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Background: The purpose of this study is to analyse the trends in scientific research on transmissible spongiform encephalopathies by applying bibliometric tools to the scientific literature published between 1973 and 2002. Methods: The data for the study were obtained from Medline database, in order to determine the volume of scientific output in the above period, the countries involved, the type of document and the trends in the subject matters addressed. The period 1973-2002 was divided in three sub-periods. Results: We observed a significant growth in scientific production. The percentage of increase is 871.7 from 1973 to 2002. This is more evident since 1991 and particularly in the 1996-2001 period. The countries found to have the highest output were the United States, the United Kingdom, Japan, France and Germany. The evolution in the subject matters was almost constant in the three sub-periods in which the study was divided. In the first and second sub-periods, the subject matters of greatest interest were more general, i.e Nervous system or Nervous system diseases, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, Scrapie, and Chemicals and Drugs, but in the last sub-period, some changes were observed because the Prion-related matters had the greatest presence. Collaboration among authors is small from 1973 to 1992, but increases notably in the third sub-period, and also the number of authors and clusters formed. Some of the authors, like Gajdusek or Prusiner, appear in the whole period. Conclusion: The study reveals a very high increase in scientific production. It is related also with the beginnings of research on bovine spongiform encephalopathy and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, with the establishment of progressive collaboration relationships and a reflection of public health concerns about this problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Seasonal variation in attacks of acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM 1 ) is reported in some studies. Myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG) antibodies are found in up to 50 % of ADEM cases. Despite this, there has been no adequately powered study of seasonality in MOG antibody-associated disease (MOGAD). We sought to determine whether there was an effect of season on incidence of total attacks and onset attacks of MOGAD., Methods: We searched the large national Oxford-based NMO Service database to identify attacks of MOGAD occurring between 2010 and 2021. Month of each attack was extracted and Edwards' test of seasonal variation was applied to determine whether there was a seasonal effect on total attacks and onset attacks., Results: Neither incidence of total attacks nor incidence of onset attacks varied significantly by month., Conclusion: There is no evidence of seasonal fluctuations in the incidence of MOGAD attacks in the UK., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors did not receive support from any organization for the submitted work. The authors have no competing interests to declare that are relevant to the content of this article. Dr A Francis has received travel funding from Alexion and Roche. Dr Monica Santos has received speaker fees from Biogen and Merck, served on advisory board for Merck, and received travel funding from Biogen, Novartis, Merck, Roche, Sanofi-Genzyme, Sandoz and Jannsen. Dr M Leal Rato was partly supported by a grant from the Portuguese Multiple Sclerosis Study Group (Bolsa de Apoio a Estágio em Doenças Desmielinizantes, Grupo de Estudos de Esclerose Múltipla - GEEM). Yolanda M Wintle has nothing to disclose. Dr P Brex has nothing to disclose. Dr S Cooper has nothing to disclose. Dr R Dobson received research support from Multiple Sclerosis Society UK, Horne Family Foundation, Barts Charity, Merck, Biogen and Celgene; consultancy fees from F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Novartis, Janssen and Biogen (all payments made are institutional and used to support research/educational activities); honoraria for lectures, speaking etc. from Biogen, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd, Sanofi-Genzyme, Merck, Novartis, Janssen and Teva; support for attending meetings and/or travel from Novartis, Biogen and Janssen (all payments made are institutional and used to support research/educational activities); and is part of the Association of British Neurologists MS Advisory Group and NHS England Clinical Reference Group. Dr R Geraldes received support for scientific meetings and courses from Bayer, Biogen, Merck, Novartis, Jasen and honoraria for advisory work or talks from Biogen, Novartis, UCB, MIAC Dr C Hemingway reports grant support from the MRC, MS Society and Vasculitis UK. She has served as a consultant to Novartis, Roche, UCB and Sanofi. She has participated on various IDMCs Dr S Huda has nothing to disclose. Dr Silvia Messina has received travel grants from Roche, Merck and Sanofi; has received payment or honoraria from UCB. Dr S Ramdas has served on advisory board for Novartis, Sarepta, Argenx and Roche. She has participated as Investigator in clinical trials for Sarepta, Roche, Wave, Genetx, Argenx, Inois and Santhera. She has received speaker fees for educational meetings from Novartis and Roche Professor M I Leite has has been awarded research grants from the UK Association for patients with Myasthenia (Myaware), Muscular Dystrophy Campaign (MDUK), and the University of Oxford. She has received speaker honoraria and travel grants from UCB Pharma and Horizon Therapeutics, and consultancy fees from UCB Pharma. She serves on scientific or educational advisory boards for UCB Pharma, argenx, and Horizon Therapeutics. Professor J Palace has received grants from Merck-Serono, Roche and Medimmune; served on advisory boards for UCB, Mitsubishi, Amplo Roche, Alexion, Chugai and Merck-Serono; received payment or honoraria from Alexion, Roche, Medimmune and Chugai; and has been on the steering committee of MAGNIMS, the board of the European Charcot Foundation, and is co-lead of International Women in MS: NMOSD/MOGAD. All authors made substantial contributions to the conception or design of the work and/or the acquisition and/or analysis of data. All authors reviewed the work and approved the version to be published. All authors agree to be accountable for the accuracy and integrity of the work., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Pooling data from different sources will advance mental health research by providing larger sample sizes and allowing cross-study comparisons; however, the heterogeneity in how variables are measured across studies poses a challenge to this process., Methods: This study explored