[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1001/jamaoto.2024.2270.].
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1001/jamaoto.2024.2270.].
Importance: Cochlear implants can restore sound and enable speech and language development for children with severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss. Long-term outcomes of pediatric cochlear implant recipients are variable. Although the association between social determinants of health (SDH) and pediatric cochlear implant outcomes has been explored, the strength of this association has not been quantitatively synthesized in the literature.
Objective: To determine the association of SDH with language and academic outcomes in pediatric cochlear implant recipients.
Data sources: In August 2023, the following databases were searched: Embase.com, Ovid MEDLINE, Scopus, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature Plus, APA PsycINFO, and ClinicalTrials.gov. Following duplicate exclusion of 8687 results, 5326 records were finalized.
Study selection: Abstract screening, full-text review, and risk of bias assessment was performed by 1 to 2 reviewers. Articles were included if an effect size for an SDH variable that was associated with measures of language, communication, reading, academics, and quality of life was reported.
Main outcomes and measures: A random-effects meta-analysis was performed, with standardized regression coefficients measuring the relative direction and magnitude of a variable association with the outcome of interest.
Results: Of 5326 articles, 40 articles that included a total of 3809 children were included in the systematic review; 20 articles that included a total of 1905 children were included in the meta-analysis. Parental involvement, education level, and low socioeconomic status were moderately to strongly associated with language outcomes (β = 0.30; 95% CI, 0.13-0.48; β = 0.45; 95% CI, 0.29-0.62; β = -0.47; 95% CI, -0.83 to -0.10, respectively). Known determinants of language outcomes, such as the age of cochlear implantation and duration of cochlear implant use, demonstrated moderate to no associations with language outcomes (β = -0.30; 95% CI, -0.43 to -0.17; β = 0.19; 95% CI, -0.26 to 0.63, respectively).
Conclusions and relevance: The results of this systematic review and meta-analysis suggest that SDH are associated with childhood language development and academic achievement. In addition to efforts to expedite cochlear implant placement in eligible children, optimal outcomes may be achieved with interventions centered on the child's home, primary medical care, and school environment.
Importance: Prior research has demonstrated an association between vitamin D deficiency and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in adults; however, its association with pediatric OSA is emerging.
Objective: To evaluate the association of vitamin D levels with obstructive Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) in children with OSA.
Design, settings, and participants: This was a cross-sectional study of children aged 2 to 16 years with severe obstructive OSA (AHI ≥20 on polysomnogram) who were undergoing adenotonsillectomy at a tertiary care pediatric otolaryngology clinic from 2017 to 2022. Age, sex, race, body mass index, history of asthma, and season were considered in the analyses. Data were analyzed from September 3, 2021, to October 8, 2021.
Main outcomes and measures: Serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25[OH]D) levels were measured and assessed for correlation with polysomnography metrics. Fasting blood samples were collected and vitamin D deficiency was defined as 25(OH)D level less than 20 ng/mL.
Results: The consecutive sample included 72 patients (mean [SD] age, 6.7 [3.9] years; 34 [47.2%] females and 38 [52.8%] males). The mean (SD) AHI was 42.8 (25.5), and 35 participants (49.0%) had obesity. Vitamin D deficiency was present in 27 participants (37.5%). In univariate analysis, vitamin D deficiency was associated with younger age (difference, -5.0; 95% CI, -7.2 to -2.8), Black race (odds ratio [OR], 4.3; 95% CI, 1.4 to 14.3), female sex (OR, 4.8; 95% CI, 1.7 to 12.5), and higher obstructive AHI (difference, 13.8; 95% CI, 1.2 to 26.4). In multivariable analysis, vitamin D deficiency remained significantly associated with AHI. A 1.0-unit decrease in serum 25(OH)D levels was associated with an AHI increase of 0.7 (95% CI, 0.04 to 1.40).
Conclusions: The findings of this cross-sectional study indicate that vitamin D deficiency was common in children undergoing adenotonsillectomy for severe OSA and is significantly associated with increased OSA severity. Future research is needed on vitamin D supplementation and its association with any improvements in pediatric OSA treatment outcomes.
Importance: Recurrent human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) is a relatively rare but serious disease with little empirical data. Previous works have studied patterns of recurrence in HPV-positive OPSCC, but only one has studied truly recurrent disease as opposed to persistent disease, and no work systematically analyzed posttreatment surveillance imaging strategies and how recurrences were detected.
