Andreas Katsimpris - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Andreas Katsimpris

International Journal of Medical and Pharmaceutical Case Reports

Aims: To report a rare case of foveoschisis caused by vitreomacular traction in a young emmetropi... more Aims: To report a rare case of foveoschisis caused by vitreomacular traction in a young emmetropic female patient. Presentation of the Case: A 37-year-old woman, without any systemic or ocular disorders, presented with progressively reduced visual acuity in her right eye over the last 3 months. Best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was counting fingers in the right eye. Optical coherence tomography revealed foveoschisis with foveal detachment in her right eye, which was successfully treated with pars plana vitrectomy without internal limiting membrane peeling and gas tamponade. Three months post-operatively the BCVA improved to 6/12. Discussion and Conclusion: Although high myopia is the main cause of foveoschsis, vitreomacular traction can rarely be associated with foveoschisis, specially in young patients without myopia or any other ocular history. In these cases pars plana vitrectomy with extensive posterior vitreous detachment induction may have favorable visual outcomes.

Diagnostics

Few studies so far have examined the impact of nutritional status on the survival of children wit... more Few studies so far have examined the impact of nutritional status on the survival of children with cancer, with the majority of them focusing on hematological malignancies. We summarized published evidence reporting the association of nutritional status at diagnosis with overall survival (OS), event-free survival (EFS), relapse, and treatment-related toxicity (TRT) in children with cancer. Published studies on children with leukemia, lymphoma, and other solid tumors have shown that both under-nourished and over-nourished children at cancer diagnosis had worse OS and EFS. Particularly, the risk of death and relapse increased by 30–50% among children with leukemia with increased body mass index at diagnosis. Likewise, the risk of TRT was higher among malnourished children with osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma. Nutritional status seems to play a crucial role in clinical outcomes of children with cancer, thus providing a significant modifiable prognostic tool in childhood cancer managemen...

Indian Journal of Ophthalmology - Case Reports

BackgroundTocilizumab and baricitinib have proven efficacy in COVID-19. There were no randomized-... more BackgroundTocilizumab and baricitinib have proven efficacy in COVID-19. There were no randomized-controlled trials comparing these compounds in patients with COVID-19.Materials/Patients and MethodsIn this open label, randomized controlled trial, we assigned 251 patients with COVID-19 and PaO2/FiO2<200 to receive either tocilizumab (n=126) or baricitinib (n=125) plus standard of care. To determine whether baricitinib was non-inferior to tocilizumab, we assessed if the upper boundary of the two-sided 95% confidence interval of the hazard ratio did not exceed 1.50. The primary outcome was mechanical ventilation or death by day 28. Secondary outcomes included time to hospital discharge by day 28 and change in WHO progression scale at day 10.ResultsBaricitinib was non-inferior to tocilizumab for the primary composite outcome of mechanical ventilation or death by day 28 (HR 0.83, 95% CI: 0.56 to 1.21, p=0.001 for non-inferiority). Baricitinib was non-inferior to tocilizumab for the tim...

Aim: To explore the validity and strength of evidence on the association between environmental fa... more Aim: To explore the validity and strength of evidence on the association between environmental factors and risk of developing childhood (0-14 years) cancer. Methods: An umbrella review was conducted including systematic reviews and meta-analyses of observational epidemiological studies that examined the association of any environmental exposure of either parent or child with any type of childhood cancer. PubMed and Scopus databases were searched until April 2020. Based on predefined criteria, the evidence was graded into strong, highly suggestive, suggestive or weak. Results: 509 meta-analyses explored environmental exposures and risk of developing 10 different types of childhood cancer. Only 2.4% of the associations were considered to have highly suggestive evidence inferred by strongly statistically significant results. These associations were confined to increased risk of overall leukemia, especially acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), in relation to high birthweight, paternal sm...

BackgroundTo assess the visual and refractive outcomes of the non-diffractive extended depth of f... more BackgroundTo assess the visual and refractive outcomes of the non-diffractive extended depth of focus (EDOF) AcrySof ® IQ Vivity™ (Alcon, Fort Worth, TX, USA) intraocular lens (IOL) after bilateral implantation in patients undergoing phacoemulsification surgery. MethodsIn this prospective non-comparative study, 20 patients willing to undergo bilateral implantation of AcrySof ® IQ Vivity™ IOL were recruited at a single center (Eye Day Clinic, Athens, Greece). Pre- and post-operative clinical assessment of the patients included slit lamp examination, assessment of corrected distance visual acuity (CDVA) at 6 m, uncorrected distance visual acuity (UDVA) at 6 m, uncorrected intermediate visual acuity (UIVA) at 66 cm, uncorrected near visual acuity (UNVA) at 33 cm and optical biometry. Moreover, the presence of visual disturbances and the contrast sensitivity (CS) thresholds of all patients were assessed.ResultsThe mean ± standard deviation (SD) of monocular UDVA, UIVA and UNVA were 0.05...

