PubMed HealthSearch

SEARCH · PubMed Health

Results for “digital tool”

Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Advancing the fight against tuberculosis: integrating innovation and public health in diagnosis, treatment, vaccine development, and implementation science.

Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the leading causes of infectious disease mortality worldwide, increasingly complicated by the emergence of drug-resistant strains and limitations in existing diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Despite decades of global efforts, the disease continues to impose a significant burden, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where health system weaknesses hinder progress. This comprehensive review explores recent advancements in TB diagnostics, antimicrobial resistance (AMR surveillance), treatment strategies, and vaccine development. It critically evaluates cutting-edge technologies including CRISPR-based diagnostics, whole-genome sequencing, and digital adherence tools, alongside therapeutic innovations such as shorter multidrug-resistant TB regimens and host-directed therapies. Special emphasis is placed on the translational gap-highlighting barriers to real-world implementation such as cost, infrastructure, and policy fragmentation. While innovations like the Xpert MTB/RIF Ultra, BPaLM regimen, and next-generation vaccines such as M72/AS01E represent pivotal progress, their deployment remains uneven. Implementation science, cost-effectiveness analyses, and health equity considerations are vital to scaling up these tools. Moreover, the expansion of the TB vaccine pipeline and integration of AI in diagnostics signal a transformative period in TB control. Eliminating TB demands more than biomedical breakthroughs-it requires a unified strategy that aligns innovation with access, equity, and sustainability. By bridging science with implementation, and integrating diagnostics, treatment, and prevention within robust health systems, the global community can accelerate the path toward ending TB.

diagnostic innovation

New Evidence in Heart Failure: 2026 Update.

Heart failure (HF) remains a major cause of morbidity, mortality, impaired quality of life and healthcare expenditure worldwide. The global burden of HF continues to increase due to population aging, improved survival, and the growing prevalence of cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic comorbidities. Simultaneously, the pace of scientific progress in HF has accelerated considerably. Recent advances have refined our understanding of HF epidemiology, prognosis, and disease trajectories, including emerging concepts of HF improvement, remission, and recovery. The Second Universal Definition of HF has also updated the classification framework, moving beyond the traditional ejection fraction-based categories. HF is now broadly classified into two major phenotypes: heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Novel mechanistic insights highlight the role of inflammation, immune activation, metabolic dysfunction, mitochondrial biology, and multisystem interactions in HF progression. There has also been significant progress in the characterization and management of major comorbidities, including chronic kidney disease (CKD), diabetes, obesity, atrial fibrillation (AF), pulmonary hypertension, frailty, malnutrition, and cancer. Diagnostic innovations include novel biomarkers, multi-omics technologies, artificial intelligence-based approaches, advanced imaging techniques, congestion assessment tools, and emerging digital health solutions. Important advances have occurred in specific HF aetiologies, including cardiomyopathies, cardiac amyloidosis (CA), myocarditis, arrhythmia-induced cardiomyopathy (AiCM), and Chagas cardiomyopathy. Therapeutic developments continue to reshape HF management across the spectrum of left ventricular ejection fraction. Recent evidence has focused on optimization of guideline-directed medical therapy in HFrEF, expansion of evidence-based therapies in HFpEF, and growing roles for sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors, finerenone, incretin-based therapies, and transcatheter valve interventions. Collectively, these advances support the transition from a predominantly phenotype-based approach towards a more personalized and biologically informed model of HF care, with the potential to further improve outcomes across the entire HF spectrum.

Journal Article

Graph-KIR: graph-based KIR copy number estimation and allele calling using short-read sequencing data.

