Articles

NG2 glia regulate brain innate immunity via TGF-β2/TGFBR2 axis

Brain innate immunity is vital for maintaining normal brain functions. Immune homeostatic imbalances play pivotal roles in the pathogenesis of neurological diseases including Parkinson’s disease (PD). However,...

Authors: Shu-zhen Zhang, Qin-qin Wang, Qiao-qiao Yang, Huan-yu Gu, Yan-qing Yin, Yan-dong Li, Jin-can Hou, Rong Chen, Qing-qing Sun, Ying-feng Sun, Gang Hu and Jia-wei Zhou

Unravelling the complex nature of resilience factors and their changes between early and later adolescence

Childhood adversity (CA) is strongly associated with mental health problems. Resilience factors (RFs) reduce mental health problems following CA. Yet, knowledge on the nature of RFs is scarce. Therefore, we ex...

Authors: J. Fritz, J. Stochl, E. I. Fried, I. M. Goodyer, C. D. van Borkulo, P. O. Wilkinson and A.-L. van Harmelen

Live birth rates and perinatal outcomes when all embryos are frozen compared with conventional fresh and frozen embryo transfer: a cohort study of 337,148 in vitro fertilisation cycles

It is not known whether segmentation of an in vitro fertilisation (IVF) cycle, with freezing of all embryos prior to transfer, increases the chance of a live birth after all embryos are transferred.

Authors: Andrew D. A. C. Smith, Kate Tilling, Deborah A. Lawlor and Scott M. Nelson

Representation of people with comorbidity and multimorbidity in clinical trials of novel drug therapies: an individual-level participant data analysis

Clinicians are less likely to prescribe guideline-recommended treatments to people with multimorbidity than to people with a single condition. Doubts as to the applicability of clinical trials of drug treatmen...

Authors: Peter Hanlon, Laurie Hannigan, Jesus Rodriguez-Perez, Colin Fischbacher, Nicky J. Welton, Sofia Dias, Frances S. Mair, Bruce Guthrie, Sarah Wild and David A. McAllister

Synthetic high-density lipoprotein nanoparticles for the treatment of Niemann–Pick diseases

Niemann–Pick disease type C is a fatal and progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the accumulation of unesterified cholesterol in late endosomes and lysosomes. We sought to develop new therape...

Authors: Mark L. Schultz, Maria V. Fawaz, Ruth D. Azaria, Todd C. Hollon, Elaine A. Liu, Thaddeus J. Kunkel, Troy A. Halseth, Kelsey L. Krus, Ran Ming, Emily E. Morin, Hayley S. McLoughlin, David D. Bushart, Henry L. Paulson, Vikram G. Shakkottai, Daniel A. Orringer, Anna S. Schwendeman…

Aspirin for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease: a meta-analysis with a particular focus on subgroups

The role of aspirin in primary prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains unclear. We aimed to investigate the benefit-risk ratio of aspirin for primary prevention of CVD with a particular focus on sub...

Authors: Georg Gelbenegger, Marek Postula, Ladislav Pecen, Sigrun Halvorsen, Maciej Lesiak, Christian Schoergenhofer, Bernd Jilma, Christian Hengstenberg and Jolanta M. Siller-Matula

Does low-density lipoprotein cholesterol induce inflammation? If so, does it matter? Current insights and future perspectives for novel therapies

Dyslipidemia and inflammation are closely interrelated contributors in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Disorders of lipid metabolism initiate an inflammatory and immune-mediated response in atherosclerosi...

Authors: Ruurt A. Jukema, Tarek A. N. Ahmed and Jean-Claude Tardif

Effect of continued folic acid supplementation beyond the first trimester of pregnancy on cognitive performance in the child: a follow-up study from a randomized controlled trial (FASSTT Offspring Trial)

Periconceptional folic acid prevents neural tube defects (NTDs), but it is uncertain whether there are benefits for offspring neurodevelopment arising from continued maternal folic acid supplementation beyond ...

Authors: Helene McNulty, Mark Rollins, Tony Cassidy, Aoife Caffrey, Barry Marshall, James Dornan, Marian McLaughlin, Breige A. McNulty, Mary Ward, J. J. Strain, Anne M. Molloy, Diane J. Lees-Murdock, Colum P. Walsh and Kristina Pentieva

Key challenges for delivering clinical impact with artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) research in healthcare is accelerating rapidly, with potential applications being demonstrated across various domains of medicine. However, there are currently limited examples of ...

