A group at Niigata University succeeded in the early diagnosis of leptomeningeal disease in H3K27M-mutant diffuse midline gliomas by the detection of circulating tumor DNA in the cerebrospinal fluid of these patients by liquid biopsy. In two cases, leptomeningeal disease was detected by liquid biopsy earlier than traditional methods such as MRI or cerebrospinal fluid cytology. Early diagnosis and treatment of leptomeningeal disease may lead to improved survival in this deadly disease.

The book Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Daniel Kahneman, put forward the idea that we reason using not one but two systems, System 1 and System 2, which are fast and slow, respectively. According to Kahneman’s model, we use System 1 when stress is very low or very high and we use System 2 when stress is moderate. Studies that explore how we use these systems for decision-making in various stressful conditions have recently been summarized in a systematic review that asks three questions: What experimental protocols should be used? How should physiological responses to stress be measured? How can physiological measurements be used to represent stress quantitatively? The open access review article, titled “Measurement and Quantification of Stress in the Decision Process: A Model-Based Systematic Review”, was published Sep. 18 in Intelligent Computing, a Science Partner Journal.

University Hospitals is now offering endoscopic spine surgery for patients needing treatment for back pain due to herniated discs in their spine. Xiaofei (Sophie) Zhou, MD, completed Arthrex's Endoscopic Spine Training course to bring this advanced procedure to the health system and recently completed the first endoscopic discectomy utilizing Arthrex technology at UH. The health system is the only one in the greater Cleveland area offering this type of ultra-minimally invasive surgery.