Citations

Background The management of osteochondral lesions of the talus (OLT) is challenging, with 2 main options being conservative and surgical management. Orthobiologic therapies come to bridge the gap between these 2 options; however, inconsistencies in indication, composition, and heterogeneous evidence limit clinical decision-making. To address these challenges, 3 International Congress Meetings on Cartilage Repair of the Ankle were convened in Pittsburgh, USA (2017), Dublin, Ireland (2019), and New York, USA (2025) to establish agreement on the role of conservative management and injectable orthobiologic strategies in the treatment of OLT. Methods Seventy-five multidisciplinary experts from over 25 countries and 1 territory participated in a structured Delphi-based consensus process. Blinded surveys, structured questionnaires, and in-person discussions were used to develop and refine statements, supported by literature review and graded evidence (A1–E). Consensus strength was defined as consensus (51%-74%), strong consensus (75%-99%), or unanimous (100%) Results In total, 29 consensus statements were achieved across the 3 meetings. Strong agreement was reached regarding indications and expected outcomes of conservative management, including the role of immobilization and appropriate timing for surgical intervention. Orthobiologic injections, including platelet-rich plasma, concentrated bone marrow aspirate, and hyaluronic acid, were considered appropriate in select patients with persistent symptoms, although no superiority was demonstrated among formulations, preparation methods, or injection strategies. When used as adjuncts to surgical procedures, orthobiologics may improve radiological outcomes, with limited evidence for improvement in clinical outcomes. Technical considerations, including preferred harvest sites and a lack of standardized preparation protocols, were identified, along with key principles for patient counseling Conclusion These international consensus statements establish a standardized framework for the conservative management and use of injectable orthobiologic therapies in OLT. By clarifying indications, technical considerations, and current limitations, this work aims to improve consistency in clinical practice, guide treatment decision-making, and inform future research.

ABSTRACT Training in electrodiagnostic (EDX) medicine is highly variable globally, with trainees receiving widely different levels of didactic education, skills training, and hands‐on experience. Global standardization of EDX training has the potential to improve diagnostic accuracy, promote equitable care, and strengthen international collaboration. Major barriers include limited resources, faculty shortages, and a lack of standardized curricula. To address these disparities, opportunities and strategies for international collaboration are proposed, including developing a uniform content curriculum, competency‐based evaluation frameworks, and integration of online and simulation‐based learning tools.

Black race and Hispanic ethnicity are associated with higher mortality in severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) following hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), though mechanisms remain unclear. We evaluated 796 children with SCID who received nonsibling HCT between 1982 and 2020 using data from the Primary Immune Deficiency Treatment Consortium. Overall survival for Black (aHR 2.47, 95%CI 1.64, 3.71) and Asian/Pacific Islander patients (aHR 1.82, 95%CI 1.00, 3.30) was significantly lower compared with non-Hispanic White patients, while Hispanic patients had lower event-free survival (aHR 1.83, 95%CI 1.27, 2.63) compared with non-Hispanic White patients. Even after adjusting for age and infection, Black patients with SCID had more than twofold hazard of death compared with non-Hispanic White patients. NBS was associated with earlier diagnosis, reduced infection at HCT, and elimination of survival disparities between Black and non-Hispanic White patients. These findings suggest that universal, system-level interventions such as NBS can mitigate disparities in outcomes for children with SCID.

Through a Delphi process, all 33 panelists reached consensus on topics relating to MRI reporting of knee meniscus lesions, demonstrating that interdisciplinary and multi-institutional standardization is possible.