Authors: Christopher J. Kelly, Alan Karthikesalingam, Mustafa Suleyman, Greg Corrado and Dominic King

Interventions to prevent, delay or reverse frailty in older people: a journey towards clinical guidelines

Age-related frailty is a multidimensional dynamic condition associated with adverse patient outcomes and high costs for health systems. Several interventions have been proposed to tackle frailty. This correspo...

Authors: Maura Marcucci, Sarah Damanti, Federico Germini, Joao Apostolo, Elzbieta Bobrowicz-Campos, Holly Gwyther, Carol Holland, Donata Kurpas, Maria Bujnowska-Fedak, Katarzyna Szwamel, Silvina Santana, Alessandro Nobili, Barbara D’Avanzo and Antonio Cano

Cannabis use in first episode psychosis: what we have tried and why it hasn’t worked

Authors: Michael G. McDonell and Oladunni Oluwoye

Three myths about risk thresholds for prediction models

Clinical prediction models are useful in estimating a patient’s risk of having a certain disease or experiencing an event in the future based on their current characteristics. Defining an appropriate risk thre...

Authors: Laure Wynants, Maarten van Smeden, David J. McLernon, Dirk Timmerman, Ewout W. Steyerberg and Ben Van Calster

Socioeconomic status and stroke incidence, prevalence, mortality, and worldwide burden: an ecological analysis from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017

Socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with stroke incidence and mortality. Distribution of stroke risk factors is changing worldwide; evidence on these trends is crucial to the allocation of resources for p...

Authors: Abolfazl Avan, Hadi Digaleh, Mario Di Napoli, Saverio Stranges, Reza Behrouz, Golnaz Shojaeianbabaei, Amin Amiri, Reza Tabrizi, Naghmeh Mokhber, J. David Spence and Mahmoud Reza Azarpazhooh

Development and validation of a novel MR imaging predictor of response to induction chemotherapy in locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal cancer: a randomized controlled trial substudy (NCT01245959)

In locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LANPC) patients, variance of tumor response to induction chemotherapy (ICT) was observed. We developed and validated a novel imaging biomarker to predict wh...

Authors: Di Dong, Fan Zhang, Lian-Zhen Zhong, Meng-Jie Fang, Cheng-Long Huang, Ji-Jin Yao, Ying Sun, Jie Tian, Jun Ma and Ling-Long Tang

Adaptive trials, efficiency, and ethics

Authors: Spencer Phillips Hey

Age-treatment subgroup analyses in Cochrane intervention reviews: a meta-epidemiological study

There is growing interest in evaluating differences in healthcare interventions across routinely collected demographic characteristics. However, individual subgroup analyses in randomized controlled trials are...

Authors: Patrick Liu, John P. A. Ioannidis, Joseph S. Ross, Sanket S. Dhruva, Anita T. Luxkaranayagam, Vasilis Vasiliou and Joshua D. Wallach

Psychological primitives can make sense of biopsychosocial factor complexity in psychopathology

Many agree that the biopsychosocial contributions to psychopathology are complex, yet it is unclear how we can make sense of this complexity. One approach is to reduce this complexity to a few necessary and su...

Authors: Joseph C. Franklin

Customized versus population birth weight charts for identification of newborns at risk of long-term adverse cardio-metabolic and respiratory outcomes: a population-based prospective cohort study

Customized birth weight charts take into account physiological maternal characteristics that are known to influence fetal growth to differentiate between physiological and pathological abnormal size at birth. ...

Authors: Jan S. Erkamp, Vincent W. V. Jaddoe, Annemarie G. M. G. J. Mulders, Eric A. P. Steegers, Irwin K. M. Reiss, Liesbeth Duijts and Romy Gaillard

The VENUSS prognostic model to predict disease recurrence following surgery for non-metastatic papillary renal cell carcinoma: development and evaluation using the ASSURE prospective clinical trial cohort

The current World Health Organization classification recognises 12 major subtypes of renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Although these subtypes differ on molecular and clinical levels, they are generally managed as t...

Authors: Tobias Klatte, Kevin M. Gallagher, Luca Afferi, Alessandro Volpe, Nils Kroeger, Silvia Ribback, Alan McNeill, Antony C. P. Riddick, James N. Armitage, Tevita F. ‘Aho, Tim Eisen, Kate Fife, Axel Bex, Allan J. Pantuck and Grant D. Stewart

Comparing the prognostic value of geriatric health indicators: a population-based study

The identification of individuals at increased risk of poor health-related outcomes is a priority. Geriatric research has proposed several indicators shown to be associated with these outcomes, but a head-to-h...