MOTIVATION: The Killer-cell Immunoglobulin-like Receptor (KIR) is a highly polymorphic region in the human genome, associated with autoimmune diseases and organ transplantation. The sequences of KIR genes are highly similar among star alleles as well as in between individual genes, with the copy number of each KIR gene typically ranging from 0 to 4. In this study, we introduce Graph-KIR, a tool designed to estimate gene copy numbers and predict full-resolution (7-digit, encompassing both coding and non-coding sequence variations) from a whole genome sequencing (WGS) sample. RESULTS: Graph-KIR is capable of independently typing KIR alleles per sample with no reliance on the distribution of any framework gene in a cohort. In a set of 100 simulated samples, Graph-KIR demonstrated 99.2% accuracy in copy number estimation and high F1-score of allele typing: 91.79% at 7-digit resolution, 97.37% at 5-digit resolution, and 97.11% at 3-digit resolution. Graph-KIR outperforms existing tools such as Geny (96.39% F1-score), PING's WGS version (92.77% F1-score), and T1K (90.44% F1-score) at 5-digit resolution. By analyzing the results on 44 HPRC samples, Graph-KIR achieves better F1-score than Geny and PING at 7-digit resolution. The release of Graph-KIR adds another valuable tool to assist users in accurately estimating copy numbers and calling alleles of KIR genes from WGS samples. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: The Graph-KIR and paper-related pipeline codes are available at https://github.com/linnil1/KIR_graph.

Receptors, KIR

[Clinical value of rectal digital examination in early diagnosis of colorectal cancer (author's transl)].

A prospective study was carried out on a series of 1500 patients of a gastro-enterological and surgical unit in order to evaluate critically the accuracy of rectal digital examination as a single tool in the early diagnosis of colorectal tumours. The patients in this study were explored independently by two investigators, first by rectal digital palpation and afterwards by means of the proctosigmoidoscope. Endoscopy confirmed the presence of 239 tumours, 96 of these being diagnosed histologically as carcinoma. Comparative analysis of the results of physical and endoscopic examination demonstrated that digital palpation provided a correct diagnosis in 58 out of 239 tumours, equivalent to an accuracy of 24.3% for tumours within the reach of the rectoscope, and 10% for all colorectal tumours. Hence, rectal examination should not be used as single diagnostic tool in screening for large bowel cancer. A multiphasic screening system, including investigations for occult blood, proctosigmoidoscopy, endoscopic polypectomy and determination of colon-embryonic-antigen levels is discussed to obtain better results in general health screening, early diagnosis and avoidance of incurable colorectal carcinomas and the early detection of recurrence.

Colonic Neoplasms

Clinical performance of the urine-based TERT promoter AbsoluteQ Digital PCR for non-invasive detection of bladder cancer.

Bladder cancer (BC) is the ninth most common cancer worldwide, with urothelial carcinoma accounting for approximately 90% of all cases and presenting predominantly as non-muscle-invasive disease. Due to its high recurrence rate and the need for long-term surveillance, BC is associated with the highest lifetime treatment costs per patient among all cancers, making its effective management a significant clinical and economic challenge. The most frequently identified variants in the TERT gene promoter are c.-124C>T (C228T) and c.-146C>T (C250T), located within a region characterized by high guanine-cytosine (GC) content, which makes amplification challenging. We aimed to validate the AbsoluteQ Digital PCR assay for the detection of urine-based TERT promoter variants for the diagnosis of urothelial bladder cancer and to assess its diagnostic performance in comparison with standard methods. Urine samples were collected from patients with histopathologically confirmed bladder cancer (n = 58) and compared with a control group (n = 55). The C228T and C250T variants were tested using the AbsoluteQ Digital PCR assay. Sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values were calculated to evaluate the performance of the assessed method. The AbsoluteQ Digital PCR demonstrated superior diagnostic performance compared to conventional Sanger sequencing for detecting TERT promoter variants, achieving a sensitivity of 89.65% (95% CI: 78.16-95.72) and a specificity of 100% (95% CI: 91.87-100), with no false positives observed. Given its robustness and clinical relevance, AbsoluteQ Digital PCR is emerging as a promising tool for non-invasive molecular diagnostics targeting TERT promoter variants.

Humans

Building a Digital Health Research Platform to Enable Recruitment, Enrollment, Data Collection, and Follow-Up for a Highly Diverse Longitudinal US Cohort of 1 Million People in the All of Us Research Program: Design and Implementation Study.

