients navigate all available PrEP options, dispel misconceptions, and support informed decision-making. They can also assist with adherence through reminders, follow-ups, and refill confirmations.

    For lenacapavir, specifically, the day 2 oral loading dose requires patient follow-through, and pharmacists can support this in their workflows. Depending on regulations, pharmacists may even administer the injection. Another key role is identifying drug-drug interactions. Lenacapavir has complex interactions, particularly with CYP3A inhibitors. Pharmacists can flag these early—before the patient sees a provider. Without pharmacy support, prevention efforts will lag. I’m very supportive of expanding their role.

    Pharmacy Times: Is there anything else that you would like to add?

    Shah: As the principal investigator for the PURPOSE 2 trial, I find the data on the robust efficacy and extended dosing interval of subcutaneous lenacapavir particularly compelling. I’ve seen firsthand how participants felt empowered by the twice-yearly option. It offers protection without the daily reminder of HIV risk, and that’s transformative. This approval reinforces the expanding evidence base for long-acting regimens as critical components of our HIV prevention toolkit. I’m truly excited to see where this goes and to offer this option to patients.

    Continue Reading

  • Addressing Alzheimer’s: Speech And Smell Tests May Help To Detect Cognitive Decline

    Addressing Alzheimer’s: Speech And Smell Tests May Help To Detect Cognitive Decline

    Almost seven million Americans live with Alzheimer’s disease

    Digital tests based on speech and smell are being developed to screen for cognitive decline, researchers told the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Toronto.

    Two speech apps are already some way down the road, testing several markers including speech speed, vocabulary and rhythm in different languages to establish a baseline for testing, a session convened by the Davos Alzheimer’s Collaboration (DAC) heard.

    A third initiative using smell is also in the mix, primarily testing people’s ability to smell certain scents via inhalers.

    DAC supports an innovation ecosystem to accelerate healthcare solutions to end Alzheimer’s disease globally, and DAC-supported projects in Kenya, India, Egypt and Chile have afforded the companies access to multicultural groups to refine their innovations.

    Better screening tests are essential as an estimated three-quarters of people with Alzheimer’s are never diagnosed and, as the burden grows in the global South, tests for low-resource settings as crucial.

    TELL’s Adolfo Garcia described his company’s product as “a digital speech biomarker app” that can run on multiple platforms, based on a collection of speech tasks ranging from spontaneous to non-spontaneous tasks.

    Several speech features “are very revealing about your mental health status”, said Garcia. 

    Using speech timing metrics, for example, the app can measure “the rhythm with which people speak; the number of pauses that they make, how long those pauses are, how variable they are, how long the syllables that they produced are”, said Garcia.

    TELL has been tested in over 20 countries with over 40,000 hours of data from around 9000 participants. But Garcia describes the in-depth research with the DAC-supported researchers headed by Dr Karen Blackmon at Agha Khan University in Kenya, as  “phenomenal, instructive and fulfilling.”

    Blackmon’s team has been testing Swahili-speaking Kenyans for cognitive decline based on simple speech timing metrics, while TELL has trained a machine learning regressor with various speech metrics. 

    There has been a “moderate to strong correlation” between the results from TELL’s machine model and the real-time scores from people that Blackmon’s team has tested on “simple speech timing metrics, which are quite scalable across different languages”, Garcia noted. 

    Nicklas Linz of Ki Elements said his speech app aims to find “something that works across languages, across cultural contexts, so that we have something that is culturally fair, neutral and usable in all of these contexts”.

    His group has worked with DAC teams in Egypt, India, Kenya and Chile who speak Arabic, Hindi, English, Swahili and Spanish.

    Loss of smell and neurodegeneration

    Subhanjan Mondal of Sensify said that the idea to use olfaction (smell) as a measure for neurodegeneration “came from COVID”, where many people who contracted the virus lost their sense of smell.

    People with the ApoE e4 allele, the gene variant that increases the risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, also have an increased risk of olfactory decline.

    “There is an anatomical connection between olfaction and neurodegeneration for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s and many other neurodegenerative diseases,” said Mondal. “And there is also a genetic component, as ApoE carriers have a strong disposition to olfactory decline.”

    Sensify has developed a digital smell test, ScentAware, with smells contained in different inhalers that are QR-coded. Using an app connected to a mobile phone camera, people can conduct the smell test at home or in a clinical setting.

    “People found it easy to use, fun, and it can be done in a short time,” said Mondal.

    But there is some way to go. The field is so new that there are no common smell elements across cultures. 

    “Can this be incorporated somewhere upstream in a screening mechanism in normal individuals with higher risk factors?” Mondal asks. 

    Sensify is developing a smell test, ScentAware, to diagnose cognitive decline.

    Multicultural challenges

    “There are a lot of challenges in adapting speech tasks from multilingual contexts like Kenya,” said Aga Khan’s Blackmon.

    “But these are challenges that we’re going to have to face across as, in the Global South, multilingualism is a norm in most post-colonial settings where… major languages like English are spoken in schools but not necessarily in homes.”

    “It’s been excellent to work with TELL, Ki Elements and Sensify Aware because, in each of these partnerships, we are identifying problems and we’re proactively solving them,” said Blackmon.

    For example, an app using automatic speech recognition did not do so well when people were switching languages, she explained.

    “Although our samples may seem small, the way that we’re approaching this is to solve problems [before the app is] scaled to larger populations.”

    The end goal is to integrate the apps into health systems to enable affordable and accurate early detection.

    “These tools are friendlier. Their interfaces have been really well designed. They’re user-friendly. Tools like the olfactory Sensify Aware are fun for patients,” said Blackmon. 

    “It’s very different from a standard neuropsychological test setting that I’m used to, where people are sweating. 

    “It’s an opportunity to do it well and do it differently with input from stakeholders across the global South. We may even discover new speech features that turn out to be diagnostically relevant, like the number of times someone switches language could tell us something about early signs of dementia.”

