Citations

Abstract Associations of Alzheimer’s disease biomarker progression with cognitive decline are important to inform patient prognosis. Of particular interest is how newly available plasma biomarkers evolve relative to cognitive decline. The goals of this work are to measure how much earlier versus later an individual’s progression on plasma and PET Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers is associated with earlier versus later cognitive progression and to estimate the average timeline of progression of these processes in the population. In this cohort study of 2369 Mayo Clinic Study of Aging (MCSA) and 1591 Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) participants, we fit non-linear mixed-effects models to estimate how much earlier versus later each individual progresses on plasma phosphorylated tau (p-tau)217, amyloid PET, tau PET and auditory verbal learning test (AVLT) sum of trials relative to the population mean (individual adjustment), the associations of these individual adjustments among biomarker pairs and how covariates affect the timing of biomarker progression. The association of individual adjustments implies mechanistic associations and the amount of variability in cognitive decline accounted for by each biomarker. By applying cut-off points, we also estimated the relative timing that these biomarkers become abnormal in the population. Associations of individual adjustments were moderate between all biomarkers and AVLT (R = 0.38–0.47) in the MCSA and stronger (R = 0.74–0.81) in ADNI; plasma p-tau217 accounted for 16% of the variability in timing of AVLT decline in the MCSA and 64% in ADNI. APOE ɛ4 carriership was associated with earlier biomarker progression. AVLT became abnormal after the biomarkers up to age 90, after which AVLT was estimated to become abnormal prior to tau biomarkers. The association of the timing of plasma and PET Alzheimer’s disease biomarker progression with cognitive decline was modest in the MCSA population-based sample and stronger in the Alzheimer’s disease-enriched ADNI cohort. The timing of plasma p-tau217 progression explained a similar degree of variability in AVLT progression as amyloid PET, supporting its utility as a marker of disease progression. The estimated temporal ordering of biomarkers and cognitive abnormality was as anticipated (amyloid, tau, cognition) up to the age of 90, beyond which AVLT was estimated to become abnormal prior to tau biomarkers, likely related to the effects of non-Alzheimer’s disease co-pathologies.

Abstract INTRODUCTION Plasma biomarkers’ utility for predicting incident mild cognitive impairment (MCI) remains unclear. We evaluated associations of plasma Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers and amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) with transitions from cognitively unimpaired (CU) to MCI in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging (MCSA) and BioFINDER‐2 studies. METHODS Associations of continuous baseline plasma biomarker levels and amyloid PET Centiloid with progression to MCI, adjusting for age, sex, and education, were evaluated with Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS The study included 381 MCSA and 584 BioFINDER‐2 participants. Amyloid PET and percent phosphorylated to non‐phosphorylated tau217 (%p‐tau217) were strong predictors of progression to MCI in both cohorts: hazard ratios of 1.49 and 1.23 in the MCSA and 1.72 and 1.65 in BioFINDER, respectively. Amyloid beta 42/40 was a significant predictor in BioFINDER‐2 only (hazard ratio 2.20). DISCUSSION Plasma %p‐tau217 was associated with progression from CU to MCI in both cohorts, although differences in biomarker associations may be related to differences in the two cohorts. Highlights Mass‐spectrometry‐based plasma phosphorylated tau217 was associated with cognitively unimpaired to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) progression. Plasma amyloid beta 42/40 was a significant predictor in BioFINDER but not the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging (MCSA). Amyloid positron emission tomography (PET) was the strongest predictor of progression to MCI in the MCSA. Plasma had added value to amyloid PET in BioFINDER but not the MCSA. Biomarker performance may vary with cohort and biomarker measurement differences.

Abstract INTRODUCTION Limited data exist on the utility of plasma biomarkers to predict incident abnormal amyloid positron emission tomography (PET). In this study we evaluate the association of plasma Alzheimer's disease (AD) biomarkers with amyloid PET progression among initially amyloid PET negative (A−) individuals. METHODS We included 290 A−, cognitively unimpaired Mayo Clinic Study of Aging participants. We estimated the association of each baseline plasma biomarker with progression from A− to A+ and with rate of amyloid PET change. RESULTS Interquartile range differences in amyloid beta 42/40, percent phosphorylated tau 217 (%p‐tau217), and Amyloid Probability Score 2 were associated with 1.29 ( P = 0.09), 1.38 ( P < 0.001), and 1.20 ( P = 0.05) increases, respectively, in the hazard of progression from A− to A+ and 0.27 ( P = 0.16), 0.50 ( P = 0.007), and 0.28 ( P = 0.15) Centiloid/year increases, respectively, in annual rate of amyloid PET change. DISCUSSION Plasma %p‐tau217 may be a useful screening tool to enrich for participants with increased likelihood of progressing from normal to abnormal amyloid PET in a primary prevention trial. Highlights Plasma phosphorylated tau 217 was associated with amyloid positron emission tomography progression, negative to positive. The associations were weaker for amyloid beta 42/40 and Amyloid Probability Score 2. Age and apolipoprotein E ε4 carriership were also important predictors. These markers may be useful for enrichment of a primary prevention trial.