BACKGROUND: Longitudinal cohort studies have traditionally relied on clinic-based recruitment models, which limit cohort diversity and the generalizability of research outcomes. Digital research platforms can be used to increase participant access, improve study engagement, streamline data collection, and increase data quality; however, the efficacy and sustainability of digitally enabled studies rely heavily on the design, implementation, and management of the digital platform being used. OBJECTIVE: We sought to design and build a secure, privacy-preserving, validated, participant-centric digital health research platform (DHRP) to recruit and enroll participants, collect multimodal data, and engage participants from diverse backgrounds in the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) All of Us Research Program (AOU). AOU is an ongoing national, multiyear study aimed to build a research cohort of 1 million participants that reflects the diversity of the United States, including minority, health-disparate, and other populations underrepresented in biomedical research (UBR). METHODS: We collaborated with community members, health care provider organizations (HPOs), and NIH leadership to design, build, and validate a secure, feature-rich digital platform to facilitate multisite, hybrid, and remote study participation and multimodal data collection in AOU. Participants were recruited by in-person, print, and online digital campaigns. Participants securely accessed the DHRP via web and mobile apps, either independently or with research staff support. The participant-facing tool facilitated electronic informed consent (eConsent), multisource data collection (eg, surveys, genomic results, wearables, and electronic health records [EHRs]), and ongoing participant engagement. We also built tools for research staff to conduct remote participant support, study workflow management, participant tracking, data analytics, data harmonization, and data management. RESULTS: We built a secure, participant-centric DHRP with engaging functionality used to recruit, engage, and collect data from 705,719 diverse participants throughout the United States. As of April 2024, 87% (n=613,976) of the participants enrolled via the platform were from UBR groups, including racial and ethnic minorities (n=282,429, 46%), rural dwelling individuals (n=49,118, 8%), those over the age of 65 years (n=190,333, 31%), and individuals with low socioeconomic status (n=122,795, 20%). CONCLUSIONS: We built a participant-centric digital platform with tools to enable engagement with individuals from different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds and other UBR groups. This DHRP demonstrated successful use among diverse participants. These findings could be used as best practices for the effective use of digital platforms to build and sustain cohorts of various study designs and increase engagement with diverse populations in health research.

Humans

Transcranial Photobiomodulation Variables Assessment Battery: Development and Validation.

Transcranial photobiomodulation (tPBM) response variability is partly driven by biophysical characteristics such as skin tone and hair properties that attenuate photon penetration, and by lifestyle factors including sleep quality, alcohol use, and nicotine consumption that disrupt the mitochondrial and vascular pathways on which tPBM acts. To date, no validated self-report tool exists to capture these moderators systematically. To address this gap, the tPBM Variables Assessment Battery was developed and psychometrically evaluated. It integrates adapted versions of established measures (Brief Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, E-cigarette Dependence Scale, Hair Scale Assessment PRO, Monk Skin Tone Scale, and Heaviness of Smoking Index), validated wellbeing evaluators (Ryff's Psychological Wellbeing), and custom measures (Hairstyle Classification, Hair Color Classification). Face and content validity met recommended expert thresholds, internal consistency was acceptable across adapted subscales, and criterion validity analyses confirmed meaningful associations between the lifestyle components and PROMIS-10 global health outcomes. The battery is low-burden, digitally deployable, and psychometrically defensible, offering a practical tool for characterizing the variables most likely to moderate tPBM response in home-use studies.

Humans

CCNA2 orchestrates the PI3K/AKT signaling axis to propel prostate cancer metastasis.

