Articles

Antibody responses to a suite of novel serological markers for malaria surveillance demonstrate strong correlation with clinical and parasitological infection across seasons and transmission settings in The Gambia

As malaria transmission declines, sensitive diagnostics are needed to evaluate interventions and monitor transmission. Serological assays measuring malaria antibody responses offer a cost-effective detection m...

Authors: Lindsey Wu, Julia Mwesigwa, Muna Affara, Mamadou Bah, Simon Correa, Tom Hall, Susheel K. Singh, James G. Beeson, Kevin K. A. Tetteh, Immo Kleinschmidt, Umberto D’Alessandro and Chris Drakeley

Arterial calcification at multiple sites: sex-specific cardiovascular risk profiles and mortality risk—the Rotterdam Study

Evidence has pointed towards differences in the burden of arteriosclerosis according to its location and sex. Yet there is a scarcity of population-based data on aggregated sex-specific cardiovascular risk pro...

Authors: Janine E. van der Toorn, Oscar L. Rueda-Ochoa, Niels van der Schaft, Meike W. Vernooij, M. Arfan Ikram, Daniel Bos and Maryam Kavousi

Association between Neu5Gc carbohydrate and serum antibodies against it provides the molecular link to cancer: French NutriNet-Santé study

High consumption of red and processed meat is commonly associated with increased cancer risk, particularly colorectal cancer. Antibodies against the red meat-derived carbohydrate N-glycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc...

Authors: Salam Bashir, Leopold K. Fezeu, Shani Leviatan Ben-Arye, Sharon Yehuda, Eliran Moshe Reuven, Fabien Szabo de Edelenyi, Imen Fellah-Hebia, Thierry Le Tourneau, Berthe Marie Imbert-Marcille, Emmanuel B. Drouet, Mathilde Touvier, Jean-Christian Roussel, Hai Yu, Xi Chen, Serge Hercberg, Emanuele Cozzi…

Decreased costs and retained QoL due to the ‘PACE Steps to Success’ intervention in LTCFs: cost-effectiveness analysis of a randomized controlled trial

The number of residents in long-term care facilities (LTCFs) in need of palliative care is growing in the Western world. Therefore, it is foreseen that significantly higher percentages of budgets will be spent...

Authors: Anne B. Wichmann, Eddy M. M. Adang, Kris C. P. Vissers, Katarzyna Szczerbińska, Marika Kylänen, Sheila Payne, Giovanni Gambassi, Bregje D. Onwuteaka-Philipsen, Tinne Smets, Lieve Van den Block, Luc Deliens, Myrra J. F. J. Vernooij-Dassen and Yvonne Engels

Non-malarial febrile illness: a systematic review of published aetiological studies and case reports from Southern Asia and South-eastern Asia, 1980–2015

In the absence of definitive diagnosis, healthcare providers are likely to prescribe empirical antibacterials to those who test negative for malaria. This problem is of critical importance in Southern Asia (SA...

Authors: Poojan Shrestha, Prabin Dahal, Chinwe Ogbonnaa-Njoku, Debashish Das, Kasia Stepniewska, Nigel V. Thomas, Heidi Hopkins, John A. Crump, David Bell, Paul N. Newton, Elizabeth A. Ashley and Philippe J. Guérin

When fever is not malaria in Latin America: a systematic review

In malaria-endemic countries, febrile episodes caused by diseases other than malaria are a growing concern. However, limited knowledge of the prevalent etiologic agents and their geographic distributions restr...

Authors: José Moreira, Janaina Barros, Oscar Lapouble, Marcus V. G. Lacerda, Ingrid Felger, Patricia Brasil, Sabine Dittrich and Andre M. Siqueira

Febrile illness mapping—much of the world without data and without evidence-based treatments

Authors: Paul N. Newton and Philippe J. Guerin

Non-malarial febrile illness: a systematic review of published aetiological studies and case reports from Africa, 1980–2015

The availability of reliable point-of-care tests for malaria has heralded a paradigm shift in the management of febrile illnesses away from presumptive antimalarial therapy. In the absence of a definitive diag...