the potential of using natural language processing (NLP) to harmonise different mental health questionnaires by matching individual questions based on their semantic content. Using the Sentence-BERT model, we calculated the semantic similarity (cosine index) between 741 pairs of questions from five questionnaires. Drawing on data from a representative UK sample of adults (N = 2,058), we calculated a Spearman rank correlation for each of the same pairs of items, and then estimated the correlation between the cosine values and Spearman coefficients. We also used network analysis to explore the model's ability to uncover structures within the data and metadata., Results: We found a moderate overall correlation (r = .48, p < .001) between the two indices. In a holdout sample, the cosine scores predicted the real-world correlations with a small degree of error (MAE = 0.05, MedAE = 0.04, RMSE = 0.064) suggesting the utility of NLP in identifying similar items for cross-study data pooling. Our NLP model could detect more complex patterns in our data, however it required manual rules to decide which edges to include in the network., Conclusions: This research shows that it is possible to quantify the semantic similarity between pairs of questionnaire items from their meta-data, and these similarity indices correlate with how participants would answer the same two items. This highlights the potential of NLP to facilitate cross-study data pooling in mental health research. Nevertheless, researchers are cautioned to verify the psychometric equivalence of matched items., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Purpose: This study examines the association between mental health problems in adolescence and general practice (GP) costs during adulthood up to age 50 in the UK., Methods: We conducted secondary analyses of three British birth cohorts (individuals born in single weeks in 1946, 1958 and 1970). Data for the three cohorts were analysed separately. All respondents who participated in the cohort studies were included. Adolescent mental health status was assessed in each cohort using the Rutter scale (or, for one cohort, a forerunner of that scale) completed in interviews with parents and teachers when cohort members were aged around 16. Presence and severity of conduct and emotional problems were modelled as independent variables in two-part regression models in which the dependent variable was costs of GP services from data collection sweeps up to mid-adulthood. All analyses were adjusted for covariates (cognitive ability, mother's education, housing tenure, father's social class and childhood physical disability)., Results: Adolescent conduct and emotional problems, particularly when coexisting, were associated with relatively high GP costs in adulthood up to age 50. Associations were generally stronger in females than males., Conclusion: Associations between adolescent mental health problems and annual GP cost were evident decades later, to age 50, suggesting that there could be significant future savings to healthcare budgets if rates of adolescent conduct and emotional problems could be reduced., Trial Registration: Not applicable., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

Background: A safe and efficacious vaccine against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), if deployed with high coverage, could contribute to the control of the COVID-19 pandemic. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine in a pooled interim analysis of four trials., Methods: This analysis includes data from four ongoing blinded, randomised, controlled trials done across the UK, Brazil, and South Africa. Participants aged 18 years and older were randomly assigned (1:1) to ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine or control (meningococcal group A, C, W, and Y conjugate vaccine or saline). Participants in the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 group received two doses containing 5 × 10 10 viral particles (standard dose; SD/SD cohort); a subset in the UK trial received a half dose as their first dose (low dose) and a standard dose as their second dose (LD/SD cohort). The primary efficacy analysis included symptomatic COVID-19 in seronegative participants with a nucleic acid amplification test-positive swab more than 14 days after a second dose of vaccine. Participants were analysed according to treatment received, with data cutoff on Nov 4, 2020. Vaccine efficacy was calculated as 1 - relative risk derived from a robust Poisson regression model adjusted for age. Studies are registered at ISRCTN89951424 and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04324606, NCT04400838, and NCT04444674., Findings: Between April 23 and Nov 4, 2020, 23 848 participants were enrolled and 11 636 participants (7548 in the UK, 4088 in Brazil) were included in the interim primary efficacy analysis. In participants who received two standard doses, vaccine efficacy was 62·1% (95% CI 41·0-75·7; 27 [0·6%] of 4440 in the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 group vs71 [1·6%] of 4455 in the control group) and in participants who received a low dose followed by a standard dose, efficacy was 90·0% (67·4-97·0; three [0·2%] of 1367 vs 30 [2·2%] of 1374; p interaction =0·010). Overall vaccine efficacy across both groups was 70·4% (95·8% CI 54·8-80·6; 30 [0·5%] of 5807 vs 101 [1·7%] of 5829). From 21 days after the first dose, there were ten cases hospitalised for COVID-19, all in the control arm; two were classified as severe COVID-19, including one death. There were 74 341 person-months of safety follow-up (median 3·4 months, IQR 1·3-4·8): 175 severe adverse events occurred in 168 participants, 84 events in the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 group and 91 in the control group. Three events were classified as possibly related to a vaccine: one in the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 group, one in the control group, and one in a participant who remains masked to group allocation., Interpretation: ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 has an acceptable safety profile and has been found to be efficacious against symptomatic COVID-19 in this interim analysis of ongoing clinical trials., Funding: UK Research and Innovation, National Institutes for Health Research (NIHR), Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Lemann Foundation, Rede D'Or, Brava and Telles Foundation, NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, Thames Valley and South Midland's NIHR Clinical Research Network, and AstraZeneca., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an Open Access article under the CC BY 4.0 license. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.)