    Societal and genetic influences

    The exposome influencing Alzheimer’s disease.

    Professor Amy Kind of the University of Wisconsin (UW) addressed how cognitive decline is influenced by both genetic and societal elements, known as the “exposome”.

    “The term was first coined in 2005, and it means the integrated compilation of physical, chemical, biological and social influences across an entire life course that influence biology,” said Kind.

    “The environmental exposures are modifiable. These are things that we can intervene upon, over and above individual-level factors, to improve health. And this construct is thought of as precision health, not just precision medicine.”

    “Individuals who live in adverse exposomes experience poor brain health, and hundreds of studies have shown this,” added Kind.

    She heads the largest study of social exposome in the United States, The Neighborhoods Study, which works with brains from people who have donated their brains to the study. 

    “We work with brain tissue, and we link it back to life-course social exposome,” said Kind.

    “Across 25 academic institutions, there are over 9,000 descendants’ brain donors in the cohort, and it allows us to link, with some certainty, the association between certain types of exposure – be that occupational, social, toxic, metabolic – to findings within the tissue.

    “Some of our newest work is focused on lead and heavy metal poisoning, because these metals accumulate in the tissue across the life course, and yet lead exposure is so common in our water supply, in the air that we breathe and in other places.”

    Kind and colleagues try to identify and mitigate the risks for people living in adverse exposomes.

    Factors influences Alzheimer’s, as identified by The Lancet

    “Are there critical windows of life course across these pathways? Perhaps all of our future for our brain health is written in our childhood, [so] gestational and early childhood effects could be profound, as we think about late life brain health.”

    Kind and colleagues have worked closely with the Inner City Milwaukee Water Works Department in order to decrease the lead line pipe infrastructure to decrease lead in the water supply. 

    Reaching the Global South 

    DAC founder George Vradenburg said one of the motives for collaboration is to link the global north and global South.

    “The majority of cases, by far, are already in the Global South, and by mid-century, it’s going to be 80% of cases of dementia are in the global South. So we have not fulfilled a patient mission if all we deal with is the top 20% of white people in the United States and Europe,” said Vradenburg.

    “DAC brings together researchers, healthcare systems, governments and funders to accelerate progress where it’s most needed,” DAC COO Drew Holzapfel told the meeting.

    It is based on three programmes – global cohort development, global clinical trials, and healthcare system preparedness – to address gaps in Alzheimer’s research and treatment.

    The cohort development programme aims to “increase the amount of research in diverse populations so that we can find better targets for drug development and associated biomarkers,” said Holzapfel.

    DAC’s global clinical trials programme aims to do clinical trials “better, faster, cheaper” around pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions for brain health in parts of the globe that have never had those types of trials, he explained.

    The third component, healthcare system preparedness, aims to prime health systems to implement the innovations. 

    “Our implementation scientists like to talk about how the time it takes for an innovation to go from availability to full clinical utilisation is about 17 years. We think that’s too long, so we’re trying to take the high-speed train and put it on high-speed tracks so that we can help patients,” said Holzapfel.

    By the end of this year, DAC will have worked in about 70 healthcare systems, implementing new tools for detection and diagnosis for about 60,000 patients.

    Image Credits: National Institutes on Aging .

    Combat the infodemic in health information and support health policy reporting from the global South. Our growing network of journalists in Africa, Asia, Geneva and New York connect the dots between regional realities and the big global debates, with evidence-based, open access news and analysis. To make a personal or organisational contribution click here on PayPal.

    Continue Reading

  • Anatomy and Complications Related to Ligation of the Left Gastric Vein During Pancreatectomy: A Systematic Literature Review

    Anatomy and Complications Related to Ligation of the Left Gastric Vein During Pancreatectomy: A Systematic Literature Review


    Continue Reading

  • Retrospective Evaluation of the Severity of Creatine Kinase Elevation

    Retrospective Evaluation of the Severity of Creatine Kinase Elevation

    Owen Hurst,1 Alicia Mastrocco,1 Jennifer Prittie,1 Ashley Hadala,2 Joel Green Weltman1

    1Emergency and Critical Care, Schwarzman Animal Medical Center, New York, NY, USA; 2Soft Tissue and Orthopedic Surgery, Schwarzman Animal Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    Correspondence: Owen Hurst, Schwarzman Animal Medical Center, 510 East 62nd Street, New York, NY, 10016, USA, Email [email protected]

    Purpose: To assess if severity of creatine kinase (CK) elevation in veterinary trauma patients is associated with overall patient morbidity (need for blood products or surgery, prolonged hospitalization) and mortality.
    Patients and Methods: Five hundred and eight-three dogs and cats experiencing trauma with an admission CK > 1000 U/L over a 15-year period were included in this study. The population was further stratified based on severity of CK elevation to include 161 dogs and 133 cats with admission CK > 5000 U/L, and 211 dogs and 78 cats with admission CK between 1000 and 5000 U/L. These groups were then compared for likelihood of trauma-associated morbidity, including increased need for blood products, surgical intervention, and/or hospitalization time. The likelihood of mortality was also compared between groups.
    Results: The need for packed red blood cell transfusion and length of hospitalization were significantly increased in traumatized dogs and cats with CK > 5000 U/L. Higher CK was not associated with increased surgical needs. Dogs with CK > 5000 U/L had significantly higher mortality rate compared to < 5000 U/L.
    Conclusion: A higher degree of CK elevation is associated with need for blood products and prolonged hospitalization in dogs and cats and higher mortality in dogs. Evaluation of the severity of CK levels on presentation, and serial evaluation of the same, may aid in the assessment of trauma severity and prognosis in veterinary trauma patients.

