Project description:BackgroundDelays between breast cancer diagnosis and surgery are associated with worsened survival. Delays are more common in urban-residing patients, although factors specific to surgical delays among rural and urban patients are not well understood.MethodsWe used a 100% sample of fee-for-service Medicare claims during 2007-2014 to identify 238,491 women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer undergoing initial surgery and assessed whether they experienced biopsy-to-surgery intervals > 90 days. We employed multilevel regression to identify associations between delays and patient, regional, and surgeon characteristics, both in combined analyses and stratified by rurality of patient residence.ResultsDelays were more prevalent among urban patients (2.5%) than rural patients (1.9%). Rural patients with medium- or high-volume surgeons had lower odds of delay than patients with low-volume surgeons (odds ratio [OR] = 0.71, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.58-0.88; OR = 0.74, 95% CI = 0.61-0.90). Rural patients whose surgeon operated at ≥ 3 hospitals were more likely to experience delays (OR = 1.29, 95% CI = 1.01-1.64, Ref: 1 hospital). Patient driving times ≥ 1 h were associated with delays among urban patients only. Age, black race, Hispanic ethnicity, multimorbidity, and academic/specialty hospital status were associated with delays.ConclusionsSociodemographic, geographic, surgeon, and facility factors have distinct associations with > 90-day delays to initial breast cancer surgery. Interventions to improve timeliness of breast cancer surgery may have disparate impacts on vulnerable populations by rural-urban status.
Project description:BackgroundIdiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a rare life-threating interstitial lung disease (ILD). This study characterizes demographics, health care utilization, and comorbidities among elderly IPF patients and estimates prevalence and incidence rates for selected outcomes.MethodsCohort study using a large US health insurance database (Optum's Medicare Advantage plan).Inclusion criteria? 1 diagnosis code for IPF (2008 - 2014), age ?65 years, no diagnosis of IPF or other ILD in prior 12 months. Demographics, health care utilization, comorbidities and incidence rates for various outcomes were estimated. Follow-up continued until the earliest of: health plan disenrollment, death, a claim for another known cause of ILD, or end of the study period.Results4,716 patients were eligible; 53.4% had IPF diagnostic testing. Median age was 77.5 years, 50.3% were male, median follow-up time was 0.8 years. Incidence rates ranged from 1.0/1,000 person-years (lung transplantation) to 374.3/1,000 person-years (arterial hypertension). Baseline characteristics and incidence rates were similar for cohorts of patients with and without IPF diagnostic testing.ConclusionsElderly IPF patients experience a variety of comorbidities before and after IPF diagnosis. Therapies for IPF and for the associated comorbidities may reduce morbidity and associated health care utilization of these patients.
Project description:BACKGROUND:The soluble receptor for advanced glycation end-products (sRAGE) has been suggested that it acts as a decoy for capturing advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) and inhibits the activation of the oxidative stress and apoptotic pathways. Lung AGEs/sRAGE is increased in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The objective of the study was to evaluate the AGEs and sRAGE levels in serum as a potential biomarker in IPF. METHODS:Serum samples were collected from adult patients: 62 IPF, 22 chronic hypersensitivity pneumonitis (cHP), 20 fibrotic non-specific interstitial pneumonia (fNSIP); and 12 healthy controls. In addition, 23 IPF patients were re-evaluated after 3-year follow-up period. Epidemiological and clinical features were recorded: age, sex, smoking habits, and lung function. AGEs and sRAGE were evaluated by ELISA, and the results were correlated with pulmonary functional test values. RESULTS:IPF and cHP groups presented a significant increase of AGE/sRAGE serum concentration compared with fNSIP patients. Moreover, an inverse correlation between AGEs and sRAGE levels were found in IPF, and serum sRAGE at diagnosis correlated with FVC and DLCO values. Additionally, changes in serum AGEs and sRAGE correlated with % change of FVC, DLCO and TLC during the follow-up. sRAGE levels below 428.25 pg/ml evolved poor survival rates. CONCLUSIONS:These findings demonstrate that the increase of AGE/sRAGE ratio is higher in IPF, although the levels were close to cHP. AGE/sRAGE increase correlates with respiratory functional progression. Furthermore, the concentration of sRAGE in blood stream at diagnosis and follow-up could be considered as a potential prognostic biomarker.
Project description:Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a disease related to AT2 cell. We used flow cytometry to analyze the epithelial component of donor and IPF lungs. From the live cells, we first excluded the CD31PosCD45Pos and then selected the EPCAMPos cells for further analysis using the human AT2 cell marker HTll-280 and the surface marker PD-L1. Our data indicate that, the bona fide differentiated AT2 cells (HTll-280High PD-L1Neg), were drastically reduced in the context of IPF. More interestingly, the number of HTll-280Low/Neg PD-L1High was drastically increased, suggesting that HTll-280Low PD-L1High epithelial cells could represent a pool of progenitors linked to the deficient AT2 lineage. The aim of this experiment is further characterization of AT2 and PDL1+ cells in donor and IPF.