Authors: Jeanne Elven, Prabin Dahal, Elizabeth A. Ashley, Nigel V. Thomas, Poojan Shrestha, Kasia Stepniewska, John A. Crump, Paul N. Newton, David Bell, Hugh Reyburn, Heidi Hopkins and Philippe J. Guérin

Radiation recall pneumonitis induced by PD-1/PD-L1 blockades: mechanisms and therapeutic implications

The synergistic effect of radiotherapy (RT) in combination with immunotherapy has been shown in several clinical trials and case reports. The overlapping pulmonary toxicity induced by thoracic RT and programme...

Authors: Feifei Teng, Min Li and Jinming Yu

Colon capsule endoscopy versus CT colonography in FIT-positive colorectal cancer screening subjects: a prospective randomised trial—the VICOCA study

Colon capsule endoscopy (CCE) and CT colonography (CTC) are minimally invasive techniques for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Our objective is to compare CCE and CTC for the identification of patients with ...

Authors: Begoña González-Suárez, Mario Pagés, Isis Karina Araujo, Cristina Romero, Cristina Rodríguez de Miguel, Juan Ramón Ayuso, Àngels Pozo, Maria Vila-Casadesús, Anna Serradesanferm, Àngels Ginès, Glòria Fernández-Esparrach, Maria Pellisé, María López-Cerón, David Flores, Henry Córdova, Oriol Sendino…

Increased frequency of intentional weight loss associated with reduced mortality: a prospective cohort analysis

Due to the high prevalence of obesity and the difficulty in maintaining weight loss, repeated bouts of weight loss are a common occurrence. However, there are inconsistencies in epidemiological studies regardi...

Authors: Erik A. Willis, Wen-Yi Huang, Pedro F. Saint-Maurice, Michael F. Leitzmann, Elizabeth A. Salerno, Charles E. Matthews and Sonja I. Berndt

Mitochondrial DNA copy number and incident atrial fibrillation

Mechanistic studies suggest that mitochondria DNA (mtDNA) dysfunction may be associated with increased risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). The association between mtDNA copy number (mtDNA-CN) and incident AF in ...

Authors: Di Zhao, Traci M. Bartz, Nona Sotoodehnia, Wendy S. Post, Susan R. Heckbert, Alvaro Alonso, Ryan J. Longchamps, Christina A. Castellani, Yun Soo Hong, Jerome I. Rotter, Henry J. Lin, Brian O’Rourke, Nathan Pankratz, John A. Lane, Stephanie Y. Yang, Eliseo Guallar…

The trend of caesarean birth rate changes in China after ‘universal two-child policy’ era: a population-based study in 2013–2018

The universal two-child policy in China which was announced in October 2015 might affect the caesarean birth rate. Few studies reported the caesarean birth rate affected by the policy especially after the univ...

Authors: Jie Yan, Long Wang, Ying Yang, Ya Zhang, Hongguang Zhang, Yuan He, Zuoqi Peng, Yuanyuan Wang, Qiaomei Wang, Haiping Shen, Yiping Zhang, Donghai Yan, Xu Ma and Huixia Yang

Effect and cost-effectiveness of national gastric cancer screening in Japan: a microsimulation modeling study

A national endoscopic screening program for gastric cancer was rolled out in Japan in 2015. We used a microsimulation model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of current screening guidelines and alternative sc...

