Search Results (29,526)

Background/Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate serum fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF-23) and α-Klotho levels in patients with prolactinoma and patients with non-tumoral hyperprolactinemia and to explore their discriminatory performance for prolactinoma. Methods: Seventy-three participants were included in this single-center, cross-sectional comparative study: non-tumoral hyperprolactinemia (n = 14), prolactinoma (n = 29), and healthy controls (n = 30). All patients with prolactinoma had received dopamine agonist therapy for at least six months. Serum FGF-23 and α-Klotho were measured by ELISA, and between-group comparisons, correlation analyses, linear regression analyses, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analyses were performed. Results: FGF-23 concentrations differed significantly among the groups (overall p < 0.001). Post hoc analysis showed that FGF-23 concentrations were significantly higher in the prolactinoma group [236.10 (107.70–667.90) pg/mL] than in healthy controls [138.75 (49.40–253.60) pg/mL] (adjusted p < 0.001), whereas the difference between the prolactinoma and non-tumoral hyperprolactinemia groups [166.20 (100.30–327.20) pg/mL] was not statistically significant (adjusted p = 0.075). α-Klotho concentrations were significantly higher in the prolactinoma group [2.908 (1.376–6.257) ng/mL] than in both the non-tumoral hyperprolactinemia group [2.244 (1.432–5.139) ng/mL] (adjusted p = 0.038) and healthy controls [2.204 (0.149–4.917) ng/mL] (adjusted p < 0.001). In pooled analyses, both biomarkers showed positive correlations with prolactin and weak negative correlations with hemoglobin. However, prolactin and hemoglobin were not independently associated with either biomarker after multivariable adjustment. The non-tumoral hyperprolactinemia group did not differ significantly from healthy controls for either biomarker. For distinguishing prolactinoma from non-tumoral hyperprolactinemia, the AUCs were 0.741 for FGF-23, 0.732 for α-Klotho, and 0.862 for the exploratory combined model. Conclusions: Dopamine agonist-treated prolactinoma was characterized by higher circulating FGF-23 concentrations than those in healthy controls and by higher α-Klotho concentrations than those in both healthy controls and patients with non-tumoral hyperprolactinemia. Exploratory ROC analyses suggested moderate discriminatory performance for the individual biomarkers and higher apparent performance for the combined model; however, these findings should be interpreted cautiously and require validation in larger, treatment-naïve cohorts. Full article

This study analyses the toponymic learning of students enrolled in the Degree in Primary Education programme following a didactic intervention carried out at the Universities of Extremadura and La Rioja. The research was designed as a quasi-experimental study with a pretest and posttest in non-equivalent groups and focused on eight variables related to the identification and location of provincial boundaries, provincial capitals, county seats, and counties. The main objective was to examine the development of toponymic knowledge and to analyse possible differences according to the methodology applied and the group of origin. The results show significant differences between the pretest and posttest in a relevant proportion of the variables analysed, especially in provincial boundaries, provincial capitals, and counties, whereas no significant changes were observed in county seats (i.e., the main towns or functional centres of the Spanish comarcas). In the unadjusted posttest analyses, no statistically significant differences were found between the traditional and interactive methodology; however, exploratory adjusted ANCOVA analyses suggested possible partial methodological tendencies in some specific dimensions, particularly in the identification of counties, although these results should be interpreted cautiously because not all ANCOVA assumptions were met. Likewise, the correlations between identification and location were very high in both phases. Overall, the findings suggest that toponymic tasks based on identification and location can support basic dimensions of territorial literacy in initial teacher education, although they should not be interpreted as a comprehensive assessment of spatial thinking as a whole. Full article