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer (PCa) remains one of the most common malignancies in men, posing a persistent global burden in terms of both public health and socioeconomic costs. Although early detection is essential for improving patient outcomes, existing clinical tools, including prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening, digital rectal examination, and transrectal ultrasound-guided biopsy, are hampered by suboptimal specificity and positive predictive value, resulting in frequent overdiagnosis and overtreatment of indolent lesions while missing a subset of aggressive tumors at an early stage. In this context, the rapid advancement of high-throughput omics technologies, coupled with sophisticated machine learning (ML) algorithms, provides a powerful computational framework to dissect high-dimensional genomic data, uncover latent gene expression signatures, and identify candidate biomarkers with superior discriminative performance over conventional clinicopathological parameters. Therefore, in this study, we sought to screen for crucial ML-based biomarkers associated with PCa, with a particular focus on systematically assessing the diagnostic and prognostic value of CCNA2. Leveraging large-scale transcriptomic cohorts from public repositories, we employed an ensemble of ML approaches to prioritize candidate genes and subsequently evaluated the diagnostic performance of CCNA2 through receiver operating characteristic curve analysis, as well as its prognostic utility via Kaplan-Meier survival estimation and multivariate Cox proportional hazards modeling. Our findings are anticipated to elucidate the molecular landscape of PCa and offer a promising biomarker candidate for early detection and risk stratification. METHODS: This study integrated single-cell RNA sequencing, bulk transcriptomic data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) repositories, immunofluorescence, and multiple ML algorithms with in vitro functional assays to evaluate CCNA2 expression, clinical relevance, and biological behavior in PCa. RESULTS: CCNA2 was linked to metastasis and poor prognosis. High CCNA2 expression significantly correlated with adverse survival outcomes, and knockdown of CCNA2 suppressed proliferation, migration, and invasion in PCa cell lines. Mechanistically, CCNA2 modulated the PI3K/AKT signaling pathway. An ML-based diagnostic model incorporating CCNA2 demonstrated high predictive accuracy across multiple validation cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: CCNA2 serves as a promising prognostic biomarker and therapeutic target in prostate adenocarcinoma, driving tumor progression potentially via the PI3K/AKT axis.

CCNA2

Evaluating Patient Satisfaction and Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14): A Multicenter Crossover Study Comparing Selective Pressure Impression Conventional Dentures with Mucostatic Digital Dentures.

PURPOSE: To compare patient satisfaction and oral health impact between individuals receiving complete dentures made by digital methods and those using conventional techniques. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this randomized crossover clinical trial, 23 patients aged 40 years and older with completely edentulous arches were enrolled at three treatment centers. Each participant received two sets of complete dentures: one set created using conventional methods (selective pressure impression) and the other through digital techniques (mucostatic digital impression). The order of denture placement was randomized, with each set used for 4 weeks. A trained specialist administered treatments alongside research tools, including a general information questionnaire, a denture satisfaction survey, and the OHIP-14 interview tool. Statistical analysis was conducted using Mann-Whitney U test. RESULTS: Participants with digital dentures reported significantly higher satisfaction regarding treatment duration, comfort, confidence, chewing ability, esthetics, and overall satisfaction compared to those with conventional dentures. There were no significant differences in satisfaction concerning speech and pronunciation. Overall, the oral health impact on quality of life was similar between denture types, but participants indicated improved quality of life while using dentures compared to being edentulous. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with digital dentures exhibited greater satisfaction across various domains compared to those with conventional dentures, despite similar satisfaction levels in speech and pronunciation. The impact on quality of life was comparable between both types, as measured by the OHIP-14.

Humans

Validation of the CALSPAN gross-motion-simulation code with actually occurring injury patterns in aircraft accidents.

Digital simulation of aircraft-accident kinematics has heretofore been used almost exclusively as a design tool to explore structural load limits, precalculate decelerative forces at various cabin stations, and describe the effect of protective devices in the crash environment. In an effort to determine the value of digital computer simulation of fatal aircraft accidents, a fatality involving an ejection-system failure (out-of-envelope ejection) was modeled, and the injuries actually incurred were compared to those predicted; good agreement was found. The simulation of fatal aircraft accidents is advantageous because of a well-defined endpoint (death), lack of therapeutic intervention, and a static anatomic situation that can be minutely investigated. Such simulation techniques are a useful tool in the study of experimental trauma.

Accidents, Aviation

BMT4me En Español: Multisite Feasibility and Usability Testing of a Spanish-Language mHealth Adherence Support App for Spanish-Speaking Caregivers of Children After Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation and Cancer Treatment.