    Introduction

    Rhabdomyolysis, characterized by skeletal muscle dissolution and subsequent myoglobin release, can occur secondary to trauma. While myoglobinemia is pathognomonic for rhabdomyolysis, it is not always present due to the short half-life of this enzyme (two to three hours in people and five to nine minutes in dogs).1–3 Creatine kinase (CK) is a key enzyme in energy transport and utilization mechanisms, reversibly catalyzing the transfer of phosphocreatine to adenosine diphosphate in several different mammalian tissues, including skeletal muscle, heart, and brain.4 The highest concentration of CK is within skeletal muscle, and elevations commonly accompany traumatic injury.5 Therefore, CK serum activity is preferentially measured in human trauma patients, and has been studied as a marker of muscle injury and a predictor of morbidity and mortality.5–7 Increased CK activity is not specific for trauma; nontraumatic causes of high CK in people and/or animals include caval and arterial thrombosis, cardiac disease, seizures, surgical intervention, toxin exposure, polymyositis, and immune-mediated myopathies.2,3,8–11

    Perhaps, the most significant complication of rhabdomyolysis in people is the development of myoglobinuria, pigment nephropathy, and subsequent acute kidney injury (AKI). In human trauma patients, serum CK elevation is predictive of the development of AKI, and those patients with AKI are less likely to survive.6,7,12–16 While there is no specific CK value that is definitively associated with outcome in people, a serum CK level ≥5000 U/L has been widely used to evaluate increased risk of death in human trauma patients.6,17,18 The McMahon Score, which evaluates severity of illness in human rhabdomyolysis, includes CK to predict AKI, need for renal replacement therapy, and in-hospital mortality.19,20 Additional human trauma studies have shown that patients with a higher CK have higher illness severity scores (ISS) and that CK alone is an independent predictor of mortality.7,13

    Few small animal veterinary studies have evaluated CK elevations.21–24 In one study of 601 critically ill cats, traumatized cats were more likely to demonstrate severely increased serum CK activity. In this study, regardless of cause, mild CK elevations were an inaccurate predictor of outcome; however, cats with a higher serum CK (>7500 U/L) had longer hospitalization times and higher treatment costs, as well as increased mortality.24 In dogs, studies have reported CK elevations with inflammation, infectious, neurologic or cardiac disease/injury, post-operatively, and post-exercise.4,24–32

    Creatine kinase is commonly incorporated into bloodwork obtained in sick small animal patients. However, while higher CK elevations are predictive of mortality in human trauma patients, little is reported on the clinical utility of evaluating this enzyme in small animal trauma patients. The current investigation retrospectively assessed the severity of elevation of CK in small animal trauma patients. In this patient group, we also assessed for associations among the severity of CK elevation, an increased need for blood products or surgical intervention, prolonged hospitalization, and mortality.

    Materials and Methods

    The electronic medical record system was searched over a 15-year period for dogs and cats with a serum CK value ≥1000 U/L. Animals were then included if they experienced trauma. A moderate elevation (≥1000 U/L) was required for inclusion in the study to automatically exclude animals with mild, artifactual CK elevations (hemolysis, muscle penetration during blood draw) from the search. Patients were then divided into two groups based on severity of admission CK elevation: CK < 5000 U/L (range: 1000–5000 U/L) and CK ≥ 5000 U/L (range: 5000 to >120,000 U/L).

    Signalment data recorded included: gender; age; weight; and breed when available. Type (blunt versus penetrating) and cause of trauma were also recorded. Evidence of traumatic brain injury (including seizures) and the presence of a pre-existing myopathy were noted. Patient creatinine level, packed cell volume (PCV) and total solids (TS) were also recorded on admission. The administration of packed red blood cells and/or fresh frozen plasma (including volumes transfused, when available) and need for surgical treatment were documented. Patient length of stay and clinical outcome (ie, survived, died, or euthanized) were also documented.

    Given the retrospective nature of this study, all investigations and treatments were performed with owner consent. The authors confirm compliance with the journal’s ethical guidelines and adherence to best practices of veterinary care. Also due to the retrospective observational nature of this study, further ethical permission to utilize the above information was not required by the internal IUCAC committee of the Caspary Research Institute of the Schwarzman Animal Medical Center. The data utilized for this study were done so with confidentiality.

    Statistical Analysis

    All comparative statistics were run separately for feline and canine patients. Continuous variables were assessed for normality using the Shapiro–Wilk test for normality, which revealed that all continuous variables were not normally distributed. Accordingly, all descriptive statistics report medians and range rather than mean and standard deviation. Comparisons of continuous variables between groups were done with Wilcoxon rank-sum test and comparisons of discrete variables were performed by chi-square analyses. A p-value of less than 0.05 was deemed significant. Data were analyzed using Stata 15.

    Results

    Six hundred and twenty-six traumatized animals were eligible for enrollment, including 223 cats and 403 dogs. Forty-three animals did not have CK measured on admission and were excluded, leaving 583 animals (372 dogs [63.8%] and 211 cats [36.2%]) for study inclusion. One hundred and sixty-one dogs and 133 cats had a CK ≥ 5000 U/L and 211 dogs and 78 cats had CK values between 1000 and 5000. For the remainder of data analyses, groups were labeled as CKLC for dogs with a CK between 1000 and 5000 U/L, CKHC for dogs with a CK ≥ 5000 U/L, CKLF for cats with a CK between 1000 and 5000 U/L, and CKHF for cats with a CK ≥ 5000 U/L. The sample sizes, median CK and CK range for each group are listed in Table 1.

    Table 1 Creatine Kinase Values in Trauma Patients

    Patient signalment is summarized in Table 2. Common dog breeds included chihuahua (37/372), Staffordshire Terrier (33/372), and Shih Tzu (33/372). The remainder was of mixed and other purebreds. Most cats were domestic shorthairs (167/211). Blunt (versus penetrating) trauma was experienced by 84.4% (314/372) and 80.3% (169/211) of included dog and cat patients, respectively.

