The Ottawa panel

BACKGROUND: The disruption of the neurovascular unit (NVU), which maintains the integrity of the blood brain barrier (BBB), has been identified as a critical mechanism in the development of cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative disorders. However, the understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms linking NVU dysfunction to the disorders is incomplete, and reliable blood biomarkers to measure NVU dysfunction are yet to be established. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to identify biomarkers associated with BBB dysfunction in large vessel disease, small vessel disease (SVD) and vascular cognitive disorders (VCD)...

Many forms of childhood glaucoma have been associated with underlying genetic changes, and variants in many genes have been described. Currently, testing is variable as there are no widely accepted guidelines for testing. This systematic review aimed to summarize the literature describing genetic changes and testing practices in childhood glaucoma. This systematic review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic review and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 guidelines and registered with Prospero (ID CRD42023400467)...

IMPORTANCE: There is marked variability in red blood cell (RBC) transfusion during the intraoperative period. The development and implementation of existing clinical practice guidelines have been ineffective in reducing this variability. OBJECTIVE: To develop an internationally endorsed consensus statement about intraoperative transfusion in major noncardiac surgery. EVIDENCE REVIEW: A Delphi consensus survey technique with an anonymous 3-round iterative rating and feedback process was used...

INTRODUCTION: In population-based research, disease ascertainment algorithms can be as accurate as, and less costly than, performing supplementary clinical examinations on selected participants to confirm a diagnosis of a neurocognitive disorder (NCD), but they require cohort-specific validation. To optimise the use of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) to understand the epidemiology and burden of NCDs, the CLSA Memory Study will validate an NCD ascertainment algorithm to identify CLSA participants with these disorders using routinely acquired study data...

BACKGROUND: During respiratory infection pandemics, masks and respirators are highly sought after, especially for frontline healthcare workers and patients carrying respiratory viruses. The objective of this study was to systematically review fit test pass rates and identify factors influencing the fitting characteristics. METHODS: Potentially relevant studies were identified using PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Science Direct during the COVID-19 pandemic from February 5, 2020, to March 21, 2023...

PURPOSE: To investigate the survival rate in implants placement in irradiated and non-irradiated bone in patients undergoing head and neck cancer (HNC) treatment. We focused on the consequences of the main complications, such as osteoradionecrosis and peri-implantitis. METHODS: An electronic search conducted by PRISMA protocol was performed. Full texts were carefully assessed, and data were assimilated into a tabular form for discussion and consensus among the expert panel...

BACKGROUND: Young adults with low sexual health literacy levels may find it difficult to make informed decisions about contraceptive methods. We developed and pilot-tested a web-based decision aid-Healthy Sex Choices-designed to support diverse young adults with their contraceptive decision-making. OBJECTIVE: This pilot study aimed to evaluate whether the Healthy Sex Choices decision aid is acceptable and feasible to patients and clinicians. METHODS: We used the Ottawa Decision Support Framework and the International Patient Decision Aid Standards to develop and pilot the decision tool...

In Canada, the length of the frost-free season necessitates planting crops as early as possible to ensure that the plants have enough time to reach full maturity before they are harvested. Early planting carries inherent risks of cold water imbibition (specifically less than 4°C) affecting seed germination. A marker dataset developed for a previously identified Canadian soybean GWAS panel was leveraged to investigate the effect of cold water imbibition on germination. Seed from a panel of 137 soybean elite cultivars, grown in the field at Ottawa, ON, over three years, were placed on filter paper in petri dishes and allowed to imbibe water for 16 hours at either 4°C or 20°C prior to being transferred to a constant 20°C...

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer susceptibility gene (BRCA) mutation carriers are at an increased risk for breast, ovarian, prostate and pancreatic cancers. However, the role of BRCA is unclear in colorectal cancer; the results regarding the association between BRCA gene mutations and colorectal cancer risk are inconsistent and even controversial. This study aimed to investigate whether BRCA1 and BRCA2 gene mutations are associated with colorectal cancer risk. METHODS: In this systematic review, we searched PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase and Cochrane Library databases, adhering to PRISMA guidelines...

IMPORTANCE: Improvement in clinical understanding of the priorities of patients with breast cancer (BC) regarding postoperative aesthetic outcomes (AOs) is needed. OBJECTIVE: To assess expert panel and computerized evaluation modalities against patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs), the gold standard of AO assessment, in patients after surgical management of BC. DATA SOURCES: Embase, MEDLINE, PsycINFO, PubMed, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, and ClinicalTrials...

INTRODUCTION: The 2021 Action Plan for Pain from the Canadian Pain Task Force advocates for patient-centred pain care at all levels of healthcare across provinces. Shared decision-making is the crux of patient-centred care. Implementing the action plan will require innovative shared decision-making interventions, specifically following the disruption of chronic pain care during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first step in this endeavour is to assess current decisional needs (ie, decisions most important to them) of Canadians with chronic pain across their care pathways...

Delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) substantially contributes to disability and death in subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) patients; however, its pathophysiology is incompletely understood and diagnostic and therapeutic strategies are lacking. Biomarkers may help to elucidate the pathophysiology, optimize early diagnosis, or provide treatment targets. We systematically searched PubMed and Embase on October 13, 2021, for studies that evaluated at least one laboratory biomarker in patients with DCI, using the most up-to-date definition of DCI as proposed by a panel of experts in 2010...

BACKGROUND: Never before the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadians had faced making health-related decisions in a context of significant uncertainty. However, little is known about which type of decisions and the types of difficulties that they faced. OBJECTIVE: We sought to identify the health-related decisions and decisional needs of Canadians. METHODS: Our study was co-designed by researchers and knowledge users (eg, patients, clinicians). Informed by CHERRIES reporting guideline, we conducted two online surveys of random samples drawn from Leger consumer panel of 400,000 Canadians...

The extent of the COVID-19 pandemic will be better understood through serosurveys and SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing. Dried blood spot (DBS) samples will play a central role in large scale serosurveillance by simplifying biological specimen collection and transportation, especially in Canada. Direct comparative performance data on multiplex SARS-CoV-2 assays resulting from identical DBS samples are currently lacking. In our study, we aimed to provide performance data for the BioPlex 2200 SARS-CoV-2 IgG (Bio-Rad), V-PLEX SARS-CoV-2 Panel 2 IgG (MSD), and Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 (Roche) commercial assays, as well as for two highly scalable in-house assays (University of Ottawa and Mount Sinai Hospital protocols) to assess their suitability for DBS-based SARS-CoV-2 DBS serosurveillance...

Background: Next-generation sequencing (NGS) of tumor genomes has changed and improved cancer treatment over the past few decades. It can inform clinicians on the optimal therapeutic approach in many of the solid and hematologic cancers, including non-small lung cancer (NSCLC). Our study aimed to determine the costs of NGS assays for NSCLC diagnostics. Methods: We performed a micro-costing study of four NGS assays (Trusight Tumor 170 Kit (Illumina), Oncomine Focus (Thermo Fisher), QIAseq Targeted DNA Custom Panel and QIASeq Targeted RNAscan Custom Panel (Qiagen), and KAPA HyperPlus/SeqCap EZ (Roche)) at the StemCore Laboratories, the Ottawa Hospital, Canada...

Inuit are the Indigenous Arctic peoples and residents of the Canadian territory of Nunavut who have the highest global rate of lung cancer. Given lung cancer's mortality, histological and genomic characterization was undertaken to better understand the disease biology. We retrospectively studied all Inuit cases from Nunavut's Qikiqtani (Baffin) region, referred to the Ottawa Hospital Cancer Center between 2001 and 2011. Demographics were compiled from medical records and tumor samples underwent pathologic/histologic confirmation...

The first Danish symposium on evidence-based deprescribing was held in September 2019. The symposium aimed to increase the awareness of deprescribing in general, to discuss the importance of deprescribing, and, thus, a potential consensus on key issues on a national deprescribing agenda. The invited keynote speaker, Barbara Farrell, from the Bruyére Research Institute, Ottawa, Canada, presented their thorough work on deprescribing guideline development and application. The symposium consisted of two parts: Part 1 concentrated on establishing the need for deprescribing in our society...

BACKGROUND CONTEXT: Frailty is associated with an increased risk of postoperative adverse events (AEs) within the surgical spine population. Multiple frailty tools have been reported in the surgical spine literature. However, the applicability of these tools remains unclear. PURPOSE: Primary objective is to appraise the construct, feasibility, objectivity, and clinimetric properties of frailty tools reported in the surgical spine literature. Secondary objectives included determining the applicability and the most sensitive surgical spine population for each tool...

Data sources Four electronic databases were searched: Medline (OVID), Web of Science, Embase and Scopus. An initial search was carried out in May 2018, and this was updated in September 2020. There was no time restriction on the studies included, and the final data consisted of studies published from 2004-2020.Study selection The electronic database search yielded 2,764 abstracts, and following de-duplication, 1,873 articles were screened in accordance with the exclusion criteria. In total, 346 articles were selected for full-text screening by four pairs of blinded reviewers and 295 articles were included in the final study...

The efficient methylation of a panel of five industrial and environmentally-relevant chlorophenols (CPs) employing trimethyloxonium tetrafluoroborate (TMO) for their qualitative detection and identification by electron impact gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (EI-GC-MS) is presented. The protocol's execution is simple and smoothly converts the phenols into their O-methylated counterparts conveniently at ambient temperature. The efficiency of two versions of the protocol was successfully tested in their ability to simultaneously derivatize five CPs (2-chlorophenol, 2,4-dichlorophenol, 2,4,6-trichlorophenol, pentachlorophenol and triclosan) in six distinct, separate soil matrices (Nebraska EPA standard soil, Virginia Type A soil, Ottawa sand, Baker sand, Silt and Georgia EPA standard soil) when present at low levels (~ 10 μgg-1 )...