2026 July - 42 articles
Background: Bacteria colonizing the nasal cavity contribute to mucosal homeostasis, and altered sinonasal bacterial communities have been associated with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP). Whether routine, culture-based microbiology c...
Background: Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) remain a major preventable challenge in healthcare systems worldwide. Nursing students play a key role in infection prevention during clinical training; therefore, adequate education in hand hygiene...
Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurodegenerative and chronic inflammatory disease, often associated with psychiatric comorbidities, particularly depression and anxiety, which play a major role in disability, cognitive dysfunction, and quali...
Background: Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair (TEER) is a therapeutic option established for older patients with heart failure and concomitant mitral regurgitation. Frailty is associated with prognosis after transcatheter valve interventions. However...
Background: The human microbiota plays a crucial role in maintaining physiological homeostasis and influencing the development of chronic diseases not only in the gut but in the whole body. Material and Methods: This literature review is based on a c...
Hemophilia is an X-linked inherited bleeding disorder, classified as type A or type B. Therapeutic advances offer new treatment options that improve disease control and reduce associated complications, including inhibitor development and hemophilic a...
Background: Nutritional abnormalities, alterations in body composition, and impaired muscle function are increasingly recognized as clinically relevant features in patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). However, the relationship between mu...
Background: Chest radiography remains one of the most widely used imaging modalities for the detection of thoracic abnormalities, including pneumothorax and pulmonary masses. However, the frequency with which these findings are identified may vary ac...
Background/Objectives: COVID-19 has triggered a global health crisis with sequelae extending beyond the acute phase of infection. Long COVID-19 is characterized by the persistence or new onset of symptoms weeks to months after the initial infection,...
Background/Objectives: Depression ranks among the most prevalent mental health disorders worldwide. Numerous studies have linked the C-1019G (rs6295) polymorphism in the serotonin 1A (5-HT1A) receptor gene to increased susceptibility to depression. I...
Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly disrupted healthcare, prompting adaptations in oncological practices. This systematic review evaluates the pandemic’s impact on the management of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) of the head and nec...
Background/Objectives: Human T-cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) is an oncogenic retrovirus that infects an estimated 5–10 million people worldwide. In Gabon, despite a high seroprevalence (7.3–8.7%), documented cases of associated...
Background: Knee osteoarthritis (KOA) affects over 300 million people globally, yet current therapies face limitations in efficacy and safety. Chitosan, a natural polysaccharide, has shown conflicting evidence in KOA management. This systematic revie...
Background: Lipedema is a chronic disorder that predominantly affects women and is characterized by abnormal subcutaneous adipose tissue accumulation, pain, and vascular dysfunction. However, reliable circulating biomarkers that reflect disease-speci...
Background: Food insecurity (FI), which is defined as limited or uncertain access to sufficient, nutritious food, disproportionately affects low-income populations and has been linked to poor control of chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes mell...
Background: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) carries a dismal prognosis, and KRAS and TP53 mutational status is increasingly recognized as both prognostic and therapeutically actionable. Because next-generation sequencing has long turnaround t...
Background: Positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) influences respiratory mechanics, ventilation distribution, and lung aeration. However, comparative responses to incremental PEEP among healthy individuals, cigarette smokers, electronic cigarette u...
Background/Objectives: We aim to determine whether prior cataract surgery affects the intraocular pressure (IOP)-lowering effect of selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) in patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). Methods: This prospective i...
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a genetically and biologically heterogeneous hematologic neoplasm that arises from the clonal transformation of hematopoietic progenitor cells. AML cells undergo extensive metabolic reprogramming to sustain proliferati...
Background: Vitamin D is a key regulator of skeletal homeostasis, and hypovitaminosis D is highly prevalent among postmenopausal women, who are at increased risk of osteoporosis, sarcopenia, and related complications. Accurate assessment of serum 25-...
Background: Traditional cardiovascular risk models often overlook “residual risk” driven by psychopathological factors. This study investigates the exploratory prognostic baseline associations of Type D personality (TDP) and specific symp...