Authors: Alberto Zucchelli, Davide L. Vetrano, Giulia Grande, Amaia Calderón-Larrañaga, Laura Fratiglioni, Alessandra Marengoni and Debora Rizzuto

Tracking pregnant women displacements in Sao Paulo, Brazil: a complex systems approach to regionalization through the emergence of patterns

The healthcare system can be understood as the dynamic result of the interaction of hospitals, patients, providers, and government configuring a complex network of reciprocal influences. In order to better und...

Authors: Felix Rigoli, Sergio Mascarenhas, Domingos Alves, Tiago Canelas and Geraldo Duarte

C-peptide persistence in type 1 diabetes: ‘not drowning, but waving’?

Authors: R. David Leslie and Tanwi Vartak

Response to ‘The implications of three major new trials for the effect of water, sanitation and hygiene on childhood diarrhea and stunting: a consensus statement’ by Cumming et al.

Please see related article: https://​doi.​org/​10.​1186/​s12916-019-1410-x

Authors: Megan Wilson-Jones, Kyla Smith, Dan Jones, Helen Hamilton, Leah Richardson, Alison Macintyre, Om Prasad Gautam, Erik Harvey and Henry Northover

Combining serological and contact data to derive target immunity levels for achieving and maintaining measles elimination

Vaccination has reduced the global incidence of measles to the lowest rates in history. However, local interruption of measles virus transmission requires sustained high levels of population immunity that can ...

Authors: Sebastian Funk, Jennifer K. Knapp, Emmaculate Lebo, Susan E. Reef, Alya J. Dabbagh, Katrina Kretsinger, Mark Jit, W. John Edmunds and Peter M. Strebel

Prospective analysis of circulating metabolites and breast cancer in EPIC

Metabolomics is a promising molecular tool to identify novel etiologic pathways leading to cancer. Using a targeted approach, we prospectively investigated the associations between metabolite concentrations in...

Authors: Mathilde His, Vivian Viallon, Laure Dossus, Audrey Gicquiau, David Achaintre, Augustin Scalbert, Pietro Ferrari, Isabelle Romieu, N. Charlotte Onland-Moret, Elisabete Weiderpass, Christina C. Dahm, Kim Overvad, Anja Olsen, Anne Tjønneland, Agnès Fournier, Joseph A. Rothwell…

Fifteen years of epidemiology in BMC Medicine

BMC Medicine was launched in November 2003 as an open access, open peer-reviewed general medical journal that has a broad remit to publish “outstanding and influential research in all areas of clinical practice, ...

Authors: Deborah A. Lawlor

Surveillance and monitoring of antimicrobial resistance: limitations and lessons from the GRAM project

Authors: Jesse Schnall, Arjun Rajkhowa, Kevin Ikuta, Puja Rao and Catrin E. Moore

Reducing the incidence of predictors of cardio-metabolic disease and dysglycaemia with lifestyle modification in at-risk persons – results of further analyses of DIABRISK-SL in those below 18 years of age

We have previously demonstrated in the DIABRISK-SL trial that a trimonthly pragmatic lifestyle modification (P-LSM), as compared to a 12-monthly LSM advice (C-LSM), significantly reduced the primary composite ...

Authors: Nikolaos Fountoulakis, Mahen Wijesuriya, Luigi Gnudi, Martin Gulliford and Janaka Karalliedde

The case for a universal hepatitis C vaccine to achieve hepatitis C elimination

The introduction of highly effective direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy for hepatitis C has led to calls to eliminate it as a public health threat through treatment-as-prevention. Recent studies suggest it ...

Authors: Nick Scott, David P. Wilson, Alexander J. Thompson, Eleanor Barnes, Manal El-Sayed, Adele Schwartz Benzaken, Heidi E. Drummer and Margaret E. Hellard

Vibration of effects from diverse inclusion/exclusion criteria and analytical choices: 9216 different ways to perform an indirect comparison meta-analysis

Different methodological choices such as inclusion/exclusion criteria and analytical models can yield different results and inferences when meta-analyses are performed. We explored the range of such difference...

Authors: Clément Palpacuer, Karima Hammas, Renan Duprez, Bruno Laviolle, John P. A. Ioannidis and Florian Naudet

Trends of blood pressure and heart rate in normal pregnancies: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Current reference ranges for blood pressure and heart rate throughout pregnancy have a poor evidence base.

Authors: Lise Loerup, Rebecca M. Pullon, Jacqueline Birks, Susannah Fleming, Lucy H. Mackillop, Stephen Gerry and Peter J. Watkinson

Estimating the burden of dengue and the impact of release of wMel Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes in Indonesia: a modelling study

Wolbachia-infected mosquitoes reduce dengue virus transmission, and city-wide releases in Yogyakarta city, Indonesia, are showing promising entomological results. Accurate estimates of the burden of dengue, its s...

