Heterogeneous genetic patterns in bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria: insights from a Finnish family cohort

Bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria is the most common form of regional polymicrogyria within malformations of cortical development, constituting 20% of all malformations of cortical development. Bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria is characterized by an excessive folding of the cerebral cortex and abnormal cortical layering. Notable clinical features include upper motoneuron dysfunction, dysarthria and asymmetric quadriparesis. Cognitive impairment and epilepsy are frequently observed. To identify genetic variants underlying bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria in Finland, we examined 21 families using standard exome sequencing, complemented by optical genome mapping and/or deep exome sequencing. Pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants were identified in 5/21 (24%) of families, of which all were confirmed as de novo. These variants were identified in five genes, i.e. DDX23, NUS1, SCN3A, TUBA1A and TUBB2B, with NUS1 and DDX23 being associated with bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria for the first time. In conclusion, our results confirm the previously reported genetic heterogeneity of bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria and underscore the necessity of more advanced methods to elucidate the genetic background of bilateral perisylvian polymicrogyria.

Major improvement in thyroid cancer survival of elderly patients in the Nordic countries

OBJECTIVES

We describe age-specific survival in thyroid cancer (TC) from Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden over a 50-year period.

DESIGN

Population-based survival study.

METHODS

Relative 5-year survival data were obtained from the NORDCAN database for the years 1972-2021.

RESULTS

In the first period 1972-1976, 5-year survival in TC in Finland, Norway, and Sweden was 90% or higher, but a strong negative step-wise age gradient was observed, which was worse for men than women. Over time, survival increased, and in the final period, 2017-2021, survival for all women and Danish men up to age 69 years was about 90% or higher and, for men from the other countries, only marginally lower. Even for older women survival reached 80%, for older men somewhat less.

CONCLUSIONS

Age disadvantage in TC survival was for the most part corrected over the 50-year period, and the remaining task is to boost survival for the oldest patients.

Pregnancy outcomes following routine early provision of intrauterine device after first-trimester induced abortion-A secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial with a 5-year follow up

INTRODUCTION

Women undergoing an induced abortion are highly fertile and at risk of subsequent unplanned pregnancy. We recently completed a randomized clinical trial showing that routine provision of intrauterine device (IUD) at the time of abortion significantly reduced the risk of subsequent abortion during a 5-year follow up. As the use of highly effective contraception may affect all subsequent pregnancies, we analyzed the rate and distribution of all subsequent pregnancies (deliveries, miscarriages, and abortions), and the risk factors for these various pregnancy outcomes in the above-mentioned randomized clinical trial.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We enrolled adult women requesting first-trimester induced abortion and candidates for IUD for post-abortion contraception. Women (n = 751) were randomized to receive an IUD (either levonorgestrel-releasing IUD or copper IUD) by the clinic responsible for abortion care vs. routine care of IUD provision in primary health care with oral contraceptives for interval contraception. In the present secondary analysis, we identified all deliveries, miscarriages, and abortions in the intervention (n = 375) and control (n = 373) cohorts during the 5-year follow up using the Finnish national registries. The trial is registered at Clinical Trials (NTC01223521).

RESULTS

The overall delivery, miscarriage, and abortion rates were 42.0, 12.0 and 32.1/1000 years of follow up (yFU). Any new pregnancy occurred in 98 women in the intervention and in 129 women in the control cohort (hazard ratio 0.73, 95% confidence interval 0.56-0.95, p = 0.023). The effect of routine IUD provision in reducing pregnancies was limited to the first 2 yFU. The number of subsequent induced abortions and of women undergoing it were significantly reduced, and time to abortion was prolonged by the intervention. However, the overall number, the number of women with subsequent delivery or miscarriage, and the times to these events were not significantly affected. History of previous pregnancy (delivery or abortion) and smoking were risk factors for subsequent induced abortion, but not for delivery or miscarriage.

CONCLUSIONS

Routine provision of IUD as part of abortion care did not reduce the rates of delivery or miscarriage during the 5-year follow up. The rates of all pregnancies and the need of subsequent induced abortion were reduced by IUD provision during the first 2 yFU.

Lowered oxidative capacity in spinal muscular atrophy, Jokela type; comparison with mitochondrial muscle disease

Introduction

Spinal muscular atrophy, Jokela type (SMAJ) is a rare autosomal dominantly hereditary form of spinal muscular atrophy caused by a point mutation c.197G>T in CHCHD10. CHCHD10 is known to be involved in the regulation of mitochondrial function even though patients with SMAJ do not present with multiorgan symptoms of mitochondrial disease. We aimed to characterize the cardiopulmonary oxidative capacity of subjects with SMAJ compared to healthy controls and patients with mitochondrial myopathy.