Background: Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is the leading cause of chronic liver disease (CLD) globally and is closely linked to metabolic risk factors and systemic inflammation. Emerging evidence suggests that vitam...
Background: While pediatric obesity prevalence is rising, the association between ICD-coded obesity, healthcare resource utilization, and inpatient outcomes in middle-income countries remains poorly quantified. This study examined inpatient diagnosti...
Background: Respiratory failure (RF) is a frequently fatal complication of chronic liver disease (CLD), yet population-level data on RF-related mortality trends among adults with CLD are lacking. This study characterized temporal trends and demograph...
Background/Objectives: The coccidian protozoan Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is among the most prevalent zoonotic parasites worldwide. Nitric oxide (NO) production by macrophages is considered a critical microbicidal mechanism against various intrace...
Background: Constipation in children often presents with non-specific symptoms, which can complicate its recognition in the pediatric emergency department (PED). Aim: This study aimed to characterize the clinical presentations, diagnostic context and...
Background: The fight against HIV in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is hindered by systemic challenges; notably, limited access to HIV viral load (VL) testing. Achieving VL suppression is the primary global target for eliminating HIV as a pub...
Cancer and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) represent two of the leading causes of death worldwide. Increasingly, these two are being recognized as biologically related conditions rather than entirely segregated disease states. In addit...
In recent years, numerous countries have recorded a steady increase in opioid use. Although prescribing practices vary considerably among them, fentanyl is among the most frequently prescribed strong opioids in several European countries and in Spain...
Background: Osteoporosis is increasingly understood as a complex population health condition shaped by interacting behavioral, metabolic, pharmacological, and healthcare system determinants rather than isolated skeletal risk factors. However, compara...
Background and Aims: To develop an inclusive, predictive framework for hepatocellular carcinoma patients, beyond what the Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer (BCLC) staging system captures alone, non-invasive scores have emerged as potential contributors....
Background/Objectives: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain the leading cause of mortality worldwide. Individuals with hypertension (HTN) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) are at particularly high risk; however, awareness of cardiovascular risk wi...
Background/Objectives: Metastatic prostate cancer is increasing in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. This study presents a multimodal treatment protocol incorporating radiotherapy to primary and metastatic sites, guided by PSMA PET/CT, combined...
Background/Objectives: Reducing corticosteroid exposure has become an important objective in the management of chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV), given the dose-related toxicity of dexamethasone (DEX). This prospective phase III randomi...
Background: Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines have emerged as a versatile platform beyond SARS-CoV-2, with expanding applications in infectious diseases and oncology. However, comprehensive evidence synthesis of non-SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines remains limit...
Background: Influenza infections have reached an approximate number of one billion cases annually in the general population. Hospitalization due to this infection is associated with high morbidity, and a proportion of hospitalized children may requir...
Background: Cardiovascular (CV) risk estimation is usually based on the assessment of classic risk factors and the extent of coronary artery stenosis. However, a substantial rate of acute coronary syndromes (ACS) and sudden cardiac deaths (SCD) is ob...
Background: A complex interplay between viral activity and host immune responses drives the progression of liver fibrosis in chronic hepatitis B. The T helper 17 (Th17) immune pathway, which produces the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-17A (IL-...
Background: Recovery after major head-and-neck reconstruction extends beyond flap survival and wound closure, involving swallowing, psychological adaptation, body image, and overall quality of life. Integrated multidimensional assessments remain limi...
Background/Objectives: Functional vulnerability may identify older adults hospitalized with Crohn’s disease flares who are at increased risk for adverse outcomes, but its prognostic significance in this setting remains incompletely defined. We...
The respiratory system is directly exposed to various environmental factors, and specifically allergens and environmental pollutants, which are ligands/agonists of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) and promote chronic lung diseases in humans. AhR,...
Brucellosis and tuberculosis (TB) are chronic infectious diseases of international public health importance, with developing countries being most affected. The diagnosis of brucellosis and tuberculosis co-infection remains challenging because both di...
