The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) is a public medical school in Charleston, South Carolina. It opened in 1824 as a small private college aimed at training physicians. It is one of the oldest continually operating schools of medicine in the United States and the oldest in the Deep South. The school's main building was designed by Charleston architect Albert W. Todd.The school has expanded into a state university with a medical center and six colleges for the education of health professionals, biomedical scientists, and other health care personnel. It also operates as a center for research and has a public hospital.
Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is increasingly being utilized for life-threatening cardiac and/or respiratory failure refractory to conventional treatment. Acute kidney injury (AKI) and fluid balance disorders commonly occur both before and during ECMO, with approximately half of cases receiving treatment with continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT). Acute kidney injury, fluid balance disorders, and CRRT influence both short- and long-term outcomes in this population. The 36th Acute Disease Quality Initiative (ADQI) meeting was held in June 2025 to develop multidisciplinary international expert recommendations for AKI, fluid balance, and CRRT during ECMO across the age spectrum. This work encompassed five working groups: 1) epidemiology, risk factors, and outcomes of AKI and CRRT, 2) fluid management and outcomes, 3) indications for CRRT and fluid removal during ECMO, 4) best practices for performing CRRT during ECMO, and 5) biomarkers, extracorporeal blood purification, and drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. As part of this work, knowledge gaps and research priorities were identified.
Single-fraction stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) has demonstrated efficacy in the management of spinal metastases. This study sought to investigate the role of multi-fraction spine SBRT in managing metastatic spinal tumors, particularly for tumors large in volume, compressing the spinal cord, or previously irradiated with conventional external beam radiotherapy (EBRT). Overall, 146 treatments were analyzed from a prospectively maintained spine SBRT database from 2002 to 2024. Treatments were excluded for missing baseline imaging or less than 1 month of follow-up. The most prescribed fractionation schemes were 24 Gy/2 fractions, 24 Gy/3 fractions, and 30 Gy/5 fractions. The median tumor volume was 40 cc (IQR: 18–79). Tumors were previously irradiated with EBRT (108 tumors, 74
Weight loss during/after treatment of oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) has been noted to negatively influence treatment outcomes. No predictive models exist for weight loss in OPSCC. This retrospective study utilized an OPSCC database with 99 cases undergoing definitive treatment from 2010 to 2017. Tumor and host variables predictive of BMI reduction were identified via logistic regression models and used to design a nomogram. The median age was 58 years. All cases were squamous cell carcinoma. Patients with BMI < 18 had significantly worse overall survival (54
To summarize posterior nasal nerve (PNN) ablation procedures and whether the etiology of rhinitis—allergic (AR) vs. non-allergic (NAR)—modifies post-procedural outcomes of symptoms and quality of life improvements. Three main procedures are used to target the PNN in patients with chronic rhinitis: cryoablation, radiofrequency ablation, and posterior nasal nerve neurectomy. Patients with chronic rhinitis have improvement in their symptoms with all three. When these results were analyzed by allergy status, most studies found no significant difference in the magnitude of benefit between the subgroups. Two systematic reviews found that individuals with NAR have greater symptomatic improvement at 12 months than those with AR. Both AR and NAR patients received benefit in symptom control after PNN ablation procedures, with possibly more benefit in NAR patients in the longer-term. Further studies with adequate power and standardized diagnostic criteria are needed to confirm these findings.
Microsatellite instability (MSI) is an established molecular biomarker in colorectal cancer (CRC). However, its stage-specific prognostic value and treatment-modifying role in colon cancer remain incompletely defined, particularly across contemporary multimodality treatment strategies. We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the National Cancer Database, including patients aged ≥ 20 years diagnosed with colon cancer between 2004 and 2020 with documented tumor stage and MSI status. MSI was categorized as microsatellite stable (MSS), MSI-low (MSI-L), or MSI-high (MSI-H). Multivariable Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to evaluate the association between MSI status and overall survival (OS), stratified by disease stage and treatment combinations. Patients who died within 90 days of diagnosis were excluded to minimize immortal-time bias. A total of 129,484 patients met inclusion criteria. MSI-H tumors comprised 16.8