Rationale: Adults may exhibit characteristics of both asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a situation recently described as asthma-COPD overlap (ACO). There is a paucity of information about ACO in primary care. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence and describe characteristics of individuals with ACO in primary care practices among patients currently diagnosed with asthma, COPD, or both; and to compare the prevalence and characteristics of ACO among the three source populations. Methods: The Respiratory Effectiveness Group conducted a cross-sectional study of individuals ≥40 years old and with ≥2 outpatient primary care visits over a 2-year period in the UK Optimum Patient Care Research Database. Patients were classified into one of three source populations based on diagnostic codes: 1 ) COPD only, 2 ) both asthma and COPD, or 3 ) asthma only. ACO was defined as the presence of all of the following 1 ) age ≥40 years, 2 ) current or former smoking, 3) post-bronchodilator airflow limitation (forced expiratory volume in 1 second/forced vital capacity <0.7), and 4 ) ≥12% and ≥200 ml reversibility in post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 second. Results: Among 2,165 individuals (1,015 COPD only, 395 with both asthma and COPD, and 755 asthma only), the overall prevalence of ACO was 20% (95% confidence interval, 18-23%). Patients with ACO had a mean age of 70 years (standard deviation, 11 yr), 60% were men, 73% were former smokers (the rest were current smokers), and 66% were overweight or obese. Comorbid conditions were common in patients with ACO, including diabetes (53%), cardiovascular disease (36%), hypertension (30%), eczema (23%), and rhinitis (21%). The prevalence of ACO was higher in patients with a diagnosis of both asthma and COPD (32%) compared with a diagnosis of COPD only (20%; P  < 0.001) or asthma only (14%; P  < 0.001). Demographic and clinical characteristics of ACO varied across these three source populations. Conclusions: One in five individuals with a diagnosis of COPD, asthma, or both asthma and COPD in primary care settings have ACO based on the Respiratory Effectiveness Group ACO Working group criteria. The prevalence and characteristics of patients with ACO varies across the three source populations.

Objective: In patients with severe or refractory juvenile dermatomyositis (DM), second-line treatments may be required. Cyclophosphamide (CYC) is used to treat some connective tissue diseases, but evidence of its efficacy in juvenile DM is limited. This study was undertaken to describe clinical improvement in juvenile DM patients treated with CYC and model the efficacy of CYC treatment compared to no CYC treatment., Methods: Clinical data on skin, global, and muscle disease for patients recruited to the Juvenile DM Cohort and Biomarker Study were analyzed. Clinical improvement following CYC treatment was described using unadjusted analysis. Marginal structural models (MSMs) were used to model treatment efficacy and adjust for confounding by indication., Results: Compared to the start of CYC treatment, there were reductions at 6, 12, and 24 months in skin disease (P = 1.3 × 10 -10 ), global disease (P = 2.4 × 10 -8 ), and muscle disease (P = 8.0 × 10 -10 ) for 56 patients treated with CYC in unadjusted analysis. Limited evidence suggested a reduction in glucocorticoid dose (P = 0.047) in patients treated with CYC. MSM analysis showed reduced global disease and skin disease in patients who started an ~6-month course of CYC treatment >12 months ago compared to patients never or not yet treated with CYC. In the treated patients, the modified skin Disease Activity Score for juvenile DM was 1.19 units lower (P = 0.0085) and the physician's global assessment was 0.66 units lower (P = 0.027). Minor adverse events were reported in 3 patients within 1 year of stopping CYC., Conclusion: Our findings indicate that CYC is efficacious with no short-term side effects. Improvements in skin, global, and muscle disease were observed. Further studies are required to evaluate longer-term side effects., (© 2018 The Authors. Arthritis & Rheumatology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. on behalf of American College of Rheumatology.)