Introduction: Endothelin receptor antagonists (ERAs) are the mainstay therapy for pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). However, there is limited data on cardiac adverse drug events (ADEs) associated with ERA medications. We performed a pharmacovigilance study comparing bosentan and ambrisentan using the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) data. Methods: Cardiac ADE data for bosentan and ambrisentan from January 1, 2004, to December 31, 2023, in the FAERS database were retrieved. Disproportionality analysis was performed by calculating the reporting odds ratio (ROR) aligned with p-values. The following cardiac ADEs were included: atrial fibrillation (AF), right ventricular failure (RVF), and cardiac arrest (CA). Results: For adults ≥ 18 years, a total of 12,058 cardiac ADEs were reported for both bosentan (38%) and ambrisentan (62%). Among the selected cardiac ADEs, AF was more frequently reported with bosentan (ROR 3.99, 95% CI: 3.62-4.40) than ambrisentan (ROR 1.91, 95% CI: 1.77-2.07). RVF showed a significantly higher ROR for bosentan (73.60, 95% CI: 66.68-81.25) than ambrisentan (23.11, 95% CI: 20.99-25.46). CA was also more commonly associated with bosentan (ROR 2.25, 95% CI: 1.98-2.55) than with ambrisentan (ROR 0.69, 95% CI: 0.61-0.78), with all comparisons showing p-values < 0.001. Conclusion: Our study identifies a significantly higher frequency of cardiac ADEs, particularly AF, RVF, and CA, in patients treated with bosentan compared to ambrisentan. This finding corroborates previous literature that has suggested differential safety profiles among ERAs, emphasizing the need for vigilant cardiac monitoring. Clinicians should integrate these insights into their practice, potentially favoring ambrisentan in patients with elevated cardiac risk, thus optimizing the management of PAH and improving patient outcomes.

11176 Background: Progression-free survival (PFS) is frequently measured in oncology clinical trials. In analyses outside of the trial setting, various strategies have been utilized to assess real-world PFS (rwPFS), including manual abstraction of clinical records, natural language processing (NLP) of oncology notes and radiology reports, and longitudinal analyses of radiologic images. Here we develop and validate a new semi-automated workflow that combines NLP of clinical notes with structured electronic health record data to facilitate the evaluation of rwPFS in patients with metastatic breast cancer (mBC). Methods: This study analyzes de-identified EHR data using nference nSights. The data is extracted following privacy-preserving protocols and is HIPAA compliant. The overall cohort included 316 patients with HR-positive, HER2-negative mBC who initiated Palbociclib and Letrozole combination therapy between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2021. We developed and implemented an ensemble of deep-learning NLP frameworks to capture progression events from unstructured clinical notes and radiology reports. A change in the line of therapy, as determined by structured drug order/administration records, was also considered a progression event. We used manually curated “ground-truth” datasets to evaluate the performance of the progression-event capture workflow at the levels of both sentences (N = 1000) and patients (N = 100) by calculating sensitivity, specificity, precision, accuracy, and F1 scores. Progression events and censoring events (death, loss to follow-up, end of study period) were considered to compute rwPFS. Results: At the sentence level, progression events were captured from clinical notes and radiology reports with a sensitivity of 99.8%, specificity of 96.7%, and accuracy of 98.2% (Table). At the patient level, initial progression was correctly captured within a window of +/-30 days with a sensitivity of 92.5%, specificity of 83.0%, and accuracy of 88.0% (Table). In a sample of 100 patients, the median rwPFS was determined to be 25 months (95% CI; 15-35 months) by manual curation and 22 months (95% CI; 15-35 months) by the semi-automated workflow. In the overall cohort, median rwPFS was 20 months (95% CI; 18-25 months). Conclusions: An ensemble of NLP algorithms extracted progression events from clinical notes and radiology reports with high accuracy. A semi-automated workflow enabled rapid and accurate determination of rwPFS in mBC patients receiving a combination chemotherapy regimen. Further evaluation of this workflow to estimate rwPFS in other cancers and therapeutic settings is warranted. [Table: see text]

Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a serious complication, which occurs in 30% to 40% of patients after surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) and contributes to adverse outcomes. Advanced technology has enabled transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in patients with High-risk Severe Aortic Stenosis (HRSAS). In these patients, the compliance of the systemic vasculature is an independent predictor of diastolic dysfunction, a known predictor of postoperative AF (POAF). We hypothesize that patients with HRSAS undergoing TAVR represent a population at increased risk for POAF. METHODS: The medical records of 195 TAVR patients at the Mayo Clinic from November 2008 to January 2013 were analyzed. All patient demographic, clinical, pre- and post-procedural outcomes were collected from the patients’ medical records, and reviewed to ascertain all cases of POAF (AF ≤30 days of surgery). Patients with a prior history of AF (n= 75 (38.5%)) were excluded. Logistic regression analysis was used to identify clinical predictors of POAF after TAVR. Results: The mean age of the study population was 80.8±7.8 years and 60.8% (n=73) were men. The mean STS risk score was 8.9±5.1. Of the 120 patients without prior AF, 20.8% (n=25) developed new-onset POAF after TAVR. Patients who developed POAF were more likely to have undergone a transapical or transaortic TAVR approach (OR 3.20; 95% CI (1.3-8.0), had a higher incidence of renal complications (52.0% vs 21.5%; p= 0.003), greater hospital length of stay (7.4±2.58 vs 5.0±2.6 days; p= 0.0003, and a trend toward higher 30-day mortality (28.0% vs 13.7%; p= 0.09) and pulmonary complications (16.0% vs 5.4%; p= 0.08) compared with those who did not develop POAF, respectively. Neurologic complications were not different between the 2 group (4.0% vs 3.2%; p= 0.85). Conclusions: Patients with High-risk Severe Aortic Stenosis undergoing TAVR have increased risk of POAF, primarily associated with a transapical or aortic surgical approach. Patients who develop POAF had higher incidence of post-procedural complications and longer hospitalizations. Therefore, perioperative strategies aimed at prevention of POAF are as important in TAVR patients as in those undergoing SAVR.

Introduction- Recent studies based on echocardiographic data have described an entity termed paradoxical low-flow, low-gradient severe aortic stenosis (AS) with preserved ejection fraction (EF). It is not clear whether this condition is also seen in patients who undergo hemodynamic catheterization. Objective- To determine the prevalence of low-flow in patients with low mean gradient (MG) severe AS despite preserved EF as determined by echocardiography who subsequently undergo hemodynamic catheterization. Methods- We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 259 patients who underwent hemodynamic catheterization at Mayo Clinic from 2000-2009 to assess the severity of AS within 6 months of their echocardiographic study. Results- A total of 35 patients (mean age 75±9yrs; 49% males) had MG (≤ 40 mm Hg) and aortic valve area (AVA ≤ 1 cm2) despite preserved EF (≥50%) as determined by echocardiography. A total of 7/35 patients (20%) had low flow by echocardiography, defined as stroke volume index (SVI) ≤ 35 ml/m2 (median SVI of 32 ml/m2, inter-quartile range 30-33 ml/m2). Among the same 35 patients, there were 23 patients who had both low MG (≤ 40 mm Hg) and severe AS (AVA ≤ 1 cm2), while a total of 14/35 patients (40%) had low MG, severe AS as well as low flow (median SVI of 32 ml/m2, inter-quartile range 29-33 ml/m2) as determined by hemodynamic catheterization. A statistically significant correlation with modest association was observed between invasive and noninvasive measurements of MG, SVI, and AVA (r=0.48 ; p = 0.003; r=0.48; p = 0.004 ; r=0.36; p=0.03 respectively) in our study group of 35 patients. In most patients (94%) MG by catheterization was also ≤ 40 mm Hg. However, agreement between echocardiography and catheterization to identify patients with paradoxical low-flow, low MG, severe AS was poor (kappa = 0.03). Conclusions- 1) Paradoxical low flow, low-gradient severe aortic stenosis is also observed in patients who undergo hemodynamic catheterization. 2) Further studies are needed to better understand the pathophysiology, best method for diagnosis and true prevalence of this entity.

Abstract Recent advances in the field of immuno‐oncology have brought transformative changes in the management of cancer patients. The immune profile of tumours has been found to have key value in predicting disease prognosis and treatment response in various cancers. Multiplex immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence have emerged as potent tools for the simultaneous detection of multiple protein biomarkers in a single tissue section, thereby expanding opportunities for molecular and immune profiling while preserving tissue samples. By establishing the phenotype of individual tumour cells when distributed within a mixed cell population, the identification of clinically relevant biomarkers with high‐throughput multiplex immunophenotyping of tumour samples has great potential to guide appropriate treatment choices. Moreover, the emergence of novel multi‐marker imaging approaches can now provide unprecedented insights into the tumour microenvironment, including the potential interplay between various cell types. However, there are significant challenges to widespread integration of these technologies in daily research and clinical practice. This review addresses the challenges and potential solutions within a structured framework of action from a regulatory and clinical trial perspective. New developments within the field of immunophenotyping using multiplexed tissue imaging platforms and associated digital pathology are also described, with a specific focus on translational implications across different subtypes of cancer. © 2024 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.