Authors: Hsi-Lan Huang, Chi Yan Leung, Eiko Saito, Kota Katanoda, Chin Hur, Chung Yin Kong, Shuhei Nomura and Kenji Shibuya

Correction to: Blood transcriptomic discrimination of bacterial and viral infections in the emergency department: a multi-cohort observational validation study

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Authors: Dayle Sampson, Thomas D. Yager, Brian Fox, Laura Shallcross, Leo McHugh, Therese Seldon, Antony Rapisarda, Roslyn A. Hendriks, Richard B. Brandon, Krupa Navalkar, Nandi Simpson, Sian Stafford, Eliza Gil, Cristina Venturini, Evi Tsaliki, Jennifer Roe…

Correction to: Epigenetic tuning of brain signal entropy in emergent human social behavior

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Authors: Meghan H. Puglia, Kathleen M. Krol, Manuela Missana, Cabell L. Williams, Travis S. Lillard, James P. Morris, Jessica J. Connelly and Tobias Grossmann

Correction to: Safety of psychotropic medications in people with COVID-19: evidence review and practical recommendations

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via the original article.

Authors: Giovanni Ostuzzi, Davide Papola, Chiara Gastaldon, Georgios Schoretsanitis, Federico Bertolini, Francesco Amaddeo, Alessandro Cuomo, Robin Emsley, Andrea Fagiolini, Giuseppe Imperadore, Taishiro Kishimoto, Giulia Michencigh, Michela Nosé, Marianna Purgato, Serdar Dursun, Brendon Stubbs…

Differences in access and utilisation of mental health services in the perinatal period for women from ethnic minorities—a population-based study

Barriers to accessing mental health care during pregnancy and the first postnatal year (perinatal period) seem to be greater for ethnic minority women; however, there is no reliable large-scale data about thei...

Authors: Jelena Jankovic, Jake Parsons, Nikolina Jovanović, Giles Berrisford, Alex Copello, Qulsom Fazil and Stefan Priebe

Estimating indirect mortality impacts of armed conflict in civilian populations: panel regression analyses of 193 countries, 1990–2017

Armed conflict can indirectly affect population health through detrimental impacts on political and social institutions and destruction of infrastructure. This study aimed to quantify indirect mortality impact...

Authors: Mohammed Jawad, Thomas Hone, Eszter P. Vamos, Paul Roderick, Richard Sullivan and Christopher Millett

Treatment estimands in clinical trials of patients hospitalised for COVID-19: ensuring trials ask the right questions

When designing a clinical trial, explicitly defining the treatment estimands of interest (that which is to be estimated) can help to clarify trial objectives and ensure the questions being addressed by the trial ...

Authors: Brennan C. Kahan, Tim P. Morris, Ian R. White, Conor D. Tweed, Suzie Cro, Darren Dahly, Tra My Pham, Hanif Esmail, Abdel Babiker and James R. Carpenter

Going on up to the SPIRIT in AI: will new reporting guidelines for clinical trials of AI interventions improve their rigour?

Authors: Paul Wicks, Xiaoxuan Liu and Alastair K. Denniston

Aspirin and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorders following a cancer diagnosis: a nationwide register-based cohort study

Cancer patients have a highly increased risk of psychiatric disorders following diagnosis, compared with cancer-free individuals. Inflammation is involved in the development of both cancer and psychiatric diso...

Authors: Kejia Hu, Arvid Sjölander, Donghao Lu, Adam K. Walker, Erica K. Sloan, Katja Fall, Unnur Valdimarsdóttir, Per Hall, Karin E. Smedby and Fang Fang

Preparing for a pandemic: highlighting themes for research funding and practice—perspectives from the Global Research Collaboration for Infectious Disease Preparedness (GloPID-R)

Authors: Alice Norton, Louise Sigfrid, Adeniyi Aderoba, Naima Nasir, Peter G. Bannister, Shelui Collinson, James Lee, Geneviève Boily-Larouche, Josephine P. Golding, Evelyn Depoortere, Gail Carson, Barbara Kerstiëns and Yazdan Yazdanpanah

Measuring the availability and geographical accessibility of maternal health services across sub-Saharan Africa

With universal health coverage a key component of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, targeted monitoring is crucial for reducing inequalities in the provision of services. However, monitoring largely occu...