Objective: To refine the understanding of HPV-positive OPSCC recurrence and inform optimal imaging surveillance strategies.
Design, setting, and participants: This retrospective cohort study involved electronic medical record review at a tertiary care hospital. Patients treated for OPSCC from 2012 to 2019 were extracted, and patients diagnosed with HPV-positive OPSCC were identified. Data were analyzed from December 2022 to May 2023.
Main outcome measures: Percentage of patients with a true recurrence, location of recurrence, time of recurrence detection, and method of recurrence detection. Recurrence was demonstrated with a scan after an imaging-established disease-free state 3 to 6 months posttreatment.
Results: Of the 367 patients with HPV-positive OPSCC (mean [SD] age, 60.6 [9.2] years; 310 [84.5%] male), 37 (10.1%) experienced true disease recurrence. Median (IQR) follow-up time of the cohort was 3.6 years (8.5-88 months), defined as time from diagnosis to death or last contact. Within the true recurrence cohort, 21 patients (56.8%) experienced local, regional, or local and regional recurrence (LRR); 15 (40.5%) experienced distant metastasis (DM); and 1 (2.7%) experienced both LRR and DM. The mean (SD) time for detecting LRR was 2.46 (1.94) years and was considerably longer compared to the 1.89 (0.87) years for detecting DM (difference, 0.57 [95% CI, -0.29 to 1.02] years). The majority of patients identified their recurrence through symptom changes (31 [81.1%]) rather than through surveillance imaging (3 [8.1%]).
Conclusion and relevance: In this cohort study, 10.1% of patients experienced true HPV-positive OPSCC disease recurrence, with most incidences of DM occurring in the lung and brain. Disease recurrence was identified primarily through symptomatic change, suggesting that further research may be needed to understand the optimal surveillance strategies after definitive treatment.
Importance: Accurate, timely, and cost-effective methods for staging oropharyngeal cancers are crucial for patient prognosis and treatment decisions, but staging documentation is often inaccurate or incomplete. With the emergence of artificial intelligence in medicine, data abstraction may be associated with reduced costs but increased efficiency and accuracy of cancer staging.
Objective: To evaluate an algorithm using an artificial intelligence engine capable of extracting essential information from medical records of patients with oropharyngeal cancer and assigning tumor, nodal, and metastatic stages according to American Joint Committee on Cancer eighth edition guidelines.
Design, setting, and participants: This retrospective diagnostic study was conducted among a convenience sample of 806 patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma. Medical records of patients with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinomas who presented to a single tertiary care center between January 1, 2010, and August 1, 2020, were reviewed. A ground truth cancer stage dataset and comprehensive staging rule book consisting of 135 rules encompassing p16 status, tumor, and nodal and metastatic stage were developed. Subsequently, 4 distinct models were trained: model T (entity relationship extraction) for anatomical location and invasion state, model S (numerical extraction) for lesion size, model M (sequential classification) for metastasis detection, and a p16 model for p16 status. For validation, results were compared against ground truth established by expert reviewers, and accuracy was reported. Data were analyzed from March to November 2023.
Main outcomes and measures: The accuracy of algorithm cancer stages was compared with ground truth.
Results: Among 806 patients with oropharyngeal cancer (mean [SD] age, 63.6 [10.6] years; 651 males [80.8%]), 421 patients (52.2%) were positive for human papillomavirus. The artificial intelligence engine achieved accuracies of 55.9% (95% CI, 52.5%-59.3%) for tumor, 56.0% (95% CI, 52.5%-59.4%) for nodal, and 87.6% (95% CI, 85.1%-89.7%) for metastatic stages and 92.1% (95% CI, 88.5%-94.6%) for p16 status. Differentiation between localized (stages 1-2) and advanced (stages 3-4) cancers achieved 80.7% (95% CI, 77.8%-83.2%) accuracy.
Conclusion and relevance: This study found that tumor and nodal staging accuracies were fair to good and excellent for metastatic stage and p16 status, with clinical relevance in assigning optimal treatment and reducing toxic effect exposures. Further model refinement and external validation with electronic health records at different institutions are necessary to improve algorithm accuracy and clinical applicability.