Background: Work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WRMSDs) are highly prevalent among construction workers. Ergonomics training and exercise are both used for their management, but the incremental benefit of adding exercise to ergonomics training in this population is unclear. Our aim was to evaluate whether adding a supervised exercise programme to ergonomics training provides additional benefit over ergonomics training alone in construction workers with WRMSDs. Methods: In this single-centre, two-arm randomized controlled trial, 52 male construction workers with musculoskeletal complaints were allocated to an ergonomics training plus exercise group (n = 26) or an ergonomics training alone group (active comparator, n = 26) for 12 weeks. The primary outcome was pain intensity (Visual Analogue Scale—VAS); secondary outcomes were musculoskeletal symptom burden (Extended Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire, NMQ-E), fatigue (Fatigue Severity Scale—FSS), sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index—PSQI), and occupational burnout (Maslach Burnout Inventory—MBI). The pre-specified primary contrast was the baseline-adjusted between-group difference at 12 weeks (ANCOVA), with a responder analysis as a sensitivity check. Results: Both groups improved significantly from baseline in terms of pain, fatigue, sleep quality, and musculoskeletal symptom burden (all p < 0.001) and in personal accomplishment (p < 0.001); emotional exhaustion and depersonalization were unchanged in both arms. Baseline-adjusted between-group comparisons showed no statistically significant incremental effect of added exercise on pain (adjusted difference −0.34, 95% CI −0.99 to 0.32), fatigue, sleep, symptom burden, or any burnout dimension. The exercise arm showed numerically greater improvements in pain, fatigue, and symptom burden and a higher proportion achieving ≥30% pain relief (96% vs. 77%; odds ratio 7.5), but these differences did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.099). Conclusions: Over a period of 12 weeks, ergonomics training with or without added exercise was associated with significant improvements in musculoskeletal and related outcomes; however, adding exercise to ergonomics training produced no statistically significant incremental benefit. A non-significant trend toward greater pain response with added exercise warrants confirmation in larger, longer trials. Full article

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly transforming teaching, learning, research, and institutional practices in higher education, increasing the need to understand how university professionals engage with AI technologies in both functional and ethical contexts. This study examined AI adoption among sampled Generation Y (Gen Y) and Generation Z (Gen Z) higher education professionals by investigating the relationships among AI Competency Capability (AICC), AI Utilisation Behaviour (AIUB), Perceived Usability (PU), Perceived Strategic Value (PSV), AI Ethical Awareness (AIEA), AI Self-Efficacy (AISE), Responsible AI Utilisation Behaviour (RAIUB), Academic Engagement (AE), Perceived Performance Outcomes (PPO), and AI Adoption Intention (AAI). Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST) and Dual-Process Theory (DPT) were employed as complementary interpretive perspectives rather than as theories directly tested by the structural model. Data were collected from 870 higher education professionals employed at Saudi Arabian universities and analysed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), Partial Least Squares Multi-Group Analysis (PLS-MGA), and the Measurement Invariance of Composite Models (MICOM) procedure. The PLS-MGA identified statistically significant between-group differences only for the relationships between AICC and AIUB, which were numerically larger among the sampled Gen Z participants, and between AIEA and Responsible AIUB, which were numerically larger among the sampled Gen Y participants. All remaining differences represented sample-specific numerical variations rather than statistically confirmed between-group differences. Given the cross-sectional design and differences in age, career stage, institutional role, and professional experience, the findings should be interpreted as sample-specific associations rather than fixed generational characteristics. This study introduces the Gen-AI Dual Competency Alignment Framework (GADCAF) as a provisional conceptual and interpretive framework, intended to guide future research on AI competency, responsible AI utilisation, and organisational AI integration rather than as a validated theoretical model. The findings advance understanding of the complementary functional and ethical dimensions of AI adoption in higher education. Full article

Background/Objectives: Front-of-pack labelling systems such as Nutri-Score are promoted as public health tools to guide consumers towards healthier food choices. However, their capacity to accurately signal sugar content in child-targeted foods—a key determinant of dental caries risk—remains poorly characterised. This study aimed to evaluate whether Nutri-Score category reliably reflects sugar content in pre-packaged foods marketed to children, and to discuss the implications for paediatric oral health. Methods: A cross-sectional observational study analysed the nutritional labels of 100 pre-packaged foods directed at the paediatric population, all displaying a Nutri-Score label, selected from three major supermarket chains in Valencia, Spain. Products were grouped into eight predefined food categories. Sugar content (g/100 g or 100 mL), Nutri-Score category (A–E), and ordinal position of sugar in the ingredients list were recorded. Global association between Nutri-Score grade and sugar content was evaluated using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient; category-level analyses used the Kruskal–Wallis or Mann–Whitney U test as appropriate. Results: A moderate statistically significant positive correlation was found between Nutri-Score grade and sugar content across all 100 products (ρ  =  0.515, p  <  0.001). In the exploratory category-level analyses, suggestive differences were observed in biscuits (H  =  8.72, p  =  0.033), milks and milk drinks (H  =  9.02, p  =  0.029), and desserts (H  =  8.31, p  =  0.016); none of these p-values survived Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons (adjusted α  =  0.006). Notably, some products rated A and B contained high sugar levels: one A-rated breakfast cereal reached 22.4 g/100 g, and the highest B-rated product (a flavoured milk drink) contained 22.1 g/100 g. No significant association was detected in cereals, breads, dairy products, juices, or frozen foods. Conclusions: Nutri-Score demonstrated limited discriminatory ability to identify high-sugar child-targeted foods consistently across food categories. These findings support recommending that paediatric dental practitioners advise caregivers to evaluate sugar content and ingredients lists beyond front-of-pack grading. Further regulatory refinement of the algorithm to specifically weight added sugar exposure in child-targeted products may be warranted. Full article

