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Patient-reported pad-count as continence rate assessment tool after artificial urinary sphincter (AUS) implantation is common. However, lack of standardized continence definition using this method results in heterogeneous published efficacy outcomes. Data on 24-h pad weight tests (PWT) after primary AUS implantation for postprostatectomy urinary incontinence (PPUI) is scarce. Our aim was to evaluate the 24-h PWT as an efficacy assessment tool and correlate it to qualitative outcomes using validated questionnaires.

This retrospective, single center, follow-up cohort study, evaluated 180 patients who underwent primary AUS implantation for PPUI from 2005 to 2018. Voiding diaries, 24-h PWT, validated patient satisfaction and quality of life (QoL) questionnaires were collected pre-operatively and at 3-6 months postactivation, using the institution’s Electronic Medical Records.

The median preoperative and postoperative 24-h PWT values were 494 (interquartile range [IQR] 304-780) and 7 (IQR 0-25) g respectively with a significant improvement in urinary leakage of 489.5 g 99.1% (p < 0.001). Median preoperative and postoperative I-QoL results increased from 33.5 (IQR 19.3-63.6) to 86.4 (IQR 73.9-94.3) points, with a significant 52.9 points improvement in QoL (p < 0.001). Similarly, the median preoperative and postoperative ICIQ-SF values decreased from 20 (IQR 17-21) to 5 (IQR 3-9) points, showing a significant improvement of 15 points (p < 0.001). We also found a significant correlation between PWT and patient satisfaction.

The 24-h PWT provides a reliable and objective assessment of continence rates, with a strong correlation to qualitative outcomes, after primary AUS implantation for PPUI. Its use could help reduce reported outcome heterogeneity across studies.

The 24-h PWT provides a reliable and objective assessment of continence rates, with a strong correlation to qualitative outcomes, after primary AUS implantation for PPUI. Its use could help reduce reported outcome heterogeneity across studies.Multitrait tests can improve power to detect associations between individual single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and several related traits. Here, we develop methods for multi-SNP transcriptome-wide association (TWAS) tests to test the association between predicted gene expression levels and multiple phenotypes. We show that the correlation in TWAS test statistics for multiple phenotypes has the same form as multitrait statistics for the single-SNP setting. SAG agonist nmr Thus, established methods for combining single-SNP test statistics across multiple traits can be extended directly to the TWAS setting. We performed an extensive evaluation across eight multitrait methods in simulations that varied gene-phenotype effect sizes in addition to the underlying covariance structure among the phenotypes. We found that all multitrait TWAS tests have well-calibrated Type I error (except ASSET, which can have a slightly elevated or depressed Type I error rate). Our results show that multitrait TWAS can improve statistical power compared with multiple single-trait TWAS followed by Bonferroni correction. To illustrate our approach to real data, we conducted a multitrait TWAS of four circulating lipid traits from the Global Lipids Genetics Consortium. We found that our multitrait Wald TWAS approach identified 506 genes associated with lipid levels compared with 87 identified through Bonferroni-corrected single-trait TWAS. Overall, we find that our proposed multitrait TWAS framework outperforms single-trait approaches to identify new genetic associations, especially for functionally correlated phenotypes and phenotypes with overlapping genome-wide association studies samples, leading to insights into the genetic architecture of multiple phenotypes.

To evaluate the efficacy and safety of fractional 1064 nm NdYAG picosecond laser combined with intense pulsed light (IPL) in the treatment of atrophic acne scar with post-inflammatory erythema (PIE). © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.

Seventeen patients received five sessions of treatment at weeks 0, 4, 8, 12, 16 and were followed up at week 28. One half of the face was randomly treated by fractional 1064 nm NdYAG picosecond laser combined with IPL (FxPico + IPL), and the other by IPL alone as a control.

For the 15 patients who completed the study, the FxPico + IPL side demonstrated significant median Échelle D’évaluation clinique des cicatrices D’acné (ECCA) score improvement (P < 0.01), while IPL alone side did not (P = 0.1250). The pore counts for both sides decreased but more pore count reduction was seen on the FxPico + IPL side (P < 0.05). Better scar improvement was observed on the FxPico + IPL-treated side (P < 0.05) while no difference in erythema improvement was seen between the two sides. There was no difference between the two treatments in terms of overall satisfaction. Pain, erythema, edema, petechiae, crusting, reactive acneiform eruptions, and pruritus were common adverse effects and were mild to moderate.

FxPico + IPL is an effective, efficient, and safe treatment regimen for atrophic acne scars complicated by PIE.

FxPico + IPL is an effective, efficient, and safe treatment regimen for atrophic acne scars complicated by PIE.Coronavirus 19 (COVID-19) has been associated with both transient and persistent systemic symptoms that do not appear to be a direct consequence of viral infection. The generation of autoantibodies has been proposed as a mechanism to explain these symptoms. To understand the prevalence of autoantibodies associated with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, we investigated the frequency and specificity of clinically relevant autoantibodies in 84 individuals previously infected with SARS-CoV-2, suffering from COVID-19 of varying severity in both the acute and convalescent setting. These were compared with results from 32 individuals who were on the intensive therapy unit (ITU) for non-COVID reasons. We demonstrate a higher frequency of autoantibodies in the COVID-19 ITU group compared with non-COVID-19 ITU disease control patients and that autoantibodies were also found in the serum 3-5 months post-COVID-19 infection. Non-COVID patients displayed a diverse pattern of autoantibodies; in contrast, the COVID-19 groups had a more restricted panel of autoantibodies including skin, skeletal muscle and cardiac antibodies.