Methods

Eleven patients with genetically verified SMAJ, 26 subjects with mitochondrial myopathy (MM), and 28 healthy volunteers underwent a cardiopulmonary exercise test with lactate and ammonia sampling. The effect of the diagnosis group on the test results was analysed using a linear model.

Results

Adjusted for sex, age, and BMI, the SMAJ group had lower power output (p < 0.001), maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 max) (p < 0.001), and mechanical efficiency (p < 0.001) compared to the healthy controls but like that in MM. In the SMAJ group and healthy controls, plasma lactate was lower than in MM measured at rest, light exercise, and 30 min after exercise (p ≤ 0.001-0.030) and otherwise lactate in SMAJ was lower than controls and MM, in longitudinal analysis p = 0.018. In MM, the ventilatory equivalent for oxygen was higher (p = 0.040), and the fraction of end-tidal CO2 lower in maximal exercise compared to healthy controls (p = 0.023) and subjects with SMAJ.

Conclusion

In cardiopulmonary exercise test, subjects with SMAJ showed a similar decrease in power output and oxidative capacity as subjects with mitochondrial myopathy but did not exhibit findings typical of mitochondrial disease.

Variations across Europe in hospitalization and management of pregnant women with SARS-CoV-2 during the initial phase of the pandemic: Multi-national population-based cohort study using the International Network of Obstetric Survey Systems (INOSS)

INTRODUCTION

The majority of data on COVID-19 in pregnancy are not from sound population-based active surveillance systems.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

We conducted a multi-national study of population-based national or regional prospective cohorts using standardized definitions within the International Network of Obstetric Survey systems (INOSS). From a source population of women giving birth between March 1 and August 31, 2020, we included pregnant women admitted to hospital with a positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test ≤7 days prior to or during admission and up to 2 days after birth. The admissions were further categorized as COVID-19-related or non-COVID-19-related. The primary outcome of interest was incidence of COVID-19-related hospital admission. Secondary outcomes included severe maternal disease (ICU admission and mechanical ventilation) and COVID-19-directed medical treatment.

RESULTS

In a source population of 816 628 maternities, a total of 2338 pregnant women were admitted with SARS-CoV-2; among them 940 (40%) were COVID-19-related admissions. The pooled incidence estimate for COVID-19-related admission was 0.59 (95% confidence interval 0.27-1.02) per 1000 maternities, with notable heterogeneity across countries (I2  = 97.3%, P = 0.00). In the COVID-19 admission group, between 8% and 17% of the women were admitted to intensive care, and 5%-13% needed mechanical ventilation. Thromboprophylaxis was the most frequent treatment given during COVID-19-related admission (range 14%-55%). Among 908 infants born to women in the COVID-19-related admission group, 5 (0.6%) stillbirths were reported.

CONCLUSIONS

During the initial months of the pandemic, we found substantial variations in incidence of COVID-19-related admissions in nine European countries. Few pregnant women received COVID-19-directed medical treatment. Several barriers to rapid surveillance were identified. Investment in robust surveillance should be prioritized to prepare for future pandemics.

Early mortality critically impedes improvements in thyroid cancer survival through a half century

OBJECTIVES

We analyze survival in thyroid cancer from Denmark (DK), Finland (FI), Norway (NO), and Sweden (SE) over a 50-year period (1971-2020), and additionally consider concomitant changes in incidence and mortality.

DESIGN

Population-based survival study.

METHODS

Relative 1-, 5/1 (conditional)-, and 5-year survival data were obtained from the NORDCAN database for years 1971-2020. Incidence and mortality rates were also assessed.

RESULTS

A novel consistent observation was that 1-year survival was worse than 5/1-year survival but the difference between these decreased with time. Relative 1-year survival in thyroid cancer (mean for the 4 countries) reached 92.7% for men and 95.6% for women; 5-year survival reached 88.0% for men and 93.7% for women. Survival increased most for DK which started at a low level and reached the best survival at the end. Male and female incidence rates for thyroid cancer increased 3- and 4-fold, respectively. In the same time, mortality halved for men and for women, it decreased by 2/3.