Authors: Kathleen M. O’Reilly, Emilie Hendrickx, Dinar D. Kharisma, Nandyan N. Wilastonegoro, Lauren B. Carrington, Iqbal R. F. Elyazar, Adam J. Kucharski, Rachel Lowe, Stefan Flasche, David M. Pigott, Robert C. Reiner Jr, W. John Edmunds, Simon I. Hay, Laith Yakob, Donald S. Shepard and Oliver J. Brady

A systematic review of clinical guidelines on the management of acute, community-acquired CNS infections

The epidemiology of CNS infections in Europe is dynamic, requiring that clinicians have access to up-to-date clinical management guidelines (CMGs) to aid identification of emerging infections and for improving...

Authors: Louise Sigfrid, Chelsea Perfect, Amanda Rojek, Kajsa-Stina Longuere, Sam Lipworth, Eli Harriss, James Lee, Alex Salam, Gail Carson, Herman Goossens and Peter Horby

‘Caveat emptor’: the cautionary tale of endocarditis and the potential pitfalls of clinical coding data—an electronic health records study

Diagnostic codes from electronic health records are widely used to assess patterns of disease. Infective endocarditis is an uncommon but serious infection, with objective diagnostic criteria. Electronic health...

Authors: Nicola Fawcett, Bernadette Young, Leon Peto, T. Phuong Quan, Richard Gillott, Jianhua Wu, Chris Middlemass, Sheila Weston, Derrick W. Crook, Tim E. A. Peto, Berit Muller-Pebody, Alan P. Johnson, A. Sarah Walker and Jonathan A. T. Sandoe

A dynamic neural network model for predicting risk of Zika in real time

In 2015, the Zika virus spread from Brazil throughout the Americas, posing an unprecedented challenge to the public health community. During the epidemic, international public health officials lacked reliable ...

Authors: Mahmood Akhtar, Moritz U. G. Kraemer and Lauren M. Gardner

Gene–environment interactions and vitamin D effects on cardiovascular risk

Authors: Guido Iaccarino and Bruno Trimarco

Vitamin D and cause-specific vascular disease and mortality: a Mendelian randomisation study involving 99,012 Chinese and 106,911 European adults

Randomised control trials and genetic analyses have demonstrated that vitamin D or 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels may not play a causal role in the development of cardiovascular disease. However, it is u...

Authors: Tao Huang, Shoaib Afzal, Canqing Yu, Yu Guo, Zheng Bian, Ling Yang, Iona Y. Millwood, Robin G. Walters, Yiping Chen, Ningyu Chen, Ruqin Gao, Junshi Chen, Robert Clarke, Zhengming Chen, Christina Ellervik, Børge G. Nordestgaard…

The implications of three major new trials for the effect of water, sanitation and hygiene on childhood diarrhea and stunting: a consensus statement

Three large new trials of unprecedented scale and cost, which included novel factorial designs, have found no effect of basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) interventions on childhood stunting, and only ...

Authors: Oliver Cumming, Benjamin F. Arnold, Radu Ban, Thomas Clasen, Joanna Esteves Mills, Matthew C. Freeman, Bruce Gordon, Raymond Guiteras, Guy Howard, Paul R. Hunter, Richard B. Johnston, Amy J. Pickering, Andrew J. Prendergast, Annette Prüss-Ustün, Jan Willem Rosenboom, Dean Spears…

Dissecting genetic factors affecting phenylephrine infusion rates during anesthesia: a genome-wide association study employing EHR data

The alpha-adrenergic agonist phenylephrine is often used to treat hypotension during anesthesia. In clinical situations, low blood pressure may require prompt intervention by intravenous bolus or infusion. Dif...

Authors: Yanfei Zhang, S. Mark Poler, Jiang Li, Vida Abedi, Sarah A. Pendergrass, Marc S. Williams and Ming Ta Michael Lee

Persistent C-peptide secretion in Type 1 diabetes and its relationship to the genetic architecture of diabetes

The objective of this cross-sectional study was to explore the relationship of detectable C-peptide secretion in type 1 diabetes to clinical features and to the genetic architecture of diabetes.

Authors: Paul M. McKeigue, Athina Spiliopoulou, Stuart McGurnaghan, Marco Colombo, Luke Blackbourn, Timothy J. McDonald, Suna Onengut-Gomuscu, Stephen S. Rich, Colin N. A. Palmer, John A. McKnight, Mark W. J. Strachan, Alan W. Patrick, John Chalmers, Robert S. Lindsay, John R. Petrie, Sandeep Thekkepat…

A novel sub-epidemic modeling framework for short-term forecasting epidemic waves

Simple phenomenological growth models can be useful for estimating transmission parameters and forecasting epidemic trajectories. However, most existing phenomenological growth models only support single-peak ...