BACKGROUND: Medication nonadherence during the first 100 days after pediatric hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and during oncology treatment increases risk for complications. BMT4me is a caregiver-facing mobile health (mHealth) application providing medication reminders, symptom tracking, and note-taking features to support medication management. Spanish-speaking caregivers are frequently excluded from digital adherence interventions due to the lack of language-accessible tools. PROCEDURE: We conducted a multisite, mixed-methods usability testing of a Spanish-language version of BMT4me ("BMT4me en Español") with Spanish-speaking caregivers of children (ages 2-17 years) post-HSCT or with an oncology diagnosis on active treatment. Caregivers completed a facilitated, three-step usability session (unobtrusive observation, interactive observation, and debriefing), followed by a semi-structured interview, and then completed the system usability scale (SUS). Quantitative outcomes were summarized descriptively; qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis with constant comparison. RESULTS: Fifteen participants enrolled at each site for a total of 30 participants. Across both sites, the recruitment rate was 91%. All participants completed all parts of the study. The SUS score (M = 80.09; SD = 17.35) was above average (>68). Two key qualitative themes emerged: (1) the perceived positive impact of BMT4me on managing a serious illness and (2) the acceptance and sociocultural relevance of BMT4me for Spanish-speaking families. Caregivers also shared suggestions to add educational content and multiuser functionalities to BMT4me. CONCLUSIONS: The acceptance and perceived positive impact of the Spanish BMT4me app indicates that socioculturally relevant, Spanish mHealth interventions have strong potential to support Spanish-speaking caregivers in pediatric oncology and HSCT settings. CLINICAL TRIALS NCT: NCT06361173.

Adolescent

Clinical applications of digital twin technology in In Vitro Fertilisation.

BACKGROUND: Digital twin technology, originating from aerospace and manufacturing industries, has emerged as a transformative tool in healthcare. In vitro fertilisation (IVF) faces persistent challenges including suboptimal embryo selection, unpredictable treatment outcomes, and limited personalisation of protocols. Despite advances in assisted reproductive technology, existing literature exhibits fragmentation: artificial intelligence applications in embryo selection, ovarian stimulation, and endometrial assessment have been developed independently without systematic integration into comprehensive treatment frameworks. Digital twin technology offers unprecedented opportunities to create virtual replicas of biological systems, enabling real-time monitoring, predictive modelling, and personalised treatment strategies. AIM: This narrative review aims to critically examine the current applications of digital twin technology in IVF, evaluate its potential benefits and limitations, synthesize existing evidence into an integrative conceptual model, and identify future directions for implementation in reproductive medicine. METHOD: A comprehensive narrative review was conducted using PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and IEEE Xplore databases. A narrative review approach was selected over systematic review to accommodate the heterogeneity of evidence types in this emerging field, including theoretical frameworks, simulation studies, and proof-of-concept implementations that would be excluded from systematic reviews. Search terms included "digital twin," "IVF," "in vitro fertilisation," "assisted reproductive technology," "embryo selection," and "predictive modelling." Studies published between 2015 and 2025 were included, focusing on original research articles, systematic reviews, and proof-of-concept studies describing digital twin applications in reproductive medicine. RESULTS: Digital twin technology in IVF demonstrates significant potential across multiple domains including embryo development simulation, ovarian response prediction, endometrial receptivity modelling, and personalised stimulation protocols. Current applications integrate artificial intelligence, machine learning algorithms, time-lapse imaging, and omics data to create comprehensive virtual models. Early evidence suggests improvements in embryo selection accuracy, ovarian response prediction, and treatment protocol optimization, though large-scale randomized controlled trials remain limited. Implementation challenges include data integration complexity, computational requirements, regulatory considerations, and validation requirements. CONCLUSION: Digital twin technology represents a paradigm shift in IVF practice, offering personalised, predictive, and precision medicine approaches. This review synthesizes existing evidence to propose an integrative conceptual model for digital twin implementation across the IVF treatment spectrum, identifies critical knowledge gaps, and establishes research priorities to advance clinical translation. Despite current limitations, continued advancement promises improved success rates and patient outcomes.