Cancer Epidemiology, 2022

The etiology of childhood neuroblastoma remains largely unknown. In this systematic review and me... more The etiology of childhood neuroblastoma remains largely unknown. In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we summarized and quantitatively synthesized published evidence on the association of maternal modifiable lifestyle factors with neuroblastoma risk in the offspring. We searched MEDLINE up to December 31, 2020 for eligible studies assessing the association of maternal smoking, alcohol consumption and nutritional supplementation during pregnancy with childhood (0-14 years) neuroblastoma risk. Random-effects models were run, and summary odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) on the relevant associations were calculated, including estimates derived from primary data (n = 103 cases and n = 103 controls) of the Nationwide Registry for Childhood Hematological Malignancies and Solid Tumors (NARECHEM-ST) case control study (2009-2017) in Greece. Twenty-one eligible studies amounting 5163 cases participating in both case-control and cohort/linkage studies were included in the meta-analysis. Maternal smoking and alcohol consumption were not statistically significantly associated with neuroblastoma risk (summary ORsmoking: 1.08, 95% CI: 0.96-1.22, I2 =12.0%, n = 17 studies; summary ORalcohol: 1.01, 95% CI: 0.82-1.18, I2 =0.0%, n = 8 studies). By contrast, maternal vitamin intake during pregnancy was associated with significantly lower neuroblastoma risk (summary OR: 0.57, 95% CI: 0.34-0.95, I2 =58.9%, n = 4 studies). The results of the largest to-date meta-analysis point to an inverse association between vitamin intake during pregnancy and childhood neuroblastoma risk. Future longitudinal studies are needed to confirm and further specify these associations as to guide preventive efforts on modifiable maternal risk factors of childhood neuroblastoma.

Journal of Clinical & Experimental Ophthalmology, 2017

Objective: To investigate the effects of 400 mg of caffeine ingestion on previously untrained stu... more Objective: To investigate the effects of 400 mg of caffeine ingestion on previously untrained students' performance on simulated microsurgical tasks. Methods: 10 previously untrained students were included and randomised into two groups: a control or caffeine group. Each group received a 15-min orientation session on a microsurgical simulator (VRMagic eyesi surgical simulator, Mannheim, Germany). Each group then performed three repetitions of each task: a navigation task, a forceps task and a bimanual task. The control group repeated the testing sequence after a 30-min break. The caffeine group orally ingested 400 mg of caffeine and 30 min later repeated the same sequence. An ECG was performed on the caffeine group before and after caffeine ingestion to assess for arrhythmia. Overall score (%) was the primary outcome. Secondary outcomes included odometer (mm), time taken (s) and injured cornea and lens area (mm 2). Results: 10 subjects fulfilled all inclusion criteria. Mean age was 22.42 ± 0.92 years old. 4 subjects were male, 6 were female. 9 were right handed and 1 was left handed. The learning curve effect was significant and varying across subjects. There was no significant difference between baseline testing parameters of the two groups. There was no significant difference between the overall performance of the caffeinated and control groups. The control group did however complete the navigation and forceps tasks faster than the caffeine group. A reduction in the heart rate of the caffeine group was observed after caffeine dose. Conclusion: Our results show no significant change of simulated microsurgical ability after 400 mg of caffeine ingestion.

Journal of Nutritional Science, 2021

Numerous predictive models for the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) exist, but a minority ... more Numerous predictive models for the risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) exist, but a minority of them has implemented nutrition data so far, even though the significant effect of nutrition on the pathogenesis, prevention and management of T2DM has been established. Thus, in the present study, we aimed to build a predictive model for the risk of T2DM that incorporates nutrition data and calculates its predictive performance. We analysed cross-sectional data from 1591 individuals from the population-based Cooperative Health Research in the Region of Augsburg (KORA) FF4 study (2013–14) and used a bootstrap enhanced elastic net penalised multivariate regression method in order to build our predictive model and select among 193 food intake variables. After selecting the significant predictor variables, we built a logistic regression model with these variables as predictors and T2DM status as the outcome. The values of area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, sensi...

