Humans

Importance Metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) includes a range of liver conditions, progressing from isolated steatosis (characterized by fat accumulation in the liver without inflammation) to metabolic dysfunction–associated steatohepatitis (MASH), which involves fat accumulation and inflammation in the liver. The presence of MASLD is associated with increased morbidity and mortality due to liver-related complications, hepatocellular carcinoma, cardiovascular disease, and certain extrahepatic cancers.

Observations The most common chronic liver disease worldwide, MASLD affects approximately 30% to 40% of the general adult population globally (with varying prevalence across continents), including approximately 60% to 70% of individuals with type 2 diabetes and approximately 70% to 80% of those with obesity. It is typically diagnosed based on an ultrasonographic finding of hepatic steatosis, along with at least 1 of 5 features of the metabolic syndrome (abdominal overweight or obesity, prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, hypertension, elevated level of plasma triglycerides, and low level of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol) for women who consume less than 140 g/wk of alcohol (<2 standard drinks/d) and for men who consume less than 210 g/wk (<3 standard drinks/d) and have no other known causes of steatosis such as use of a particular medication (eg, corticosteroids, tamoxifen, or methotrexate), hepatitis C, or iron overload. Other risk factors for MASLD include older age (≥50 years) and male sex (male:female ratio approximately 2). The Fibrosis-4 index (a scoring system incorporating age, serum levels of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase, and platelet count) and vibration-controlled transient elastography (a noninvasive imaging technique) are commonly used to stage hepatic fibrosis in patients with MASLD. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death, followed by certain extrahepatic cancers (primarily gastrointestinal, breast, and gynecologic cancer) and liver-related complications, including cirrhosis, hepatic decompensation (ascites, hepatic encephalopathy, or variceal bleeding), and hepatocellular carcinoma. First-line treatment of MASLD involves behavioral modifications (including hypocaloric low-carbohydrate and low-fat diets, physical exercise, and avoidance of alcohol) and management of type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Bariatric surgery should be considered for patients with MASLD and a body mass index greater than 35. Resmetirom (a liver-directed, thyroid hormone receptor β-selective agonist) and subcutaneous semaglutide (a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist) are conditionally approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of adults with MASH who have moderate to advanced fibrosis.

Conclusions A highly prevalent condition among adults worldwide, MASLD is associated with liver-related complications, hepatocellular carcinoma, cardiovascular disease, and certain extrahepatic cancers. First-line treatment includes behavioral modifications, including a weight-reducing diet, physical exercise, and avoidance of alcohol. Resmetirom and semaglutide are conditionally FDA-approved medications for the treatment of adults with MASH and moderate to advanced fibrosis.

Importance Hemorrhoidal disease, pathology of the tissue lining of the anal canal, affects approximately 10 million individuals in the US. Hemorrhoidal disease may impair quality of life due to bleeding, pain, anal irritation, and tissue prolapse.