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 can distinguish the cultivable bacterial profile of CRSwNP patients from that of controls remains unclear. Methods: In this single-center observational pilot study, middle-meatus swabs from 30 patients with CRSwNP and 30 controls were cultured on four media, and isolates were identified with the VITEK 2 system. For each species, presence or absence per subject was compared between groups using Fisher’s exact test with Benjamini–Hochberg correction for multiple comparisons; the number of cultivable species per subject was compared with the Mann–Whitney test. Results: The two groups were comparable in age and sex. Patients yielded more cultivable bacterial species per subject than controls (mean 4.4 vs. 2.9; Mann–Whitney p < 0.001). Several species were numerically more frequent in patients (e.g., Staphylococcus hominis, S. lugdunensis) and others in controls (e.g., S. epidermidis, S. aureus), but no individual species difference remained significant after correction. Conclusions: Using routine culture, CRSwNP was characterized chiefly by a higher number of cultivable bacterial species, whereas individual species differences were not statistically robust. These hypothesis-generating findings warrant confirmation in larger, sequencing-based studies. Full article

Background. Five-a-side soccer for the blind (F5) is a Paralympic sport that has been the subject of research aimed at identifying variables that influence performance. However, despite its growing popularity, there is limited scientific literature on quantitative analyses of offensive performance in this sport. Objective. To analyze 164 offensive plays by the Argentine men’s national team during the 2022 International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) Copa América to determine the spatiotemporal progression and the decline in intra-match offensive performance. Materials and Methods. Each play was reconstructed with its progression vector, its finishing zone, and its absolute game minute. Multivariate logistic regression models and weighted trend analysis (Cochran–Armitage) were applied to examine the relationship between these variables and the offensive outcome (shot on-target and goal). Results. Plays originating from high-pressure recovery showed a favorable trend toward shooting on-target. The goal rate showed an empirical decline from 26.1% in the 6th–10th minutes to 6.7% in the final minutes, without reaching statistical significance. Conclusions. The results of this study suggest that the magnitude of the offensive progression vector and offensive effectiveness show an asymmetry toward the right side, as well as a pattern consistent with an intra-match decline toward the end of games. These variables appear to influence the offensive performance of the Argentine men’s national blind football (F5) in the 2022 Copa América. These findings provide one of the first integrated vector analyses of offensive performance in F5 and propose metrics applicable to coaching staff, the design of specific training programs, and the functional assessment of athletes with visual impairments; therefore, further studies are needed to analyze these metrics in different official competitions and to account for various competitive levels. It is recommended to design training exercises focused on recovery under high pressure near the right side of the offensive zone and maintain the intensity of play in the final minutes of the game. Full article