Authors: A. S. Wigley, N. Tejedor-Garavito, V. Alegana, A. Carioli, C. W. Ruktanonchai, C. Pezzulo, Z. Matthews, A. J. Tatem and K. Nilsen

The association between frailty and severe disease among COVID-19 patients aged over 60 years in China: a prospective cohort study

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been a pandemic worldwide. Old age and underlying illnesses are associated with poor prognosis among COVID-19 patients. However, whether frailty, a common geriatric ...

Authors: Yao Ma, Lisha Hou, Xiufang Yang, Zhixin Huang, Xue Yang, Na Zhao, Min He, Yixin Shi, Yan Kang, Jirong Yue and Chenkai Wu

How to design a pre-specified statistical analysis approach to limit p-hacking in clinical trials: the Pre-SPEC framework

Results from clinical trials can be susceptible to bias if investigators choose their analysis approach after seeing trial data, as this can allow them to perform multiple analyses and then choose the method t...

Authors: Brennan C. Kahan, Gordon Forbes and Suzie Cro

An ecological study of socioeconomic predictors in detection of COVID-19 cases across neighborhoods in New York City

New York City was the first major urban center of the COVID-19 pandemic in the USA. Cases are clustered in the city, with certain neighborhoods experiencing more cases than others. We investigate whether poten...

Authors: Richard S. Whittle and Ana Diaz-Artiles

Cost-effectiveness of a lifestyle intervention in high-risk individuals for diabetes in a low- and middle-income setting: Trial-based analysis of the Kerala Diabetes Prevention Program

Data on the cost-effectiveness of lifestyle-based diabetes prevention programs are mostly from high-income countries, which cannot be extrapolated to low- and middle-income countries. We performed a trial-based c...

Authors: Thirunavukkarasu Sathish, Brian Oldenburg, Kavumpurathu R. Thankappan, Pilvikki Absetz, Jonathan E. Shaw, Robyn J. Tapp, Paul Z. Zimmet, Sajitha Balachandran, Suman S. Shetty, Zahra Aziz and Ajay Mahal

COVID-19 length of hospital stay: a systematic review and data synthesis

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed an unprecedented strain on health systems, with rapidly increasing demand for healthcare in hospitals and intensive care units (ICUs) worldwide. As the pandemic escalates, dete...

Authors: Eleanor M. Rees, Emily S. Nightingale, Yalda Jafari, Naomi R. Waterlow, Samuel Clifford, Carl A. B. Pearson, CMMID Working Group, Thibaut Jombart, Simon R. Procter and Gwenan M. Knight

Circulating bilirubin levels and risk of colorectal cancer: serological and Mendelian randomization analyses

Bilirubin, a byproduct of hemoglobin breakdown and purported anti-oxidant, is thought to be cancer preventive. We conducted complementary serological and Mendelian randomization (MR) analyses to investigate wh...

Authors: Nazlisadat Seyed Khoei, Mazda Jenab, Neil Murphy, Barbara L. Banbury, Robert Carreras-Torres, Vivian Viallon, Tilman Kühn, Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita, Krasimira Aleksandrova, Amanda J. Cross, Elisabete Weiderpass, Magdalena Stepien, Andrew Bulmer, Anne Tjønneland, Marie-Christine Boutron-Ruault, Gianluca Severi…

Children as sentinels of tuberculosis transmission: disease mapping of programmatic data

Identifying hotspots of tuberculosis transmission can inform spatially targeted active case-finding interventions. While national tuberculosis programs maintain notification registers which represent a potenti...

Authors: Kenneth S. Gunasekera, Jon Zelner, Mercedes C. Becerra, Carmen Contreras, Molly F. Franke, Leonid Lecca, Megan B. Murray, Joshua L. Warren and Ted Cohen

Severe nausea and vomiting in pregnancy: psychiatric and cognitive problems and brain structure in children

Two studies have suggested that severe prolonged nausea and vomiting during pregnancy is associated with emotional and behavioral problems in offspring, with smaller sample size and short-term follow-up. Moreo...