e13656 Background: Effective multidisciplinary cancer care is bottlenecked by the cognitive burden of synthesizing fragmented electronic health records across different specialties. Current AI tools often function as isolated chatbots rather than integrated workflow assistants. We developed and validated "OncoSphere AI," an Agentic AI multidisciplinary clinical workflow support tool designed to autonomously orchestrate the multidisciplinary review process by deconstructing complex cases into domain-specific insights. Methods: OncoSphere AI is a novel, multi-agent large language model–driven platform that simulates a multidisciplinary tumor board for cancer care. The architecture uses a parallel reasoning framework in which eight virtual specialty agents—Medical Oncology, Radiation Oncology, Surgical Oncology, Pathology, Radiology, Pharmacy, Clinical Research, and Nurse Navigation—independently analyze structured and unstructured patient data against specialty specific guidelines and contemporary peer-reviewed literature. System performance was assessed via built-in telemetry (task completion, latency, inter-agent agreement) and blinded review by eight expert oncologists using a structured survey to rate data extraction fidelity, guideline concordance, safety, and clinical utility compared with standard manual review. Results: The study cohort (n=20, median age 59.5 years; 55% female) had a median of 2.5 (range 0-7) prior lines of therapy and multiorgan metastatic disease (median: 2, range 1–4), including lung, breast, gastrointestinal (CRC, pancreatic, hepatobiliary), and genitourinary (prostate, renal) malignancies. OncoSphere AI demonstrated high workflow utility (mean rating: 4/5) and strong extraction fidelity, with more than 90% of biomarker extractions rated as a “perfect match” by expert reviewers. Operational efficiency gains were substantial with AI processing averaged 4.7 minutes per case versus 29.3 minutes for manual review, corresponding to an 84% reduction in time (p<0.001). System telemetry revealed adaptive compute behavior, with the platform autonomously allocating 1.73-fold more reasoning tokens to complex, refractory cases than to standard scenarios. Safety review identified only one critical contraindication issue in a heavily pretreated, multi-line setting. Conclusions: OncoSphere AI effectively automates the clinical “perception layer,” consistently transforming heterogeneous longitudinal data into decision-grade insights with high fidelity and marked time savings. By operating as a coordinated ensemble of domain-specialized AI agents rather than a single generic model, it offers a scalable approach to reduce physician cognitive burden and to standardize guideline-concordant care planning in diverse, heavily pretreated oncology populations.

Introduction Angina with no obstructive coronary artery disease (ANOCA) affects millions and is frequently under-recognised because diagnostic pathways and risk tools predominantly target obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). This protocol describes shared methods for two machine-learning (ML) studies: (1) differentiating ANOCA from stable angina with obstructive CAD and (2) predicting long-term mortality among patients with ANOCA and obstructive CAD. Methods and analysis We will develop and cross-site validate ML classification models using a multicentre retrospective cohort drawn from the Alberta Provincial Project for Outcome Assessment in Coronary Heart Disease registry and institutional datasets from the University of Ottawa Heart Institute and the University Health Network. Eligible participants are adults (≥18 years) undergoing initial cardiac catheterisation for chest pain/anginal equivalents since 1995, excluding prior revascularisation, major structural heart disease and predefined non-anginal indications. Outcomes are (1) ANOCA (0% to <50% stenosis) versus obstructive CAD (≥50% stenosis) and (2) 1, 3 and 5-year mortality, modelled separately for ANOCA and obstructive CAD. Model development will use nested cross-validation with stratified k-fold inner-loop tuning and leave-one-site-out cross-validation for repeated external validation. Candidate predictors will be harmonised across sites, filtered for missingness and refined using expert/directed acyclic graph-guided selection plus Boruta and Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator. Preprocessing includes appropriate encoding, missing-data imputation (multivariate imputation by chained equations) and feature scaling. Algorithms will include elastic-net logistic regression, random forest, LightGBM and multilayer perceptron models; hyperparameters will be optimised via Bayesian optimisation. Performance and threshold tuning will be reported. Explainability and subgroup fairness will be assessed using SHapley Additive exPlanations. Final models will be deployed as a web-based clinical risk calculator. Ethics and dissemination Ethics approval has been obtained from the University of Calgary and the University Health Network (#24-5916). Analyses will use deidentified data in secure environments; only aggregate results will be reported. Findings will be disseminated via peer-reviewed publications, conferences and a web-based calculator.

ABSTRACT Introduction/Aims In severe ulnar neuropathy at the elbow (UNE), occasionally surgeons will employ an end‐to‐side (ETS) nerve transfer of the anterior interosseous nerve (AIN) motor branch of pronator quadratus (PQ) to the ulnar motor component distally (AIN ETS). We used an ultrasound (US)‐guided near‐nerve monopolar needle stimulation of the AIN to determine the specific contribution of the transferred PQ motor branch to the ulnar‐innervated hand intrinsic muscles following AIN ETS in patients with UNE. Methods After inserting the monopolar needle under US guidance, direct stimulation of the AIN was performed while recording from the abductor digiti minimi (ADM), first dorsal interosseous (FDI), and flexor pollicis longus (FPL). The presence or absence of a compound muscle action potential (CMAP) was noted from each muscle. Results The technique was used in two patients with chronic UNE, one with a cubital tunnel decompression and AIN ETS and the other with a decompression alone. In the patient with decompression and AIN ETS, direct stimulation of the AIN revealed a low amplitude CMAP recorded from the FDI and FPL, suggesting AIN axonal contribution to FDI in the setting of prior AIN ETS. In the patient with decompression alone, near‐nerve stimulation generated an expected CMAP in the FPL but no response in the hand intrinsics. Discussion This study may demonstrate the utility of US‐guided near‐nerve monopolar needle AIN stimulation and suggests that it is a reliable technique to isolate the AIN contribution to hand intrinsic reinnervation following AIN ETS.