Cementitious sand and gravel (CSG) is commonly used in construction engineering; however, its mix proportion design is complex, and traditional physical experiments face limitations such as long cycles, high costs, and susceptibility to external factors when obtaining high-quality sample data. In this study, a foundational dataset was first acquired through physical experiments: 100 sets of CSG specimens with different mix proportions (cement content 40, 50, 60, 70 kg/m³; water-to-binder ratio 1.0, 1.2, 1.4; sand ratio 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4; fly ash content 20, 30, 40, 50 kg/m³) were prepared. After 28 days of standard curing, compressive strength and splitting tensile strength tests were conducted using a WAW-1000 electro-hydraulic servo universal testing machine, yielding 100 sets of real mechanical property data. The coefficients of variation for all test groups were below 10%, confirming the reliability and repeatability of the experimental data. On this basis, a data augmentation method based on Conditional Tabular Generative Adversarial Networks (CTGAN) is proposed. Through adversarial training between the generator and the discriminator, the model learns the multi-dimensional distribution characteristics of the original CSG data and generates 100 synthetic samples, which are then merged with the original data to expand the dataset to 200 samples. The quality of the synthetic data is evaluated using Wasserstein distance and correlation matrix heatmaps. Furthermore, a hybrid XGBoost–LSTM prediction model is proposed—XGBoost is used for feature construction to capture nonlinear interactions among mix proportion variables, and the constructed features are then fed into an LSTM network for sequential learning and regression prediction. The results show that the CTGAN-generated data are highly consistent with the original data in terms of kernel density distributions and variable correlations, with Wasserstein distance significantly superior to four comparative methods: Bootstrap, SMOTE, GaussianCopula, and TVAE. After augmentation, the XGBoost–LSTM model achieves a coefficient of determination (R²) of 0.9897 for compressive strength prediction (vs. 0.9793 before augmentation) and 0.9801 for splitting tensile strength (vs. 0.9882 before augmentation, a slight decrease). The mean absolute percentage errors (MAPE) are 4.49% and 4.11%, and the root mean square errors (RMSE) are 0.201 and 0.049, respectively; both error metrics are reduced compared with those before augmentation. Compared with baseline models including XGBoost, LSTM, Random Forest (RF), and Support Vector Regression (SVR), the XGBoost–LSTM model exhibits the best performance across all evaluation metrics, and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests confirm that the performance differences are statistically significant (p < 0.05). The proposed method of CTGAN-based data augmentation combined with the XGBoost-LSTM hybrid model provides an effective solution to the problem of insufficient CSG sample data and offers a reference for data enhancement and performance prediction of other small-sample materials. Full article

Background/Objectives: Increasing physical activity is important for reducing cardiometabolic risk. However, evidence on the effects of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) in physically inactive individuals, including those with extremely sedentary behavior, remains inconsistent. We evaluated the effects of HIIT on body composition and cardiometabolic outcomes compared with a non-exercise control (CON) and moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT). Methods: PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, the Cochrane Library, Ovid-hosted resources, and ClinicalTrials.gov were searched through 8 July 2026. The protocol was registered (PROSPERO CRD420251230848). Random-effects models were used. Risk of bias, evidence certainty, and robustness were assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias 2 (RoB 2) tool, Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE), and leave-one-out analyses, respectively. Results: Twenty-four randomized trials involving 877 participants were analyzed. A conservative study-level summary classified all studies as having at least some concerns, including five at high risk of bias. Compared with CON, HIIT reduced body weight (weighted mean difference [WMD] = −1.60 kg), systolic blood pressure (WMD = −2.85 mmHg), diastolic blood pressure (WMD = −6.57 mmHg), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (WMD = −0.29 mmol/L), and total cholesterol (WMD = −0.42 mmol/L), and increased maximal oxygen uptake (VO₂max; WMD = 7.72 mL/kg/min). Compared with MICT, most outcomes showed no statistically significant differences, but HIIT produced a greater VO₂max increase (WMD = 3.72 mL/kg/min). Several findings were sensitive to individual-study removal, and certainty of evidence was low or very low. No serious adverse events were reported in 11 studies; attendance or adherence was generally high in 15 studies, despite incomplete reporting and supervised interventions. Conclusions: HIIT may improve selected body composition and cardiometabolic outcomes, with VO₂max showing a relatively consistent direction of effect. However, the certainty of evidence for most outcomes was low or very low; therefore, these findings should be interpreted with caution. Current evidence is insufficient to establish equivalence to MICT or identify an optimal HIIT protocol. Larger, longer-term, high-quality trials using objective measures of sedentary behavior are needed, particularly in extremely sedentary populations. Full article