Authors: Hui Wang, Edmund T. Rolls, Xiujuan Du, Jingnan Du, Dexin Yang, Jiong Li, Fei Li, Wei Cheng and Jianfeng Feng

Association of the functional ovarian reserve with serum metabolomic profiling by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy: a cross-sectional study of ~ 400 women

Women with diminished ovarian reserve are known to have increased cardiovascular risk, whether there is a continuous association between the ovarian reserve biomarkers; anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), antral fol...

Authors: Karema Al Rashid, Amy Taylor, Mary Ann Lumsden, Neil Goulding, Deborah A. Lawlor and Scott M. Nelson

The burden of laboratory-confirmed pertussis in low- and middle-income countries since the inception of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) in 1974: a systematic review and meta-analysis

An effective vaccine against Bordetella pertussis was introduced into the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) by WHO in 1974, leading to a substantial global reduction in pertussis morbidity and mortality. I...

Authors: Rudzani Muloiwa, Benjamin M. Kagina, Mark E. Engel and Gregory D. Hussey

Comparing stroke prevention therapy of direct oral anticoagulants and vitamin K antagonists in patients with atrial fibrillation: a nationwide retrospective observational study

Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are not only increasingly being used for the initial stroke prevention therapy but progressively also substitute vitamin K antagonist (VKA) treatment in patients with non-val...

Authors: Lena M. Paschke, Kerstin Klimke, Attila Altiner, Dominik von Stillfried and Maike Schulz

A novel tumor mutational burden estimation model as a predictive and prognostic biomarker in NSCLC patients

Tumor mutational burden (TMB) has both prognostic value in resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and predictive value for immunotherapy response. However, TMB evaluation by whole-exome sequencin...

Authors: Yanhua Tian, Jiachen Xu, Qian Chu, Jianchun Duan, Jianjun Zhang, Hua Bai, Zhenlin Yang, Wenfeng Fang, Liangliang Cai, Rui Wan, Kailun Fei, Jie He, Shugeng Gao, Li Zhang, Zhijie Wang and Jie Wang

Hyperthyroidism is associated with breast cancer risk and mammographic and genetic risk predictors

Despite the biological link between thyroid hormones and breast cancer cell proliferation shown in experimental studies, little is known about the association between hyperthyroidism and breast cancer, as well...

Authors: Haomin Yang, Natalie Holowko, Felix Grassmann, Mikael Eriksson, Per Hall and Kamila Czene

Association of treatments for acute myocardial infarction and survival for seven common comorbidity states: a nationwide cohort study

Comorbidity is common and has a substantial negative impact on the prognosis of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Whilst receipt of guideline-indicated treatment for AMI is associated with impro...

Authors: Mohammad E. Yadegarfar, Chris P. Gale, Tatendashe B. Dondo, Chris G. Wilkinson, Martin R. Cowie and Marlous Hall

Compassionate drug (mis)use during pandemics: lessons for COVID-19 from 2009

New emerging infections have no known treatment. Assessing potential drugs for safety and efficacy enables clinicians to make evidence-based treatment decisions and contributes to overall outbreak control. How...

Authors: Amanda M. Rojek, Genevieve E. Martin and Peter W. Horby

Insulin: too much of a good thing is bad

Insulin shares a limited physiological concentration range with other endocrine hormones. Not only too low, but also too high systemic insulin levels are detrimental for body functions.

Authors: Hubert Kolb, Kerstin Kempf, Martin Röhling and Stephan Martin

Seasonal influenza vaccination in Kenya: an economic evaluation using dynamic transmission modelling

There is substantial burden of seasonal influenza in Kenya, which led the government to consider introducing a national influenza vaccination programme. Given the cost implications of a nationwide programme, l...

Authors: Jeanette Dawa, Gideon O. Emukule, Edwine Barasa, Marc Alain Widdowson, Omu Anzala, Edwin van Leeuwen, Marc Baguelin, Sandra S. Chaves and Rosalind M. Eggo

Considerations for target oxygen saturation in COVID-19 patients: are we under-shooting?

