250 research outputs found
Predictors and Dynamics of the Humoral and Cellular Immune Response to SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccines in Hemodialysis Patients: A Multicenter Observational Study
No full textBackground Preliminary evidence suggests patients on hemodialysis have a blunted early serological response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination. Optimizing the vaccination strategy in this population requires a thorough understanding of predictors and dynamics of humoral and cellular immune responses to differentSARS-CoV-2 vaccines.Methods This prospective multicenter study of 543 patients on hemodialysis and 75 healthy volunteers evaluated the immune responses at 4 or 5 weeks and 8 or 9 weeks after administration of the BNT162b2or mRNA-1273 vaccine, respectively. We assessed antiSARS-CoV-2 spike antibodies and T cell responses by IFN-? secretion of peripheral blood lymphocytes upon SARS-CoV-2 glycoprotein stimulation (QuantiFERON assay) and evaluated potential predictors of the responses.Results Compared with healthy volunteers, patients on hemodialysis had an incomplete, delayed humoral immune response and a blunted cellular immune response. Geometric mean antibody titers at both timepoints were significantly greater in patients vaccinated with mRNA-1273 versus BNT162b2, and a larger proportion of them achieved the threshold of 4160 AU/ml, corresponding with high neutralizing antibody titers in vitro(53.6% versus 31.8% at 8 or 9 weeks, P Conclusions The mRNA-1273 vaccine's greater immunogenicity may be related to its higher mRNA dose. This suggests a high-dose vaccine might improve the impaired immune response to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients on hemodialysis.This research was supported by Amgen (DONATION-331036).
A. De Vriese and J. Van Praet designed the study; R. Caluw e, A. De Bel, A. De Vriese, P. Doubel, L. Heylen, M. Schoutteten, J. Van Praet, B. Van Vlem, and L. Viaene provided study materials or patients; D. De Bacquer, A. De Vriese, M. Reynders, and J. Van Praet analyzed the data; D. De Bacquer and J. Van Praet made the figures; A. De Vriese drafted the paper; D. De Bacquer, M. Reynders, and J. Van Praet revised it critically for important intellectual content; all authors approved the final version
of the manuscript. The authors are indebted to Tessa Acke, Manuela Caster, Evelyne Deglorie, Mirjam Demesmaecker, Suzanne Driessens, Inne Hoebrekx, Annelien Leunen, Carine Lowis, Isabel Moyaert, Danny Pauwels, Joris Penders, Melissa Renders, Carmen Reynders, Sofie Tombeur, Katrien Uyttersprot, Femke Van Den Berg, Kristel Van Varenbergh, Tine Verheyen, Manon Verhulst, and Sophie Vleeschouwers for their invaluable help in the collection of the patient data and analysis of the samples
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Spatiotemporal evolution of early innate immune responses triggered by neural stem cell grafting
No full textINTRODUCTION: Transplantation of neural stem cells (NSCs) is increasingly suggested to become part of future therapeutic approaches to improve functional outcome of various central nervous system disorders. However, recently it has become clear that only a small fraction of grafted NSCs display long-term survival in the (injured) adult mouse brain. Given the clinical invasiveness of NSC grafting into brain tissue, profound characterisation and understanding of early post-transplantation events is imperative to claim safety and efficacy of cell-based interventions.
METHODS: Here, we applied in vivo bioluminescence imaging (BLI) and post-mortem quantitative histological analysis to determine the localisation and survival of grafted NSCs at early time points post-transplantation.
RESULTS: An initial dramatic cell loss (up to 80% of grafted cells) due to apoptosis could be observed within the first 24 hours post-implantation, coinciding with a highly hypoxic NSC graft environment. Subsequently, strong spatiotemporal microglial and astroglial cell responses were initiated, which stabilised by day 5 post-implantation and remained present during the whole observation period. Moreover, the increase in astrocyte density was associated with a high degree of astroglial scarring within and surrounding the graft site. During the two-week follow up in this study, the NSC graft site underwent extensive remodelling with NSC graft survival further declining to around 1% of the initial number of grafted cells.