Background/Objectives: Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are essential drivers of food fermentation, yet systematic metabolic comparisons across different LAB strains remain underexplored. This study characterized and contrasted the metabolic fingerprints of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum and Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus in vegetable fermentation and subsequently evaluated whether the same untargeted metabolomics pipeline could be applied to rapid foodborne pathogen detection. Methods: A multi-platform untargeted metabolomics strategy integrating GC-MS and UPLC-Q-TOF-MS was applied to profile four experimental conditions: non-fermented control, L. plantarum monoculture, L. rhamnosus monoculture, and mixed-culture fermentation. Multivariate statistical tools (PCA and PLS-DA) were used to identify differential metabolites and perturbed pathways. The identical analytical workflow was then applied to beef samples artificially contaminated with Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella enterica, or Listeria monocytogenes. Results: Across all samples, 847 metabolites were annotated, of which 312 showed significant abundance changes upon fermentation. PLS-DA delivered robust group discrimination (R²X = 0.89, R²Y = 0.95, Q² = 0.91). Organic acids (32.0%) and amino acids (24.0%) dominated the metabolic landscape, with lactic acid, acetic acid, diacetyl, and acetoin as the most elevated compounds. KEGG analysis highlighted glycolysis/gluconeogenesis, pyruvate metabolism, and branched-chain amino acid degradation as the most heavily rewired pathways. When the same pipeline was applied to pathogen detection, it yielded AUC values of 0.89, 0.87, and 0.88 for E. coli O157:H7, S. enterica, and L. monocytogenes, respectively, with detection times of 18 h, 24 h, and 30 h. Conclusions: This work delivers a side-by-side metabolic atlas of two prominent LAB species and demonstrates the technical portability of an untargeted metabolomics pipeline from a fermentation model system to a pathogen detection scenario. The identified biomarker panels warrant further validation in diverse food matrices, and translation to routine monitoring will require matrix-specific model training and validation. Full article

Occlusal pits and fissures remain the most vulnerable tooth surfaces for caries initiation, and selecting a sealant that seals these areas reliably is a clinically meaningful question. We investigated the internal adaptation of four pit and fissure sealants—two resin-based and two glass ionomer-based—applied to permanent premolar teeth. Forty extracted premolars were randomly assigned to four groups (n = 10): Group 1, BeautiSealant (BS); Group 2, 3M Clinpro Sealant; Group 3, GC Fuji IX without surface coating; and Group 4, GC Fuji IX with G-Coat Plus. Following 15,000 thermal cycles, internal adaptation was assessed by X-ray microtomography (micro-CT) using silver nitrate as a tracer. No statistically significant difference was found in the overall mean gap volumes between groups (p = 0.774). The 3M™ Clinpro™ Sealant group exhibited the lowest mean gap value (3.45 ± 1.71), followed by BeautiSealant (3.89 ± 1.34) and GC Fuji IX GP^® with G-Coat Plus™ (4.93 ± 4.09), whereas the GC Fuji IX GP^® without coating group showed the highest mean value (5.56 ± 5.35). Resin-based sealants achieved better fissure penetration and marginal adaptation than the glass ionomer formulations tested, though the differences did not reach statistical significance under the conditions of this study. Full article

Movement-based and physical activity programs are central tools in autism intervention, so recognizing the activities a child performs during therapy is valuable for objective progress tracking. Manual monitoring of these sessions is time-consuming and subjective, and raw videos raise privacy concerns because it shows identifiable children. We address autism therapeutic activity recognition from privacy-preserving 2D skeletons, and we focus on the practical difficulty of how several therapeutic activities differ only in subtle motion details. As a backbone, we adopt ProtoGCN, a graph convolutional network that represents each action as a combination of learnable motion prototypes. However, this contrastive backbone organizes all classes at once, so it does not enforce a margin between the few pairs that remain entangled after training. We therefore introduce a Refine–Confusable (RC) module, a training-only regularizer that pushes apart the empirically most-confused class pairs using a hinge-margin loss over momentum-updated class centroids. The module changes neither the backbone nor the inference cost. On the MMASD dataset, restricted to the ten-class 2D-skeleton configuration, the RC module improves the base model across random, session-independent, and subject-independent evaluation. The gain is largest on the strictest subject-independent split and a clip-level analysis confirms that this improvement is statistically significant. Under the protocol-matched holdout, the method reaches 96.30% accuracy with 0.959 macro-F1, surpassing recent 2D-skeleton baselines while keeping a lightweight and privacy-preserving modality. The improvements are modest, as expected on a small clinical dataset, and t-SNE and prototype visualizations show that the learned representation is discriminative and interpretable. Full article

Non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) enables practical brain-state monitoring for applications such as emotion recognition and event-related potential (ERP)-based deception detection. However, robust EEG classification remains challenging because of noise, non-stationarity, limited labeled data, and substantial inter-subject variability. In this work, we present a sensor-density-aware framework that applies different deep architectures to low- and high-channel EEG acquisition settings and augments the training data using a physiologically constrained signal-level procedure. For the 5-channel LieWaves dataset, the CNN–Transformer achieved $97.14\pm 1.36\%$ subject-dependent accuracy with augmentation, compared with $92.91\pm 4.34\%$ without augmentation. For the 62-channel SEED dataset, the Inception CNN achieved $98.52\pm 0.79\%$ with augmentation and $98.44\pm 0.83\%$ without augmentation. The improvement on LieWaves was statistically significant, whereas the small improvement on SEED was not statistically significant. Under subject-independent evaluation, performance was $57.83\pm 8.96\%$ on LieWaves with augmentation and $57.95\pm 8.38\%$ on SEED. These results demonstrate strong subject-dependent performance while confirming that cross-subject generalization remains challenging. Overall, the proposed framework combines sensor-density-aware architecture selection with signal-level augmentation and provides a systematic comparison of subject-dependent and subject-independent EEG classification. Full article