Cancer Epidemiology, 2020

Background: Little is known about the etiology of childhood Wilms tumor (WT) and potentially modi... more Background: Little is known about the etiology of childhood Wilms tumor (WT) and potentially modifiable maternal risk factors, in particular. Methods: Unpublished data derived from the hospital-based, case-control study of the Greek Nationwide Registry for Childhood Hematological Malignancies and Solid Tumors (NARECHEM-ST) were included in an ad hoc conducted systematic literature review and meta-analyses examining the association between modifiable maternal lifestyle risk factors and WT. Eligible data were meta-analysed in separate strands regarding the associations of WT with (a) maternal folic acid and/or vitamins supplementation, (b) alcohol consumption and (c) smoking during pregnancy. The quality of eligible studies was evaluated using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Results: Effect estimates from 72 cases and 72 age-and sex-matched controls contributed by NARECHEM-ST were meta-analysed together with those of another 17, mainly medium size, studies of ecological, case-control and cohort design. Maternal intake of folic acid and/or other vitamins supplements during pregnancy was inversely associated with WT risk (6 studies, OR: 0.78; 95 %CI: 0.69-0.89, I 2 = 5.4 %); of similar size was the association for folic acid intake alone (4 studies, OR: 0.79; 95 %CI: 0.69-0.91, I 2 = 0.0 %), derived mainly from ecological studies. In the Greek study a positive association (OR: 5.31; 95 %CI: 2.00-14.10) was found for mothers who consumed alcohol only before pregnancy vs. never drinkers whereas in the meta-analysis of the four homogeneous studies examining the effect of alcohol consumption during pregnancy the respective overall result showed an OR: 1.60 (4 studies, 95 %CI: 1.28-2.01, I 2 = 0.0 %). Lastly, no association was seen with maternal smoking during pregnancy (14 studies, OR: 0.93; 95 %CI: 0.80-1.09, I 2 = 0.0 %). Conclusions: In the largest to-date meta-analysis, there was an inverse association of maternal folic acid or vitamins supplementation with WT risk in the offspring, derived mainly from ecological studies. The association with maternal alcohol consumption found in our study needs to be further explored whereas no association with maternal smoking was detected. Given the proven benefits for other health conditions, recommendations regarding folic acid supplementation as well as smoking and alcohol cessation should apply. The maternal alcohol

Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2020

This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the ad... more This is a PDF file of an article that has undergone enhancements after acceptance, such as the addition of a cover page and metadata, and formatting for readability, but it is not yet the definitive version of record. This version will undergo additional copyediting, typesetting and review before it is published in its final form, but we are providing this version to give early visibility of the article. Please note that, during the production process, errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

Journal of General Internal Medicine, 2019

BACKGROUND: Reduced physical function and polypharmacy (PPha) are two highly prevalent negative e... more BACKGROUND: Reduced physical function and polypharmacy (PPha) are two highly prevalent negative effects of aging, which are expected to increase more, since demographic aging is expected to grow rapidly within the next decades. Previous research suggests that polypharmacy (PPha) is a predictor of poor physical function and vice versa in older adults and therefore we conducted a systematic review of the literature to summarize and critically analyze the relationship between physical function and PPha and vice versa in older adults, in order to provide recent scientific evidence. METHODS: We searched MEDLINE and Embase from their inception to 19th October 2018 for Englishlanguage observational studies or trials assessing the effect of PPha on physical function and vice versa in older adults. Two investigators independently extracted study data and assessed the quality of the studies, after having screened the available studies from the literature search. Any disagreement was resolved by consensus. RESULTS: Eighteen observational studies met the inclusion criteria. Eight studies assessed the impact of physical function on PPha and ten studies assessed the impact of PPha on physical function. Regarding the studies with PPha measurements as the outcome, all of them, except for one, found that better physical function is associated with lower risk of PPha. Likewise, all the studies with physical function measurements as the outcome, except for one, suggested that PPha is associated with lower physical function. DISCUSSION: Evidence examining the effect of PPha on physical function and vice versa in older adults suggests a strong bidirectional association between these two factors and clinicians should be aware of this strong relationship. The limitations of our study include the high variability in PPha definitions and physical function measures, and the treatment of PPha and physical function as constant instead of time-varying variables in the studies' analyses.

BackgroundSeveral observational studies have investigated the association between cannabis use an... more BackgroundSeveral observational studies have investigated the association between cannabis use and intraocular pressure, but its association with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG) remains unclear. In this study, we leveraged human genetic data to assess through Mendelian randomization (MR) whether cannabis use affects POAG.MethodsWe used five single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with lifetime cannabis use (P-value < 5×10−8) from a genome-wide association study (GWAS) (N = 184,765) by the International Cannabis Consortium, 23andMe, and UK Biobank and eleven SNPs associated with cannabis use disorder (P-value < 5×10−7) from a GWAS meta-analysis of (17,068 cases and 357,219 controls of European descent) from Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Substance Use Disorders working group, Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research, and deCode. We associated these SNPs with the largest to date GWAS meta-analysis of POAG (16,677 cases and 199,580 control...