CONCLUSIONS

We documented worse relative survival in the first year than in the 4 subsequent years, most likely because of rare anaplastic cancer. Overall survival in thyroid cancer patients increased in the Nordic countries in the course of 50 years; 5-year survival was close to 90% for men and close to 95% for women. Even though overdiagnosis may explain some of 5-year survival increase, it is unlikely to influence the substantial increase in 1-year survival. The unmet need is to increase 1-year survival by diagnosing and treating aggressive tumors before metastatic spread.

Autoimmune diseases as comorbidities for liver, gallbladder, and biliary duct cancers in Sweden

BACKGROUND

Autoimmune diseases are associated with many cancers but there is a lack of population-based studies with different autoimmune diseases that have a long follow-up. This is also true of hepatobiliary cancers, which include hepatocellular cancer (HCC) and rarer entities of gallbladder cancer (GBC), intra- and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA and eCCA), and ampullary cancer.

METHODS

Diagnostic data on 43 autoimmune diseases were collected from the Swedish Inpatient Register from 1987 to 2018, and cancer data were derived from the national cancer registry from 1997 onward. Relative risks were expressed as standardized incidence ratios (SIRs).

RESULTS

In a population of 13.6 million, 1.1 million autoimmune diseases were diagnosed and subsequent hepatobiliary cancer was diagnosed in 3191 patients (17.2% of cancers). SIRs for HCC were 2.73 (men) and 2.86 (women), 3.74/1.96 for iCCA, 2.65/1.37 for GBC, 2.38/1.64 for eCCA, and 1.80/1.85 for ampullary cancer. Significant associations between autoimmune disease and HCC were observed for 13 autoimmune diseases, with the highest risks being for autoimmune hepatitis (48.92/73.53, men/women) and primary biliary cirrhosis (38.03/54.48). GBC was increased after six autoimmune diseases, with high SIRs for ulcerative colitis (12.22/3.24) and men with Crohn disease (9.16). These autoimmune diseases were also associated with a high risk of iCCA, which had seven other associations, and eCCA, which had five other associations. Ampullary cancer occurrence was increased after four autoimmune diseases.

CONCLUSION

An autoimmune disease is a common precursor condition for hepatobiliary cancers. This calls for careful control of autoimmune disease symptoms in each patient and encouragement to practice a healthy lifestyle.

Multi-ancestry GWAS reveals excitotoxicity associated with outcome after ischaemic stroke

During the first hours after stroke onset, neurological deficits can be highly unstable: some patients rapidly improve, while others deteriorate. This early neurological instability has a major impact on long-term outcome. Here, we aimed to determine the genetic architecture of early neurological instability measured by the difference between the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) within 6 h of stroke onset and NIHSS at 24 h. A total of 5876 individuals from seven countries (Spain, Finland, Poland, USA, Costa Rica, Mexico and Korea) were studied using a multi-ancestry meta-analyses. We found that 8.7% of NIHSS at 24 h of variance was explained by common genetic variations, and also that early neurological instability has a different genetic architecture from that of stroke risk. Eight loci (1p21.1, 1q42.2, 2p25.1, 2q31.2, 2q33.3, 5q33.2, 7p21.2 and 13q31.1) were genome-wide significant and explained 1.8% of the variability suggesting that additional variants influence early change in neurological deficits. We used functional genomics and bioinformatic annotation to identify the genes driving the association from each locus. Expression quantitative trait loci mapping and summary data-based Mendelian randomization indicate that ADAM23 (log Bayes factor = 5.41) was driving the association for 2q33.3. Gene-based analyses suggested that GRIA1 (log Bayes factor = 5.19), which is predominantly expressed in the brain, is the gene driving the association for the 5q33.2 locus. These analyses also nominated GNPAT (log Bayes factor = 7.64) ABCB5 (log Bayes factor = 5.97) for the 1p21.1 and 7p21.1 loci. Human brain single-nuclei RNA-sequencing indicates that the gene expression of ADAM23 and GRIA1 is enriched in neurons. ADAM23, a presynaptic protein and GRIA1, a protein subunit of the AMPA receptor, are part of a synaptic protein complex that modulates neuronal excitability. These data provide the first genetic evidence in humans that excitotoxicity may contribute to early neurological instability after acute ischaemic stroke.