    Table 2 Summary of Signalments of Included Patients

    There was no difference in creatinine or PCV between higher and lower CK groups on admission for dogs or cats (Table 3). Total solid measurements were significantly lower in the high CK groups compared to the low CK groups in both dogs and cats. In dogs, median TS for CKHC versus CKLC were 6.5 g/dL (range: 3.2–10.2 g/dL) and 6.8 g/dL (range: 3.6–10.2 g/dL; p < 0.05), respectively. In cats, median TS for CKHF versus CKLF were 7 g/dL (range: 4–11g/dL) and 7.5 g/dL (range: 5–12g/dL; p < 0.01), respectively.

    Table 3 Summary of Admission Biochemical Data

    Twenty-one of 161 (13%) of CKHC dogs and 12/211 (5.7%) CKLC dogs required packed red blood cells (pRBCs) (p < 0.05) and 25/133 (18.8%) of CKHF cats and 6/78 (7.7%) of CKLF cats required pRBCs (p < 0.03). Ten of 161 (6.2%) of CKHC dogs and 15/211 (7.1%) CKLC dogs required fresh frozen plasma (FFP) (p > 0.05) and 7/133 (5.3%) of CKHF cats and 1/78 (1.3%) of CKLF cats required FFP (p > 0.05). Both dogs and cats with CK ≥ 5000 were more likely to require pRBCs than their lower CK counterparts, but there were no dog or cat group differences in the need for fresh frozen plasma. Sixty-eight of 133 (51%) cats in the CKHF group required surgery, which was significantly less than cats in the CKLF group (51/78, 65%; p < 0.05). No difference in need for surgery was seen between dog groups.

    Length of hospitalization for both dogs and cats with CK values ≥5000 U/L was significantly longer than for those with CK < 5000. Dogs in the CKHC group were hospitalized for a median of 72 hours (range: 2–672 hours) while CKLC dogs were hospitalized for a median of 49 hours (2–432 hours; p < 0.001). Cats in the CKHF group were hospitalized for a median of 66 hours (range: 4–1536 hours) versus 48 hours (range: 1–192 hours) for CKLF cats (p < 0.01). Thirty of 372 dogs (8%) and 18/211 cats (8.5%) either died or were euthanized. Twenty out of the 30 nonsurviving dogs (60.6%; p < 0.01) and 15/19 nonsurviving cats (78.9%; p > 0.05) had admission CK values ≥5000 U/L. More severe CK elevation was significantly associated with increased mortality in dogs, but there was no difference in mortality between groups in cats.

    Discussion

    Approximately 50% of the small animal trauma victims in the current study had a plasma CK ≥ 5000 U/L at the time of hospital admission. As is seen in people after a traumatic event, more severe elevations in CK in dogs were associated with a higher mortality. This association was not observed in cats. However, both cats and dogs with more severe CK elevations had longer hospitalization times and higher pRBC transfusion requirements, both representing trauma-associated morbidity in our patient cohort.

    There are several postulated mechanisms for the observed link between severe muscle tissue damage (as indicated by higher CK level) and mortality following traumatic injury.6,33–35 These mechanisms include induction of SIRS, immunoparesis, and free iron-mediated oxidative injury.19,20,35,36 Extensive tissue damage triggers production of cytokines and other inflammatory mediators.19,20,36 Damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs or alarmins) released during trauma may also lead to complement activation and non-specific immune reactions, which decrease innate immune responses (traumatic immunoparesis) and increase the risk of secondary microbial infections.19,20,37 Heme-containing proteins (like myoglobin) can release iron, which is normally tightly regulated in the body because of its pivotal role in generation of reactive oxygen species and oxidative damage. Excess free iron is linked to reduced defense mechanisms against microbial colonization and higher infection rates in traumatized people.36,38–40

    Severe muscle tissue injury and subsequent rhabdomyolysis can also negatively impact kidney function. This occurs via several mechanisms, including direct tubular damage from pigment casts, ischemia-reperfusion injury, and iron-mediated cytotoxicity.41–43 The reported incidence of AKI in people with rhabdomyolysis ranges from 13% to 40%.10,44,45 While severe elevation in CK was associated with mortality in dogs, there was no evidence of increased creatinine in traumatized dogs and cats with more severe CK elevations on presentation in this study. Future veterinary studies utilizing serial measurement of both creatinine and CK over time in hospitalized trauma patients may help elucidate an association between CK and AKI in this population.

    In human trauma, CK has been utilized as both a component of ISS and as a standalone biomarker to predict outcome. The McMahon Score is a risk-prediction tool that incorporates CK (along with serum bicarbonate, phosphate, creatinine, patient sex and age, and origin of CK elevation) to more accurately determine risk of AKI development, need for renal replacement therapy, and mortality in human rhabdomyolysis patients (the majority of whom were post-traumatic injury).15,16 And when CK was assessed independently in other human studies, both higher CK at admission, as well as more rapid rate of increase of CK during hospitalization, were linked with increased mortality rates in trauma patients.5–7,13

    Creatine kinase has been infrequently evaluated as a prognostic indicator in small animals. In 100 dogs with chronic kidney disease, elevated CK on presentation was associated with decreased survival to discharge, and in 25 dogs with parvovirus, a significant reduction in CK at 72 hours had a 95% positive predictive value for survival.25,46 In dogs with intervertebral disc disease, a lower cerebral spinal fluid CK level was associated with a 35-fold increase in the return of ambulation.47 Lastly, the previously referenced feline study found that a severely elevated CK was a negative prognostic indicator for survival.24

    Traumatized dogs and cats with more severely elevated CK (≥5000 U/L) were more likely to require pRBC transfusion than were those in the lower CK groups. Patients with more severe traumatic injury may experience increased bleeding from muscle (and other soft tissue) trauma and/or concurrent orthopedic injuries. These patients also may have more frequent blood sampling during a prolonged hospital stay, and they may receive higher crystalloid volumes leading to hemodilution. Trauma-induced coagulopathy (TIC) may also contribute to transfusion needs in veterinary trauma patients. The main two factors associated with TIC occurrence are shock severity and degree of underlying tissue damage, the latter of which could be indicated by degree of CK elevation.47 The current study did not evaluate for the presence of coagulopathy and therefore cannot comment on the presence of TIC. However, there was no difference in the need for fresh frozen plasma between CK groups. The decrease in TS observed in dogs and cats with CK ≥ 5000 in the current study is consistent with increased blood loss and/or hemodilution. Admission CK may therefore be useful to include in the arsenal of predictors of transfusion in this patient population.