Authors: Gerardo Chowell, Amna Tariq and James M. Hyman

Guidelines for multi-model comparisons of the impact of infectious disease interventions

Despite the increasing popularity of multi-model comparison studies and their ability to inform policy recommendations, clear guidance on how to conduct multi-model comparisons is not available. Herein, we pre...

Authors: Saskia den Boon, Mark Jit, Marc Brisson, Graham Medley, Philippe Beutels, Richard White, Stefan Flasche, T. Déirdre Hollingsworth, Tini Garske, Virginia E. Pitzer, Martine Hoogendoorn, Oliver Geffen, Andrew Clark, Jane Kim and Raymond Hutubessy

New approaches for detecting cancer with circulating cell-free DNA

Authors: Clare Fiala and Eleftherios P. Diamandis

Clinical and cost-effectiveness of contingency management for cannabis use in early psychosis: the CIRCLE randomised clinical trial

Cannabis is the most commonly used illicit substance amongst people with psychosis. Continued cannabis use following the onset of psychosis is associated with poorer functional and clinical outcomes. However, ...

Authors: Luke Sheridan Rains, Louise Marston, Mark Hinton, Steven Marwaha, Thomas Craig, David Fowler, Michael King, Rumana Z. Omar, Paul McCrone, Jonathan Spencer, Joanne Taylor, Sophie Colman, Catherine Harder, Eleanor Gilbert, Amie Randhawa, Kirsty Labuschagne…

RTS,S/AS01E immunization increases antibody responses to vaccine-unrelated Plasmodium falciparum antigens associated with protection against clinical malaria in African children: a case-control study

Vaccination and naturally acquired immunity against microbial pathogens may have complex interactions that influence disease outcomes. To date, only vaccine-specific immune responses have routinely been invest...

Authors: Carlota Dobaño, Itziar Ubillos, Chenjerai Jairoce, Ben Gyan, Marta Vidal, Alfons Jiménez, Rebeca Santano, David Dosoo, Augusto J. Nhabomba, Aintzane Ayestaran, Ruth Aguilar, Nana Aba Williams, Núria Díez-Padrisa, David Lanar, Virander Chauhan, Chetan Chitnis…

Two dose levels of rabbit antithymocyte globulin as graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis in haploidentical stem cell transplantation: a multicenter randomized study

The optimal dose of rabbit antithymocyte globulin (ATG, ImtixSangstat) minimizing infections without increasing graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is unknown in T cell-replete, G-CSF-primed haploidentical hemato...

Authors: Ren Lin, Yu Wang, Fen Huang, Zhiping Fan, Shen Zhang, Ting Yang, Yajing Xu, Na Xu, Li Xuan, Jieyu Ye, Jing Sun, Xiaojun Huang and Qifa Liu

Correction to: The uncertainty with using risk prediction models for individual decision making: an exemplar cohort study examining the prediction of cardiovascular disease in English primary care

The original article [1] contained an error in the abstract. The mentioned cohort size now correctly states ‘N = 3,855,660’.

Authors: Alexander Pate, Richard Emsley, Darren M. Ashcroft, Benjamin Brown and Tjeerd van Staa

Antibiotic use and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis: a population-based case-control study

Antibiotic-induced disturbances of the human microbiota have been implicated in the development of chronic autoimmune conditions. This study aimed to assess whether antibiotic use is associated with the onset ...

Authors: Alyshah Abdul Sultan, Christian Mallen, Sara Muller, Samantha Hider, Ian Scott, Toby Helliwell and Lindsay J. Hall

Informing decision-making for universal access to quality tuberculosis diagnosis in India: an economic-epidemiological model

India and many other high-burden countries have committed to providing universal access to high-quality diagnosis and drug susceptibility testing (DST) for tuberculosis (TB), but the most cost-effective approa...

Authors: Hojoon Sohn, Parastu Kasaie, Emily Kendall, Gabriela B. Gomez, Anna Vassall, Madhukar Pai and David Dowdy

Understanding the interactions between iron supplementation, infectious disease and adverse birth outcomes is essential to guide public health recommendations

Pregnant women are highly susceptible to anaemia and iron deficiency due to the increased demands of pregnancy as well as other factors. Iron supplementation is recommended in pregnancy, yet the benefits on ne...

Authors: Freya J. I. Fowkes, Eliza Davidson, Paul A. Agius and James G. Beeson