Humans

Digital computer analysis of M-scan echocardiograms.

In the past few years, echocardiography has emerged as a useful noninvasive clinical tool in cardiac diagnosis. Conventional methods for analyzing echocardiographic data involve time consuming and tedious manual techniques for measuring various distances and computing cardiac parameters of interest. This paper describes a useful method for automating the analysis of M scan echocardiograms both for routine clinical work as well as for special research oriented ultrasonic cardiac studies. Using a GRAF/PEN digitizer interfaced to a PDP-11 minicomputer system, relevant points of the ventricular and mitral valve interfaces, R-R intervals, and time and distance calibration points are entered from hard copies of M scan echocardiograms. The computer then determines all the parameters of interest such as left ventricular (LV) diameters, LV volumes, LV mass, ejection fraction, stroke volume, cardiac output, septal and posterior wall dynamics, as well as such mitral valve (MV) parameters as opening/closing velocities, excursions, and areas subtended by both MV leaflets. The data and results are stored on disc or tape and a report of the results is immediately available from a printer for incorporation into the patient's record file.

Diagnosis, Computer-Assisted

Real-world deployment of a fine-tuned pathology foundation model for lung cancer biomarker detection.

Artificial intelligence models using digital histopathology slides stained with hematoxylin and eosin offer promising, tissue-preserving diagnostic tools for patients with cancer. Despite their advantages, their clinical utility in real-world settings remains unproven. Assessing EGFR mutations in lung adenocarcinoma demands rapid, accurate and cost-effective tests that preserve tissue for genomic sequencing. PCR-based assays provide rapid results but with reduced accuracy compared with next-generation sequencing and require additional tissue. Computational biomarkers leveraging modern foundation models can address these limitations. Here we assembled a large international clinical dataset of digital lung adenocarcinoma slides (N = 8,461) to develop a computational EGFR biomarker. Our model fine-tunes an open-source foundation model, improving task-specific performance with out-of-center generalization and clinical-grade accuracy on primary and metastatic specimens (mean area under the curve: internal 0.847, external 0.870). To evaluate real-world clinical translation, we conducted a prospective silent trial of the biomarker on primary samples, achieving an area under the curve of 0.890. The artificial-intelligence-assisted workflow reduced the number of rapid molecular tests needed by up to 43% while maintaining the current clinical standard performance. Our retrospective and prospective analyses demonstrate the real-world clinical utility of a computational pathology biomarker.

Humans

Digital pathology, image analysis, and artificial intelligence in liver disease.

Advances in digital pathology, image analysis, and artificial intelligence (AI) are rapidly transforming how pathologists and researchers interact with tissue samples and enable the development of diagnostic tools that harness high-resolution whole-slide images; these advances are in turn creating new opportunities for research, education, and routine clinical care globally. Liver disease is no exception, and digital pathology and AI have many applications in the diagnosis of liver cancer and liver diseases and in the assessment and management of transplantation. Although quantitative image analysis techniques have been applied to liver disease in research settings for over 50 years, recent improvements in image resolution, data storage, and the availability of advanced AI methods such as deep learning have driven multiple exciting developments. In this Review, we summarise the advancements in digital pathology, image analysis, and AI in liver disease. Key challenges such as access to and the logistics of using digital solutions, quality issues, and appropriate guidance in research and clinical use are reviewed, along with potential solutions to these challenges in the context of liver pathology and liver disease. Digital technologies are well established in liver pathology research, and access in clinical practice is increasing, with potential to address current laboratory challenges. Further evaluation is required to assess real-world effectiveness, clinical safety, and implementation of AI tools in liver pathology.

Journal Article

Apperceptive signals demonstrating the dynamic disturbance of myocardial ischemia.