    An association between higher presenting CK values and need for surgical intervention was not found. One possible explanation is that more severe CK elevations may have occurred in severe soft tissue injuries that were amenable to more conservative, medical therapies. Additionally, blunt trauma is overrepresented in the current study, which may be associated with more substantial tissue injury not necessarily surgical intervention. Lastly, those patients with elevated CK requiring surgery may not have survived to surgical intervention. Further investigation is warranted to evaluate the degree of CK elevation and factors influencing the decision to pursue surgical intervention.

    This study has various limitations, starting with its retrospective, observational nature which prevented us from addressing most of the confounding factors that can affect CK. Another major limitation was the lack of evaluation of serial blood parameters, including CK and creatinine. Serial CK measurements to evaluate trends in trauma patients may aid in the utility of this parameter as a prognostic tool. Concurrent serial creatinine measurements may improve ability to identify AKI in veterinary trauma patients with severe muscle injury. Lastly, based on the limitations of the electronic medical record system and the retrospective nature of the study, a trauma population with a normal CK could not be identified for comparison. Future, prospective studies are needed to further evaluate CK as a prognostic tool in veterinary trauma patients.

    Conclusion

    In dog and cat trauma patients, degree of CK elevation is associated with a longer hospitalization period and higher transfusion needs. Additionally, in dogs with traumatic injury, a more severe elevation in CK is associated with higher mortality compared to less severe elevations in CK. Though further investigation into the prognostic value of CK in cats is necessary, given the findings of the current study, measurement of admission CK levels in small animal trauma victims seems prudent. The findings of this preliminary study suggest that the degree of CK elevation may aid in assessing the degree of tissue injury, transfusion requirements, length of hospital stay, and outcome in veterinary trauma patients.

    Disclosure

    The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

    References

    1. Huerta-Alardín AL, Varon J, Marik PE. Bench-to-bedside review: rhabdomyolysis–an overview for clinicians. Critical Care. 2004;9:1–12. doi:10.1186/cc2978

    2. Keltz E, Khan FY, Mann G. Rhabdomyolysis. The role of diagnostic and prognostic factors. Muscles Ligaments Tendons J. 2013;3(4):303–312. doi:10.32098/mltj.04.2013.11

    3. Klocke FJ, Copley DP, Krawczyk JA, Reichlin M. Rapid renal clearance of immunoreactive canine plasma myoglobin. Circulation. 1982;65(7):1522–1528. doi:10.1161/01.CIR.65.7.1522

    4. Aktas M, Auguste D, Lefebvre HP, Toutain PL, Braun JP. Creatine kinase in the dog: a review. Vet Res Commun. 1993;17(5):353–369. doi:10.1007/BF01839386

    5. Byerly S, Benjamin E, Biswas S, et al. Peak creatinine kinase level is a key adjunct in the evaluation of critically ill trauma patients. Am J Surg. 2017;214(2):201–206. doi:10.1016/j.amjsurg.2016.11.034

    6. Assanangkornchai N, Akaraborworn O, Kongkamol C, Kaewsaengrueang K. Characteristics of creatine kinase elevation in trauma patients and predictors of acute kidney injury. J Acute Med. 2017;7(2):54–60. doi:10.6705/j.jacme.2017.0702.002

    7. de Meijer AR, Fikkers BG, de Keijzer MH, van Engelen BG, Drenth JP. Serum creatine kinase as predictor of clinical course in rhabdomyolysis: a 5-year intensive care survey. Intensive Care Med. 2003;29(7):1121–1125. doi:10.1007/s00134-003-1800-5

    8. Betrosian A, Thireos E, Kofinas G, Balla M, Papanikolaou M, Georgiadis G. Bacterial sepsis-induced rhabdomyolysis. Intensive Care Med. 1999;25(5):469–474. doi:10.1007/s001340050882

    9. Coco TJ, Klasner AE. Drug-induced rhabdomyolysis. Curr Opin Pediatr. 2004;16(2):206–210. doi:10.1097/00008480-200404000-00017

    10. Melli G, Chaudhry V, Cornblath DR. Rhabdomyolysis: an evaluation of 475 hospitalized patients. Medicine. 2005;84(6):377–385. doi:10.1097/01.md.0000188565.48918.41

    11. Neumann S. Creatine kinase activity in dogs and cats with metabolic diseases. 2005.

    12. Shelton GD. Rhabdomyolysis, myoglobinuria, and necrotizing myopathies. Vet Clin. 2004;34(6):1469–1482.

    13. Giles T, King K, Meakes S, Weaver N, Balogh ZJ. Traumatic rhabdomyolysis: rare but morbid, potentially lethal, and inconsistently monitored. Eur J Trauma Emerg Surg. 2024;50(3):1063–1071. doi:10.1007/s00068-023-02420-8

    14. Harrois A, Soyer B, Gauss T, et al. Prevalence and risk factors for acute kidney injury among trauma patients: a multicenter cohort study. Critical Care. 2018;22(1):1–10. doi:10.1186/s13054-018-2265-9

    15. McMahon GM, Zeng X, Waikar SS. A risk prediction score for kidney failure or mortality in rhabdomyolysis. JAMA Intern Med. 2013;173(19):1821–1827. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.9774

