University Hospital Heidelberg

Federated Medical Image Segmentation under Real-World Label Noise: A Benchmark Suite for Noisy Label Learning Method Selection

Abstract While federated learning (FL) enables collaborative medical image segmentation without centralizing sensitive data, real-world deployment is frequently complicated by cross-site label imperfections such as contour disagreement, missing or additional structures, and confu...

Robotic-assisted compartmental dissection for retroperitoneal sarcoma: a feasibility study on cadavers with the da Vinci Xi system

Abstract Purpose Retroperitoneal sarcomas (RPS) pose major technical challenges because of their size, anatomical complexity, and need for multivisceral resection. We evaluated the feasibility of a standardized robotic approach for right- and left-sided retroperitoneal sarcoma (R...

Milvexian with Antiplatelet Therapy after Acute Coronary Syndrome Event

BackgroundPatients are at increased risk for recurrent ischemic events after an acute coronary syndrome event. Milvexian, an oral factor XIa inhibitor, may reduce the risk of major adverse clinical events with minimal bleeding risk. MethodsIn this phase 3, randomized, placebo-con...

Prognostic value of circulating tumor DNA and copy-number alterations in patients receiving tandem [225Ac]Ac-/[177Lu]Lu-PSMA-617 therapy for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer: a prospective observational study

Abstract ASTRACT Background Prostate-specific membrane antigen-targeted radioligand therapy (PSMA-RLT) demonstrates clinical efficacy in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), yet robust biomarkers for dynamic treatment monitoring and resistance remain lacking....

Gene Expression of TGF-β1 , Matrix Metalloproteinases, and Collagen in Keloid Patients and Their Growth Patterns in 2D and 3D Cell Cultures: An In Vitro Study

Background/Aim: Keloids result from abnormal wound healing and are characterized by excess fibroblast activity, extracellular matrix (ECM) accumulation, and elevated collagen types. The contemporary research often relies on 2D cell cultures, which do not fully replicate keloid pa...

Patient-reported outcomes after lateral unicompartmental and total knee arthroplasty: a propensity score-matched cohort study

Abstract Introduction Comparative evidence on patient-reported outcomes (PROs) after lateral unicompartmental knee arthroplasty (UKA) and total knee arthroplasty (TKA) remains limited. We compared PROs between cohorts matched for demographic characteristics and baseline knee func...

Barriers & coverage outcomes of inactivated polio vaccine & oral polio vaccine in humanitarian settings: a scoping review

Polio is targeted for global eradication by 2029. Immunization campaigns face significant challenges in humanitarian emergencies due to instability, population displacement, and health infrastructure collapse. The two primary vaccines used, Inactivated Polio Vaccine (IPV) and Ora...

Impact of CPAP and ventilator system resistance on respiratory effort in healthy volunteers

Abstract Introduction Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is widely used for the treatment of acute and chronic respiratory failure and inspiratory support pressure (ΔP insp ) can be added to achieve non-invasive ventilation (NIV). We performed a physiological study to det...

Pediatric intensive care follow-up in Germany is rarely established and highly heterogeneous: a nationwide survey of 20 PICUs

BACKGROUND: Survival after pediatric critical illness has improved substantially, but many survivors and their families experience long-term physical, neurocognitive, psychological and social sequelae, summarized as post-intensive care syndrome in pediatrics and in families. Stru...

miR-155-5p drives coordinated tumor and macrophage reprogramming across multiple cancer entities

Abstract Background T cell-based immunotherapies have improved cancer treatment, however their efficacy is frequently limited by tumor-intrinsic resistance mechanisms and by the immune suppressive tumor microenvironment, counteracting tumor specific immune responses through impai...

A targetable dependency on nonsense-mediated decay for cellular homeostasis and immune control in small cell lung cancer

Abstract Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is one of the most aggressive malignancies, characterized by rapid metastatic dissemination and poor overall survival. Despite harboring excessive alterations, expectedly resulting in immunogenic neoantigens, patients with SCLC remain largel...

OncoRAG: graph-based retrieval enabling clinical phenotyping from oncology notes using local mid-size language models

Abstract Oncology notes contain the richest clinical detail, yet they remain largely inaccessible at scale because extracting structured phenotypes requires either substantial language model infrastructure, curated training data, or cloud computing under regulatory constraints. W...

Daratumumab, lenalidomide, and dexamethasone in transplant-ineligible newly diagnosed multiple myeloma: MAIA final survival analysis

Abstract In previous analyses of MAIA, daratumumab plus lenalidomide/dexamethasone (D-Rd) significantly improved progression-free survival and overall survival (OS) versus lenalidomide/dexamethasone (Rd) in transplant-ineligible newly diagnosed multiple myeloma (NDMM). We report...

Beyond benchmarking: an expert-guided consensus approach to spatially aware clustering

Spatial omics technologies have revolutionized the study of tissue architecture and cellular heterogeneity by integrating molecular profiles with spatial localization. In spatially resolved transcriptomics, delineating higher-order anatomical structures is critical for understand...

DVE-1 is a telomere-binding protein and links the NuRD complex to telomere regulation in C. elegans

Telomeres are repetitive DNA sequences at the ends of linear chromosomes bound by specialized proteins. In our previous quantitative proteomics screen for telomere-binding proteins of Caenorhabditis elegans , we identified DVE-1, a homolog of mammalian SATB proteins and a transcr...

Estimating differing causal roles of glutamate and GABA genes on brain and behavior in autism

Abstract The excitatory/inhibitory (E/I) imbalance theory suggests that excitatory and inhibitory alterations underlies autism characteristics. However, genetic underpinnings of this imbalance and its impact on brain function and behavior remains unclear. We explored causal links...

Effectiveness of an interactive music tablet intervention to reduce procedural anxiety in children: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract Procedural anxiety in children is common and associated with maladaptive behavior, reduced cooperation, and increased perioperative stress. Although music-based interventions show promise, few are designed for routine clinical care. We evaluated an interactive tablet-bas...

Clinical and neurobiological correlates of tardive dyskinesia in schizophrenia spectrum disorders and mood disorders

Abstract Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is a persistent sensorimotor syndrome associated with antipsychotic exposure in schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD) and mood disorders (MOD), yet its neurobiological basis remains poorly understood. We investigated whether TD represents a disti...

The filtration performance of fabrics against particles of viral size: a systematic review

Wearing a mask is part of the comprehensive strategy to suppress transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus and respiratory tract infections. Despite available COVID-19 vaccines, wearing a mask has remained one of the simplest and most effective ways. There was, however, little data av...

Lessons from the field: usability (engineering) in regulated healthcare

Abstract Regulated healthcare settings continue to face gaps between established HCI methodology, user-centered design principles, and everyday clinical practice. Although standards and regulatory frameworks mandate usability engineering, their integration into regulated clinical...