The current target oxygen saturation range for patients with COVID-19 recommended by the National Institutes of Health is 92–96%.

Authors: Niraj Shenoy, Rebecca Luchtel and Perminder Gulani

The effect of travel restrictions on the geographical spread of COVID-19 between large cities in China: a modelling study

To contain the spread of COVID-19, a cordon sanitaire was put in place in Wuhan prior to the Lunar New Year, on 23 January 2020. We assess the efficacy of the cordon sanitaire to delay the introduction and onset ...

Authors: Billy J. Quilty, Charlie Diamond, Yang Liu, Hamish Gibbs, Timothy W. Russell, Christopher I. Jarvis, Kiesha Prem, Carl A. B. Pearson, Samuel Clifford, Stefan Flasche, Petra Klepac, Rosalind M. Eggo and Mark Jit

In utero and childhood exposure to tobacco smoke and multi-layer molecular signatures in children

The adverse health effects of early life exposure to tobacco smoking have been widely reported. In spite of this, the underlying molecular mechanisms of in utero and postnatal exposure to tobacco smoke are onl...

Authors: Marta Vives-Usano, Carles Hernandez-Ferrer, Léa Maitre, Carlos Ruiz-Arenas, Sandra Andrusaityte, Eva Borràs, Ángel Carracedo, Maribel Casas, Leda Chatzi, Muireann Coen, Xavier Estivill, Juan R. González, Regina Grazuleviciene, Kristine B. Gutzkow, Hector C. Keun, Chung-Ho E. Lau…

Deciphering serous ovarian carcinoma histopathology and platinum response by convolutional neural networks

Ovarian cancer causes 151,900 deaths per year worldwide. Treatment and prognosis are primarily determined by the histopathologic interpretation in combination with molecular diagnosis. However, the relationshi...

Authors: Kun-Hsing Yu, Vincent Hu, Feiran Wang, Ursula A. Matulonis, George L. Mutter, Jeffrey A. Golden and Isaac S. Kohane

Epigenetic tuning of brain signal entropy in emergent human social behavior

How the brain develops accurate models of the external world and generates appropriate behavioral responses is a vital question of widespread multidisciplinary interest. It is increasingly understood that brai...

Authors: Meghan H. Puglia, Kathleen M. Krol, Manuela Missana, Cabell L. Williams, Travis S. Lillard, James P. Morris, Jessica J. Connelly and Tobias Grossmann

Indirect implications of COVID-19 prevention strategies on non-communicable diseases

After its outbreak in China, the novel COronaVIrus Disease 19 is spreading across the globe. It is an emergency the world has never seen before.

Authors: Pietro A. Modesti, Jiguang Wang, Albertino Damasceno, Charles Agyemang, Luc Van Bortel, Alexandre Persu, Dong Zhao, Faical Jarraya, Ilaria Marzotti, Mohamed Bamoshmoosh, Gianfranco Parati and Aletta E. Schutte

Hepatitis C in the criminal justice system: opportunities for global action in the era of viral hepatitis elimination

Authors: Matthew J. Akiyama

High consumption of ultra-processed food may double the risk of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis: the Aragon Workers’ Health Study (AWHS)

Ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption, which is increasing worldwide, has recently been associated with an increased risk of death and cardiovascular disease. We aimed to assess whether consumption of UPF is ...

Authors: Henry Montero-Salazar, Carolina Donat-Vargas, Belén Moreno-Franco, Helena Sandoval-Insausti, Fernando Civeira, Martín Laclaustra and Pilar Guallar-Castillón

Global burden of disease due to smokeless tobacco consumption in adults: an updated analysis of data from 127 countries

Smokeless tobacco (ST) is consumed by more than 300 million people worldwide. The distribution, determinants and health risks of ST differ from that of smoking; hence, there is a need to highlight its distinct...

Authors: Kamran Siddiqi, Scheherazade Husain, Aishwarya Vidyasagaran, Anne Readshaw, Masuma Pervin Mishu and Aziz Sheikh