Background/Objectives: Displaced femoral neck fractures in older adults are associated with substantial morbidity, loss of functional independence, and reduced quality of life. Although total hip arthroplasty (THA) and hemiarthroplasty (HA) are widely used surgical options and have been extensively compared, differences in postoperative functional recovery in routine clinical practice continue to be investigated. This study aimed to compare postoperative functional outcomes between THA and HA in elderly patients with femoral neck fractures during postoperative follow-up. Methods: This prospective cohort study included 100 patients aged 70–85 years treated surgically for displaced femoral neck fractures from 1 May to 1 December 2024. Patients underwent THA (n = 57) or HA (n = 43). Functional recovery was evaluated using the Barthel Index (BI) and modified Harris Hip Score (mHHS) at 3 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months postoperatively. Changes in functional outcomes during follow-up were analyzed using repeated-measures general linear models adjusted for age, body mass index (BMI), and educational level. Exploratory binary postoperative outcomes were analyzed using logistic regression. Results: Patients treated with THA demonstrated significantly better postoperative functional outcomes compared with HA throughout follow-up. In both unadjusted and adjusted analyses, THA patients achieved consistently higher BI and mHHS scores across repeated postoperative assessments, including at 6 months postoperatively. Independent outdoor walking at 3 months postoperatively differed significantly between groups in the unadjusted analysis, although this association did not remain statistically significant after adjustment. In adjusted analyses, patients in the HA group demonstrated significantly higher odds of movement-related hip pain at 6 months postoperatively. Conclusions: THA was associated with significantly better postoperative functional outcomes compared with HA in elderly patients with femoral neck fractures. These findings highlight the importance of considering functional recovery outcomes, in addition to traditional surgical outcomes, when selecting arthroplasty strategies in geriatric hip fracture management. Given the observational study design, these findings should be interpreted as associations rather than evidence of a causal treatment effect. Full article

Background and Objectives: The effect of suture material on clinical outcomes in cervical cerclage remains debated. This pilot study compared two braided polyester suture materials with different manufacturing characteristics (Mersilene^® and Uniester^®) in terms of obstetric outcomes and operative characteristics. Methods: Twenty-two pregnant women who underwent McDonald cerclage at a single center between January 2024 and December 2025 were retrospectively analyzed. Cases were divided into Mersilene^® (n = 11) and Uniester^® (n = 11) groups and compared regarding demographic characteristics, maternal complications, gestational age at delivery, neonatal outcomes, and operative time. Risk factors for preterm birth were assessed using multivariable logistic and linear regression analyses. Results: No significant differences were observed between groups in demographic, maternal, or neonatal outcomes. Median gestational age at delivery was 34.8 vs. 35.1 weeks (p = 1.00). Operative time was shorter in the Uniester^® group, although the difference did not reach statistical significance (21.1 vs. 24.4 min; mean difference 3.3 min, 95% CI: −1.5 to 8.1; p = 0.17). Multivariable analysis identified multiple pregnancy as the only independent predictor of preterm birth (OR = 12.5, 95% CI: 1.292–120.96, p = 0.029). Conclusions: The findings of this pilot study indicate that no statistically significant differences in obstetric or neonatal outcomes were observed between the two suture materials; given the limited sample size, this should not be interpreted as evidence of equivalence. The primary determinants of pregnancy prognosis were biological parameters, primarily multiple pregnancy, rather than suture material; preoperative cervical length showed only a non-significant trend toward association. The reportedly favorable handling characteristics and the non-significantly shorter operative time associated with Uniester^® may suggest a potential, though unconfirmed, technical advantage in terms of operative efficiency, particularly in time-sensitive or high-risk procedural contexts. Larger prospective multicenter studies are warranted to confirm these findings and to further evaluate whether differences in suture structure translate into clinically meaningful benefits. Full article