    16. Simpson JP, Taylor A, Sudhan N, Menon DK, Lavinio A. Rhabdomyolysis and acute kidney injury: creatine kinase as a prognostic marker and validation of the McMahon Score in a 10-year cohort: a retrospective observational evaluation. Eur J Anaesthesiol. 2016;33(12):906–912. doi:10.1097/EJA.0000000000000490

    17. Brown CV, Rhee P, Chan L, Evans K, Demetriades D, Velmahos GC. Preventing renal failure in patients with rhabdomyolysis: do bicarbonate and mannitol make a difference? J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2004;56(6):1191–1196. doi:10.1097/01.TA.0000130761.78627.10

    18. Plurad D, Brown C, Chan L, Demetriades D, Rhee P. Emergency department hypotension is not an independent risk factor for post-traumatic acute renal dysfunction. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2006;61(5):1120–1128. doi:10.1097/01.ta.0000244737.54032.98

    19. Lord JM, Midwinter MJ, Chen YF, et al. The systemic immune response to trauma: an overview of pathophysiology and treatment. Lancet. 2014;384(9952):1455–1465. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(14)60687-5

    20. Wessling-Resnick M. Iron homeostasis and the inflammatory response. Annu Rev Nutr. 2010;30:105–122. doi:10.1146/annurev.nutr.012809.104804

    21. Armenise A, Boysen R, Rudloff E, Neri L, Spattini G, Storti E. Veterinary‐focused assessment with sonography for trauma‐airway, breathing, circulation, disability and exposure: a prospective observational study in 64 canine trauma patients. J Small Anim Pract. 2019;60(3):173–182. doi:10.1111/jsap.12968

    22. Chik C, Hayes GM, Menard J. Development of a veterinary trauma score (VetCOT) in canine trauma patients with performance evaluation and comparison to the animal trauma triage score: a VetCOT registry study. J Vet Emerg Crit Care. 2021;31(6):708–717. doi:10.1111/vec.13135

    23. Hernon T, Gurney M, Gibson S. A retrospective study of feline trauma patients admitted to a referral centre. J Small Anim Pract. 2018;59(4):243–247. doi:10.1111/jsap.12815

    24. Aroch I, Keidar I, Himelstein A, Schechter M, Shamir MH, Segev G. Diagnostic and prognostic value of serum creatine-kinase activity in ill cats: a retrospective study of 601 cases. J Feline Med Surg. 2010;12(6):466–475. doi:10.1016/j.jfms.2010.01.010

    25. Eregowda CG, De UK, Singh M, et al. Assessment of certain biomarkers for predicting survival in response to treatment in dogs naturally infected with canine parvovirus. Microb Pathog. 2020;149:104485. doi:10.1016/j.micpath.2020.104485

    26. Aktas M, Auguste D, Concordet D, et al. Creatine kinase in dog plasma: preanalytical factors of variation, reference values and diagnostic significance. Res Vet Sci. 1994;56(1):30–36. doi:10.1016/0034-5288(94)90192-9

    27. Zapryanova D, Hristov T, Georgieva T. Creatine kinase activity in dogs with experimentally induced acute inflammation. J BioSci Biotechnol. 2013;2(1):1.

    28. Nevill B, Leisewitz A, Goddard A, Thompson P. An evaluation of changes over time in serum creatine kinase activity and C-reactive protein concentration in dogs undergoing hemilaminectomy or ovariohysterectomy. J S Afr Vet Assoc. 2010;81(1):22–26. doi:10.4102/jsava.v81i1.90

    29. Hjelms E, Hansen BF, Waldorff S, Steiness E. Evaluation of increased serum creatine kinase as an indicator of irreversible myocardial damage in dogs. Scand J Thoracic Cardiovasc Surg. 1987;21(2):165–168. doi:10.3109/14017438709106516

    30. Graeber GM, O’NeillJF, Wolf RE, Wukich DK, Cafferty PJ, Harmon JW. Elevated levels of peripheral serum creatine phosphokinase with strangulated small bowel obstruction. Arch Surg. 1983;118(7):837–840. doi:10.1001/archsurg.1983.01390070045009

    31. Zapryanova D, Mircheva T, Lalev D. Creatine kinase activity in dogs with experimentally induced Staphylococcus aureus infection. Days of Vet Med. 2012;2012:44–7.

    32. Paltrinieri S, Pintore L, Balducci F, Giordano A, Costabile A, Bernardini M. Serum creatine kinase isoenzymes and macroenzymes in dogs with different neurologic diseases. Vet Clin Pathol. 2017;46(1):91–99. doi:10.1111/vcp.12443

    33. Vasquez CR, DiSanto T, Reilly JP, et al. Relationship of body mass index, serum creatine kinase, and acute kidney injury after severe trauma. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2020;89(1):179–185. doi:10.1097/TA.0000000000002714

    34. Wilson IJ, Burchell RK, Worth AJ, et al. Kinetics of plasma cell-free DNA and creatine kinase in a canine model of tissue injury. J Vet Intern Med. 2018;32(1):157–164. doi:10.1111/jvim.14901

    35. Goggs R, Letendre JA. High mobility group box-1 and pro-inflammatory cytokines are increased in dogs after trauma but do not predict survival. Front Vet Sci. 2018;5:179. doi:10.3389/fvets.2018.00179

    36. Giuliani KTK, Kassianos AJ, Healy H, Gois PHF. Pigment nephropathy: novel insights into inflammasome-mediated pathogenesis. Int J Mol Sci. 2019;20(8):1997–2014. doi:10.3390/ijms20081997

    37. Letendre JA, Goggs R. Concentrations of plasma nucleosomes but not cell-free DNA are prognostic in dogs following trauma. Front Vet Sci. 2018;5:180. doi:10.3389/fvets.2018.00180

    38. Talving P, Karamanos E, Skiada D, et al. Relationship of creatine kinase elevation and acute kidney injury in pediatric trauma patients. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2013;74(3):912–916. doi:10.1097/TA.0b013e318278954e

    39. Veenstra J, Smit WM, Krediet RT, Arisz L. Relationship between elevated creatine phosphokinase and the clinical spectrum of rhabdomyolysis. Nephrol Dial Transplant. 1994;9(6):637–641. doi:10.1093/ndt/9.6.637

    40. Zager RA, Gamelin LM. Pathogenetic mechanisms in experimental hemoglobinuric acute renal failure. Am J Physiol. 1989;256(3 Pt 2):. doi:10.1152/ajprenal.1989.256.3.F446.