CONCLUSIONS: The present study quantitatively describes the early post-transplantation events following NSC grafting in the adult mouse brain and warrants that such intervention is directly associated with a high degree of cell loss, subsequently followed by strong glial cell responses
First-in-human real-time AI-assisted instrument deocclusion during augmented reality robotic surgery
No full textThe integration of Augmented Reality (AR) into daily surgical practice is withheld by the correct registration of pre-operative data. This includes intelligent 3D model superposition whilst simultaneously handling real and virtual occlusions caused by the AR overlay. Occlusions can negatively impact surgical safety and as such deteriorate rather than improve surgical care. Robotic surgery is particularly suited to tackle these integration challenges in a stepwise approach as the robotic console allows for different inputs to be displayed in parallel to the surgeon. Nevertheless, real-time de-occlusion requires extensive computational resources which further complicates clinical integration. This work tackles the problem of instrument occlusion and presents, to the authors' best knowledge, the first-in-human on edge deployment of a real-time binary segmentation pipeline during three robot-assisted surgeries: partial nephrectomy, migrated endovascular stent removal, and liver metastasectomy. To this end, a state-of-the-art real-time segmentation and 3D model pipeline was implemented and presented to the surgeon during live surgery. The pipeline allows real-time binary segmentation of 37 non-organic surgical items, which are never occluded during AR. The application features real-time manual 3D model manipulation for correct soft tissue alignment. The proposed pipeline can contribute towards surgical safety, ergonomics, and acceptance of AR in minimally invasive surgery.This works presents the first-in-human edge deployment of a real-time AI-enabled augmented reality (AR) pipeline in robotic surgery. The application uses a binary segmentation model to effectively identify over 37 classes of non-organic items in the surgical scene, and uses this information to create an overlay visualization, solving the instrument occlusion problem, and preventing the possibly hazardous situation this implies, as well as adding a sense of depth to the AR. The solution is used during three real surgeries and segmentation results, application performance as well as qualitative surgical feedback are discussed.###imag
First report of totally robotically assisted hybrid coronary artery revascularization combining RE-MIDCAB and R-PCI. Case report
No full textA 62-year-old man presents to the Cardiology Department with a history of angina on exertion. Invasive coronary angiography revealed a severe three vessels coronary artery disease. The “Hybrid Heart Team” successfully performed a fully robotically assisted hybrid revascularization combining robotically enhanced-minimally invasive direct coronary artery bypass on the left anterior descending (LAD) and robotically assisted percutaneous coronary intervention on non-LAD lesions
Nailfold capillaroscopy for day-to-day clinical use: construction of a simple scoring modality as a clinical prognostic index for digital trophic lesions
No full textObjective Construction of a simple nailfold videocapillaroscopic (NVC) scoring modality as a prognostic index for digital trophic lesions for day-to-day clinical use.
Methods An association with a single simple (semi)quantitatively scored NVC parameter, mean score of capillary loss, was explored in 71 consecutive patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc), and reliable reduction in the number of investigated fields (F32-F16-F8-F4). The cut-off value of the prognostic index (mean score of capillary loss calculated over a reduced number of fields) for present/future digital trophic lesions was selected by receiver operating curve (ROC) analysis.
Results Reduction in the number of fields for mean score of capillary loss was reliable from F32 to F8 (intraclass correlation coefficient of F16/F32: 0.97; F8/F32: 0.90). Based on ROC analysis, a prognostic index (mean score of capillary loss as calculated over F8) with a cut-off value of 1.67 is proposed. This value has a sensitivity of 72.22/70.00, specificity of 70.59/69.77, positive likelihood ratio of 2.46/2.32 and a negative likelihood ratio of 0.39/0.43 for present/future digital trophic lesions.