Survival in bladder and upper urinary tract cancers in Finland and Sweden through 50 years

Survival has improved in bladder cancer but few studies have considered extended periods or covered populations for which medical care is essentially free of charge. We analyzed survival in urothelial cancer (UC, of which vast majority are bladder cancers) in Finland and Sweden over a 50-year period (1967–2016) using data from the NORDCAN database. Finland and Sweden are neighboring countries with largely similar health care systems but higher economic resources and health care expenditure in Sweden. We present results on 1- and 5-year relative survival rates, and additionally provide a novel measure, the difference between 1- and 5-year relative survival, indicating how well survival was maintained between these two periods. Over the 50-year period the median diagnostic age has increased by several years and the incidence in the very old patients has increased vastly. Relative 1- year survival rates increased until early 1990s in both countries, and with minor gains later reaching about 90% in men and 85% in women. Although 5-year survival also developed favorably until early 1990s, subsequent gains were small. Over time, age specific differences in male 1-year survival narrowed but remained wide in 5-year survival. For women, age differences were larger than for men. The limitations of the study were lack of information on treatment and stage. In conclusion, challenges are to improve 5-year survival, to reduce the gender gap and to target specific care to the most common patient group, those of 70 years at diagnosis. The most effective methods to achieve survival gains are to target control of tobacco use, emphasis on early diagnosis with prompt action at hematuria, upfront curative treatment and awareness of high relapse requiring regular cystoscopy follow up.

Progress in survival in renal cell carcinoma through 50 years evaluated in Finland and Sweden

Global survival studies have shown favorable development in renal cell carcinoma (RCC) treatment but few studies have considered extended periods or covered populations for which medical care is essentially free of charge. We analyzed RCC survival in Finland and Sweden over a 50-year period (1967-2016) using data from the NORDCAN database provided by the local cancer registries. While the health care systems are largely similar in the two countries, the economic resources have been stronger in Sweden. In addition to the standard 1- and 5-year relative survival rates, we calculated the difference between these as a measure of how well survival was maintained between years 1 and 5. Relative 1- year survival rates increased almost linearly in both countries and reached 90% in Sweden and 80% in Finland. Although 5-year survival also developed favorably the difference between 1- and 5-year survival rates did not improve in Sweden suggesting that the gains in 5-year survival were entirely due to gains in 1-year survival. In Finland there was a gain in survival between years 1 and 5, but the gain in 1-years survival was the main contributor to the favorable 5-year survival. Age group specific analysis showed large survival differences, particularly among women. Towards the end of the follow-up period the differences narrowed but the disadvantage of the old patients remained in 5-year survival. The limitations of the study were lack of information on performed treatment and clinical stage in the NORDCAN database. In conclusion, the available data suggest that earlier diagnosis and surgical treatment of RCC have been the main driver of the favorable change in survival during the past 50 years. The main challenges are to reduce the age-specific survival gaps, particularly among women, and push survival gains past year 1.

Five-year follow-up results of aerobic and impact training on bone mineral density in early breast cancer patients

A 12-month exercise program reversibly prevented hip bone loss in premenopausal women with early breast cancer. The bone-protective effect was maintained for 2 years after the end of the program but was lost thereafter.

PURPOSE

Breast cancer survivors are at an increased risk for osteoporosis and fracture. This 5-year follow-up of a randomized impact exercise intervention trial evaluated the maintenance of training effects on bone among breast cancer patients.

METHODS

Five hundred seventy-three early breast cancer patients aged 35-68 years and treated with adjuvant therapy were allocated into a 12-month exercise program or a control group. Four hundred forty-four patients (77%) were included in the 5-year analysis. The exercise intervention comprised weekly supervised step aerobics, circuit exercises, and home training. Areal bone mineral density (aBMD) was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Physical activity was estimated in metabolic equivalent (MET) hours per week and physical performance assessed by 2-km walking and figure-8 running tests.

RESULTS

In premenopausal patients, the 12-month exercise program maintained femoral neck (FN) and total hip (TH) aBMD for 3 years, but the protective effect was lost thereafter. The mean FN aBMD change in the exercise and control groups was - 0.2% and - 1.5% 1 year, - 1.1% and - 2.1% 3 years and - 3.3% versus - 2.4% 5 years after the beginning of the intervention, respectively. Lumbar spine (LS) bone loss was not prevented in premenopausal women and no training effects on aBMD were seen in postmenopausal women. The main confounding element of the study was the unexpected rise in physical activity among patients in the control group. The physical performance improved among premenopausal women in the exercise group compared with the controls.

CONCLUSION

The 12-month exercise program prevented FN and TH bone loss in premenopausal breast cancer patients for 3 years. The bone-protective effect was reversible and lost thereafter.