    41. Zager RA. Rhabdomyolysis and myohemoglobinuric acute renal failure. Kidney Int. 1996;49(2):314–326. doi:10.1038/ki.1996.48

    42. Zager R. Studies of mechanisms and protective maneuvers in myoglobinuric acute renal injury. Lab investigat. 1989;60(5):619–629.

    43. Holt S, Moore K. Pathogenesis and treatment of renal dysfunction in rhabdomyolysis. Intensive Care Med. 2001;27:803–811. doi:10.1007/s001340100878

    44. Ward MM. Factors predictive of acute renal failure in rhabdomyolysis. Arch Intern Med. 1988;148(7):1553–1557. doi:10.1001/archinte.1988.00380070059015

    45. Dunaevich A, Chen H, Musseri D, et al. Acute on chronic kidney disease in dogs: etiology, clinical and clinicopathologic findings, prognostic markers, and survival. J Vet Intern Med. 2020;34(6):2507–2515. doi:10.1111/jvim.15931

    46. Witsberger TH, Levine JM, Fosgate GT, et al. Associations between cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and long-term neurologic outcome in dogs with acute intervertebral disk herniation. J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2012;240(5):555–562. doi:10.2460/javma.240.5.555

    47. Herrero Y, Jud Schefer R, Muri BM, Sigrist NE. Prevalence of acute traumatic coagulopathy in acutely traumatized dogs and association with clinical and laboratory parameters at presentation. Vet Comp Orthop Traumatol. 2021;34(3):214–222. doi:10.1055/s-0040-1721707

    Continue Reading

  • LLM Trained on Somatic Mutations Shows Prognostic and Predictive Utility

    LLM Trained on Somatic Mutations Shows Prognostic and Predictive Utility

    Large language models (LLMs) can be trained to understand how each patient’s somatic mutations impact their cancer prognosis and possible response to therapy, according to a presentation at the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

    John-William Sidhom, MD, PhD, clinical fellow in the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, developed a model that was trained on the language of cancer to be able to diagnose tumors, predict prognosis, and recommend optimal treatment regimens for each patient based on precision medicine fundamentals.

    “LLMs, or transformer models really, can learn biologically meaningful patterns from somatic mutations,” Dr. Sidhom said.

    Background and Model Development

    Currently, next-generation sequencing (NGS) reports are sometimes lacking in data, as scientists only have knowledge of a number of actionable targets in the genome, while many results are considered variants of unknown significance. Additionally, although existing targeted therapies can treat one genomic driver of cancer, each patient with these drivers may also carry other possible drivers of their disease, which may lead to different responses to the same targeted therapies. Dr. Sidhom explained that this was the gap in precision medicine that he was seeking to overcome.

    Dr. Sidhom explored the possibility of an LLM that could reason through the mutations and information received from an NGS report to predict prognosis and ultimately guide systemic therapy decisions. The model was taught to learn the meaning of different cancer-related mutations and how mutations can occur simultaneously in individual patients.

    The LLMs currently used in cancer research are trained on the reference genome but have limited clinical relevance. Dr. Sidhom suggested training models on the mutanome with somatic mutation catalogs, cancer-specific alterations, and clinical outcome data, as he believed it would be more relevant to precision oncology and have more patient-specific insights.

    The model was created with a dual-attention architecture whereby every mutation was embedded in the model in terms of its reference and alteration to understand the order of sequences, as well as a second permutation-independent transformer to understand the patient-specific implications of each mutation. The researchers also masked altered sequences to enable the model to learn the rules of metagenesis as if they were the vocabulary and syntax of cancer mutations, with a 100% masking rate.

    “This dual-attention mechanism gives you a very nice interpretable framework to understand the complex interactions between patients that drive cancer,” Dr. Sidhom said.

    Dr. Sidhom and his team first trained the model on data from The Cancer Genome Atlas with more than 3 million somatic variations across 10,224 patients and 33 cancer types. They later looked at data from the BeatAML2 dataset of 805 patients with acute myeloid leukemia, or 942 specimens, who had undergone matched multiomic profiling to understand correlations between genomic representations and responses to immunotherapies driven by polygenic genomic signals, such as mismatch repair deficiency or microsatellite instability. They applied multiple-instance learning to allow the model to learn to predict responses to each treatment.

    Model Findings

    In cancer-specific cohorts of patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas, the model showed the ability to predict prognosis of a patient’s cancer through unsupervised k-means clustering of similar prognoses that could then be translated into Kaplan-Meier survival estimates.

    Based on patterns that the model learned, the researchers were able to extract biological insights about global attention patterns and causal chains for each cancer.

    For example, focusing on colorectal cancer, the researchers found that there were many colorectal cancers with dependencies on APC mutations. The model was able to learn and represent through global attention weights the Vogelstein model showing that colorectal cancer arises from three gene mutations occurring in a certain order: TP53, then KRAS, then APC.

    Based on the BeatAML2 dataset, the model tested the ability for patients with acute myeloid leukemia to respond to a drug not yet used in leukemia, the multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor cabozantinib. The model found a canonical correlation of 0.3052 (P < .001), and showed predictive signatures based on the exome for which patients were more likely to be resistant or sensitive to this treatment, with areas under the curve of 0.70 for both resistance and sensitivity.

    “The hope is with more data and more powerful models, that this performance will improve,” Dr. Sidhom said.

    Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit aacr.org.  