Conclusions A simple prognostic index for digital trophic lesions for daily use in SSc clinics is proposed, limited to the mean score of capillary loss as calculated over eight fields (8 fingers, 1 field per finger)
Towards a linguistics of news production
No full textAbstract: This position paper sketches the contours of a linguistics of news production. It is argued that, until recently, linguistic interest in the news prioritized close analysis of news products at the expense of the production process. The current paper is aimed at consolidating a number of emerging research efforts which focus on the interplay of language use and journalism, media and society. First, we spell out what can be considered news and how this conceptualization supports a case for the analysis of the news production process. Next, we look to various fields in linguistics and discourse studies to detail some of the relevant methodological frameworks that can be incorporated in a linguistics of news production. Finally, we situate our production focus within the larger media research context and suggest how it can bring added value to ongoing efforts in four related fields outside of linguistics
TIC Collaborative
No full textTIC-Collaborative was a collaborative digital humanities project that focused on transnational intellectual cooperation (TIC) in the long nineteenth century, in particular on transnational connections in the field of social reform. The dataset contains information on over 1650 international congresses and 450 organizations and conference series related to the social question. The project focussed on the Low Countries and a selection of reform areas. The data van be queried as linked data via https://druid.datalegened.net. This dataset consist of: - International organisations and congres series - Persons - Relations between persons and congresses - Congresses - Bibliographic metadata (conference proceedings) - Referenced places More information: Verbruggen, C., Deroo, F., Blomme, H., D’haeninck, T., Thiry, A., van Diem, L., Vandersmissen, J., Mestdagh, E., Billiet, B., Wolff, J., Chambers, S., De Potter, P. D., Carlier, J., Van Praet, C., Leonards, C., & Randeraad, N. (2022). Social Reform International Congresses and Organizations (1846–1914): From Sources to Data. Journal of Open Humanities Data, 8: 13, pp. 1–13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/johd.69 (2021-10-27
TIC-Collaborative
No full textTIC-Collaborative was a collaborative digital humanities project that focused on transnational intellectual cooperation (TIC) in the long nineteenth century, in particular on transnational connections in the field of social reform. The dataset contains information on over 1650 international congresses and 450 organizations and conference series related to the social question. The project focussed on the Low Countries and a selection of reform areas. The data van be queried as linked data via https://druid.datalegened.net. This dataset consist of:
- International organisations and congres series
- Persons
- Relations between persons and congresses
- Congresses
- Bibliographic metadata (conference proceedings)
- Referenced places
More information: Verbruggen, C., Deroo, F., Blomme, H., D’haeninck, T., Thiry, A., van Diem, L., Vandersmissen, J., Mestdagh, E., Billiet, B., Wolff, J., Chambers, S., De Potter, P. D., Carlier, J., Van Praet, C., Leonards, C., & Randeraad, N. (2022). Social Reform International Congresses and Organizations (1846–1914): From Sources to Data. Journal of Open Humanities Data, 8: 13, pp. 1–13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/johd.6
TIC-Collaborative
No full textTIC-Collaborative was a collaborative digital humanities project that focused on transnational intellectual cooperation (TIC) in the long nineteenth century, in particular on transnational connections in the field of social reform. The dataset contains information on over 1650 international congresses and 450 organizations and conference series related to the social question. The project focussed on the Low Countries and a selection of reform areas. The data van be queried as linked data via https://druid.datalegened.net. This dataset consist of:
- International organisations and congres series
- Persons
- Relations between persons and congresses
- Congresses
- Bibliographic metadata (conference proceedings)
- Referenced places
More information: Verbruggen, C., Deroo, F., Blomme, H., D’haeninck, T., Thiry, A., van Diem, L., Vandersmissen, J., Mestdagh, E., Billiet, B., Wolff, J., Chambers, S., De Potter, P. D., Carlier, J., Van Praet, C., Leonards, C., & Randeraad, N. (2022). Social Reform International Congresses and Organizations (1846–1914): From Sources to Data. Journal of Open Humanities Data, 8: 13, pp. 1–13. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/johd.6
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