Project description:Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive type of interstitial pneumonia with unknown causes, poor prognosis and no effective therapy available. Circular RNAs (circRNAs), which serve as potential therapeutic targets and diagnostic biomarkers for certain diseases, represent a recent hotspot in the field of RNA research. In the present study, a total of 67 significantly dysregulated circRNAs were identified in the plasma of IPF patients by using a circRNA microarray. Among these circRNAs, 38 were upregulated, whereas 29 were downregulated. Further validation of the results by polymerase chain reaction analysis indicated that Homo sapiens (hsa)_circRNA_100906, hsa_circRNA_102100 and hsa_circRNA_102348 were significantly upregulated, whereas hsa_circRNA_101225, hsa_circRNA_104780 and hsa_circRNA_101242 were downregulated in plasma samples of IPF patients compared with those in samples from healthy controls. The majority of differentially expressed circRNAs were generated from exonic regions. The host genes of the differentially expressed circRNAs were involved in the regulation of the cell cycle, adherens junctions and RNA transport. The competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA) network of the circRNAs/micro(mi)RNAs/mRNAs indicated that circRNA?protected mRNA participated in transforming growth factor??1, hypoxia?inducible factor?1, Wnt, Janus kinase, Rho?associated protein kinase, vascular endothelial growth factor, mitogen?activated protein kinase, Hedgehog and nuclear factor ?B signalling pathways or functioned as biomarkers for pulmonary fibrosis. Furthermore, luciferase reporter assays confirmed that hsa_circRNA_100906 and hsa_circRNA_102348 directly interact with miR?324?5p and miR?630, respectively, which were downregulated in IPF patients. The present study provided a novel avenue for exploring the underlying molecular mechanisms of IPF disease.
Project description:BACKGROUND:Peripheral blood biomarkers might improve diagnostic accuracy for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). RESULTS:Gene expression profiles were obtained from 89 patients with IPF and 26 normal controls. Samples were stratified according to severity of disease based on pulmonary function. The stratified dataset was split into subsets; two-thirds of the samples were selected to comprise the training set, while one-third was reserved for the validation set. Bayesian probit regression was used on the training set to develop a gene expression model for IPF versus normal. The gene expression model was tested by using it on the validation set to perform class prediction. Unsupervised clustering failed to discriminate between samples of different severity. Therefore, samples of all severities were included in the training and validation sets, in equal proportions. A gene signature model was developed from the training set. The model was built in an iterative fashion with the number of gene features selected to minimize the misclassification error in cross validation. The final model was based on the top 108 discriminating genes in the training set. The signature was successfully applied to the validation set, ROC area under the curve = 0.893, p < 0.0001. Using the optimal threshold (0.74) accurate class predictions were made for 77% of the test cases with sensitivity = 0.70, specificity = 1.00. CONCLUSIONS:By using Bayesian probit regression to develop a model, we show that it is entirely possible to make a diagnosis of IPF from the peripheral blood with gene signatures.
Project description:The presence of rare comorbidities in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD) presents a diagnostic challenge to cardiologists. In evaluating these patients, cardiologists are faced with a unique opportunity to shorten diagnosis times and direct patients towards correct treatment pathways. Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a type of interstitial lung disease (ILD), is an example of a rare disease where patients frequently demonstrate comorbid CVD. Both CVD and IPF most commonly affect a similar patient demographic: men over the age of 60 years with a history of smoking. Moreover, IPF and heart failure (HF) share a number of symptoms. As a result, patients with IPF can be misdiagnosed with HF and vice versa. This article aims to increase awareness of IPF among cardiologists, providing an overview for cardiologists on the differential diagnosis of IPF from HF, and describing the signs and symptoms that would warrant referral to a pulmonologist with expertise in ILD. Once patients with IPF have received a diagnosis, cardiologists can have an important role in managing patients who are candidates for a lung transplant or those who develop pulmonary hypertension (PH). Group 3 PH is one of the most common cardiovascular complications diagnosed in patients with IPF, its prevalence varying between reports but most often cited as between 30% and 50%. This review summarizes the current knowledge on Group 3 PH in IPF, discusses data from clinical trials assessing treatments for Group 1 PH in patients with IPF, and highlights that treatment guidelines recommend against these therapies in IPF. Finally, this article provides the cardiologist with an overview on the use of the two approved treatments for IPF, the antifibrotics pirfenidone and nintedanib, in patients with IPF and CVD comorbidities. Conversely, the impact of treatments for CVD comorbidities on patients with IPF is also discussed.Funding: F. Hoffmann-La Roche, Ltd.Plain Language Summary: Plain language summary available for this article.
Project description:The aim of the current study is to find plasma-based biomarker candidates for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). Incidence of IPF seems to be increasing in Europe and there is significant mortality associated with IPF. There are no sensistive biomarkers for IPF and diagnosis is entirely clinical and/or histopathological which is often delayed. Minimally invasive biomarkers of IPF would be expected to aid clinicians perfrom early diagnosis of IPF enabling better management of the disease.
Project description:Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic, progressive and highly lethal lung disease with unknown etiology and poor prognosis.
Project description:Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fibrosing interstitial lung disease associated with aging that is characterized by the histopathological pattern of usual interstitial pneumonia. Although an understanding of the pathogenesis of IPF is incomplete, recent advances delineating specific clinical and pathologic features of IPF have led to better definition of the molecular pathways that are pathologically activated in the disease. In this review we highlight several of these advances, with a focus on genetic predisposition to IPF and how genetic changes, which occur primarily in epithelial cells, lead to activation of profibrotic pathways in epithelial cells. We then discuss the pathologic changes within IPF fibroblasts and the extracellular matrix, and we conclude with a summary of how these profibrotic pathways may be interrelated.