Analog pressure signals (catheter-tip manometers) from the left atrium, left ventricle, and aorta and a flow signal from the arota were obtained in 25, open-chest, anesthetized dogs in which 115 episodes of ischemia were produced in an area of the left ventricle subtended by the distal left anterior descending coronary artery and its last major diagonal branch. The left ventricular pressure and its first derivative (dP/dt) were displayed as an X-Y loop. The character of this loop went through a unique series of dynamic changes in 110 of the 115 ischemic episodes, indicating that this is a useful tool for monitoring myocardial ischemia. Spectrum pairs of the above signals were analyzed with digital computational transfer functions in 14 ischemic episodes of three experiments and preliminary assessment reveals unique pole and zero changes in many pairs during each episode which also may prove to be a useful indicator of the hemodynamic disturbance incurred during myocardial ischemia.

Analog-Digital Conversion

H&E to recurrence score: A step forward, but not yet a substitute for genomic testing.

Shamai and colleagues developed a multimodal deep-learning model that predicts Oncotype DX recurrence scores from routine H&E slides and clinicopathological variables in hormone receptor‑positive, HER2‑negative early breast cancer. Validated across the TAILORx trial and six external cohorts (over 5000 patients), the model achieved an AUC of 0.898 for identifying recurrence score ≥26 and recapitulated genomic assay patterns of chemotherapy benefit. Notably, 31% of clinically high-risk postmenopausal women were downgraded to low risk by AI, suggesting potential to reduce overtreatment. However, several limitations preclude immediate clinical substitution for genomic testing. First, intratumoural heterogeneity leads to discordant predictions with unclear management guidance. Second, the model's chemotherapy benefit estimates rely on TAILORx's age-based menopausal surrogates, which may not reflect real-world hormonal status or LHRH agonist use. Third, predictive value in node-positive disease remains untested in randomised datasets such as RxPONDER. Additionally, calibration uncertainty near risk thresholds and global scalability issues (including IHC requirements and digital pathology infrastructure) persist. While this represents a landmark step toward democratising precision oncology, the AI tool should currently serve as a complementary decision aid, with genomic testing remaining the gold standard for intermediate, borderline, or discordant cases.

Breast cancer

Development and Validation of a Multimodal Clinical, Pathologic, and Genomic Model for Breast Cancer Recurrence.

PURPOSE: To develop and validate a multimodal recurrence-risk model integrating histology, genomic testing, and clinical variables. METHODS: We developed AI-Path, a whole-slide image biomarker for recurrence prediction trained in CALGB 9344, and validated it in three independent cohorts: TAILORx, a multi-site Chicago cohort, and the MDX-BRCA cohort. We then integrated AI-Path with Oncotype DX Recurrence Score (RS), tumor size, and nodal status into a Cox model, PathClinRS, fit using 60% of cases from TAILORx, with the remaining 40% held out for validation. The primary end point was distant recurrence-free interval. Performance was assessed using Harrell's concordance index (C-index) and Kaplan-Meier analyses. RESULTS: A total of 12,418 patients were included. In TAILORx, AI-Path outperformed RS for distant recurrence (C-index, 0.682 vs 0.647; P = .038), driven by superior prediction of late recurrence (0.656 vs 0.567; P < .001). In node-negative disease, PathClinRS outperformed RSClin in the TAILORx fitting (0.72 vs 0.70; P = .016) and validation sets (0.74 vs 0.70; P = .004). In node-positive disease, PathClinRS outperformed RSClinN+ in Chicago (0.94 vs 0.74; P < .001) and MDX-BRCA (0.71 vs 0.66; P = .004) cohorts. Compared with NATALEE eligibility, PathClinRS identified nearly twice as many high-risk node-negative patients while maintaining a comparable 10-year distant recurrence risk (16.7% vs 16.6% per NATALEE eligibility in TAILORx fitting; 21.0% vs 19.4% in TAILORx validation). PathClinRS identified 68% of intermediate risk premenopausal patients as low-risk with no evidence of chemotherapy benefit, compared to only 36% identified as low risk by standard clinicopathologic criteria. CONCLUSION: Digital histopathology provides prognostic information complementary to genomic assays and has the potential to personalize therapy beyond existing clinicogenomic tools.

Journal Article