    Continue Reading

  • Immune ‘bouncers’ protect the brain from infection – WashU Medicine

    Immune ‘bouncers’ protect the brain from infection – WashU Medicine

    Visit the News Hub

    Mouse study uncovers mast cells’ role as gatekeepers against pathogens

    Sara Moser

    The itching, redness and swelling of an allergic reaction are caused by mast cells — the vigilant first responders of the immune system that spring into action with histamine-filled granules in response to a perceived threat.

    Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have revealed that the same cells that cause misery for millions of allergy sufferers can help protect the brain from bacterial and viral infections. In mice, they found that so-called mast cells stand guard at tiny gates through which fluid waste leaves the brain, mounting a response when a pathogen is detected to close the gates and prevent the invaders from accessing the brain.

    The findings were published July 24 in Cell and could have important implications for preventing or treating brain infections.

    “These findings open up an entirely new avenue to developing interventions that would protect the brain from infection,” explained senior author Jonathan Kipnis, PhD, the Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Pathology & Immunology at WashU Medicine and a BJC Investigator. “We now know how mast cells shield the brain, so we can explore enhancing their function during the threat of infections.”

    Such infectious diseases include bacterial meningitis, a potentially life-threatening infection that affects the tissue layers, called meninges, that envelop the brain underneath the skull. Tiny gates within these layers create passageways that carry fluid waste out of the brain into lymphatic vessels, where immune cells monitor the fluid for signs of danger or infection. But such openings also can provide opportunities for bacteria to infiltrate.

    Kipnis’ lab had discovered the presence of lymph vessels in the mouse dura mater, the outer tissue layer enveloping the brain underneath the skull, into which brain fluid flows through tiny gates. To better understand how such fluid flow is regulated, the Kipnis lab collaborated with Felipe Almeida de Pinho Ribeiro, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at WashU Medicine who studies the neuroimmune interactions that contribute to human disease. Together with Tornike Mamuladze, MD, an immunology graduate student in Kipnis’ laboratory, they found that mice infected with Streptococcus agalactiae or S. pneumoniae, types of spherical bacteria that cause meningitis, had reduced brain fluid flow through the gates compared with healthy mice.

    They discovered that the presence of bacteria in the tissues enveloping the mouse brain activated mast cells to release histamine-containing granules that caused veins that pass through the tiny gates to dilate, or widen. By expanding into the space that brain fluid ordinarily passes through, the enlarged veins created a temporary closure that also blocked bacteria from entering and infecting the brain.

    Schematic shows mast cells release histamine in the presence of bacteria in the surrounding tissues of the brainSara Moser

    Mast cells — the brain’s gatekeepers — release histamine when bacteria infect the tissue layers enveloping the brain, shutting tiny gates to block access to the brain.

    The study found that activated mast cells also initiate a fast immune response, recruiting bacteria-engulfing immune cells called neutrophils to destroy the pathogens in the infected tissue. When mice in the study lacked mast cells, more bacteria got into the brain by passing through the tiny gates, the researchers found, whereas enhancing mast cells’ activity before an infection reduced the bacterial load.

    To see if viral pathogens were similarly blocked by mast cells, the team collaborated with Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, the Herbert S. Gasser Professor of Medicine at WashU Medicine, who is recognized internationally for his research on understanding how Zika, West Nile, chikungunya and related emerging viruses interact with and evade the body’s defenses. The researchers also detected more West Nile virus, which spreads through the bite of an infected mosquito, in the brains of infected mice without mast cells compared with infected mice with mast cells.

    “We think that enhancing mast cell function could help protect the brain from bacterial and viral infection,” said Kipnis. “But mast cell activation is a double-edged sword. Long-term activation of these cells blocks fluid movement and can potentially cause junk, such as amyloid beta, to accumulate in the brain.”

    In future work, the team aims to understand if chronic activation of mast cells could have negative implications for Alzheimer’s disease, which is characterized by an accumulation of amyloid beta.

    “Mast cells have an important role to play in the brain,” said Mamuladze, the first author on the study. “Understanding how to target their function at the gates to the brain to keep pathogens out while allowing waste to leave will be critical for optimizing brain health.”

    Mamuladze T, Zaninelli TH, Smyth LCD, Wu Y, Abramishvili D, Silva R, Imbiakha B, Verhaege D, Du S, Papadopoulos Z, Gu X, Lee D, Storck S, Perrin RJ, Smirnov I, Dong X, Song Hu, Diamond MS, Pinho-Ribeiro FA, Kipnis J. Mast cells regulate the brain-dura interface and CSF dynamics. Cell. July 24, 2025. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.046.

    This work was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health, grant numbers R01AI183879, P01AG078106 and R37AG034113 and the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund BEE consortium. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH.

    Kipnis is a co-founder of Rho Bio. Diamond is a consultant or advisor for Inbios, Moderna, IntegerBio, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline, Bavarian Nordic, and Akagera Medicines. The Diamond laboratory has received unrelated funding support in sponsored research agreements from Emergent BioSolutions, Bavarian Nordic, Moderna, and IntegerBio.

    About Washington University School of Medicine

    WashU Medicine is a global leader in academic medicine, including biomedical research, patient care and educational programs with 2,900 faculty. Its National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding portfolio is the second largest among U.S. medical schools and has grown 83% since 2016. Together with institutional investment, WashU Medicine commits well over $1 billion annually to basic and clinical research innovation and training. Its faculty practice is consistently within the top five in the country, with more than 1,900 faculty physicians practicing at 130 locations. WashU Medicine physicians exclusively staff Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals — the academic hospitals of BJC HealthCare — and treat patients at BJC’s community hospitals in our region. WashU Medicine has a storied history in MD/PhD training, recently dedicated $100 million to scholarships and curriculum renewal for its medical students, and is home to top-notch training programs in every medical subspecialty as well as physical therapy, occupational therapy, and audiology and communications sciences.

    Continue Reading