Observations Hemorrhoids are classified as internal, external, or mixed (concurrent internal and external hemorrhoidal disease). Internal hemorrhoids originate above the dentate line, the boundary between the upper and lower anal canal, and may cause rectal bleeding, discomfort, and tissue prolapse from the anal canal. Internal hemorrhoid prolapse is classified as grade I (into anal canal), grade II (beyond the anus with spontaneous reduction), grade III (requiring manual reduction), and grade IV (irreducible). External hemorrhoids, arising below the dentate line, cause rectal pain when engorged or thrombosed. Initial treatment of all hemorrhoidal disease involves increasing intake of dietary fiber and water and avoiding straining during defecation. Phlebotonics (eg, flavonoids [thought to improve venous tone]) reduce bleeding, rectal pain, and swelling, although symptom recurrence reaches 80% within 3 to 6 months after treatment cessation. If dietary modification and phlebotonics are ineffective, grade I to grade III internal hemorrhoidal disease can be treated with office-based interventions. Rubber band ligation—placing a band around the base of hemorrhoid tissue during anoscopy to restrict blood flow—resolves symptoms in 89% of patients, but repeated banding is needed in up to 20%. Sclerotherapy, which induces fibrosis with a sclerosant injection, is efficacious in the short term (weeks to months) among 70% to 85% of patients, but long-term remission occurs in only one-third of patients. Infrared coagulation uses heat to coagulate hemorrhoidal tissue, yielding 70% to 80% success in reducing bleeding and prolapse. Excisional hemorrhoidectomy, for disease unresponsive to office-based therapy or for mixed hemorrhoidal disease, achieves low recurrence (2%-10%), although with longer recovery (9-14 days). External hemorrhoidal disease rarely requires surgery unless acutely thrombosed. Outpatient clot evacuation within 72 hours of onset of a thrombosed external hemorrhoid is associated with decreased pain and reduced risk of repeat thrombosis. Patients presenting more than 72 hours after external hemorrhoid acute thrombosis should receive medical treatment (eg, stool softeners, oral and topical analgesics such as 5% lidocaine).

Conclusions and Relevance Hemorrhoidal disease affects 10 million people in the US. First-line treatment is increased fiber intake, avoidance of straining during defecation, and phlebotonics. In-office rubber band ligation for grade I to III internal hemorrhoid disease is first-line procedural treatment for persistent symptoms despite conservative therapies. Excisional hemorrhoidectomy is recommended for grade III to IV prolapse, thrombosis, or mixed hemorrhoidal disease that does not improve with less invasive approaches.

Importance: While in short supply and high demand, ambulatory care clinicians spend more time on administrative tasks and documentation in the electronic health record than on direct patient care, which has been associated with burnout, intention to leave, and reduced quality of care.

Objective: To examine whether ambient AI scribes are associated with reducing clinician administrative burden and burnout.

Design, setting, and participants: This quality improvement study used preintervention and 30-day postintervention surveys to evaluate the use of the same ambient AI platform for clinical note documentation among ambulatory care physicians and advanced practice practitioners of 6 academic and community-based health care systems across the US. Clinicians were recruited by the health systems' digital health leaders; participation was voluntary. The study was conducted between February 1 and October 31, 2024.

Exposure: Use of an ambient AI scribe for 30 days.

Main outcomes and measures: The primary outcome was change in self-reported burnout, estimated using hierarchical logistic regression. Secondary outcomes of burnout evaluated were changes in note-related cognitive task load, focused attention on patients, patient understandability of notes, ability to add patients to the clinic schedule if urgently needed, and time spent documenting after hours. Outcome measures were linearly transformed to 10-point scales to ease interpretation and comparison. Differences between preintervention and postintervention scores were determined using paired t tests.

Results: Of the 451 clinicians enrolled, 272 completed the preintervention and postintervention surveys (60.3% completion rate), and 263 with direct patient care in ambulatory clinics (mean [SD] years in practice, 15.1 [9.3]; 141 female [53.6%]) were included in the analysis. The sample included 131 primary care practitioners (49.7%), 232 attending physicians (88.2%), and 168 academic faculty (63.9%). After 30 days with the ambient AI scribe, the proportion of participants experiencing burnout decreased significantly from 51.9% to 38.8% (odds ratio, 0.26; 95% CI, 0.13-0.54). On 10-point scales, the ambient AI scribe was associated with significant improvements in secondary outcomes of burnout (mean [SE] difference, 0.47 [0.12] points), note-related cognitive task load (mean [SE] difference, 2.64 [0.13] points), ability to provide undivided attention (mean [SE] difference, 2.05 [0.18] points), patient understandability of their care plans from reading the notes (mean [SE] difference, -0.44 [0.17] points), ability to add patients to the clinic schedule if urgently needed (mean [SE] difference, 0.51 [0.24] points), and time spent documenting after hours (mean [SE] difference, 0.90 [0.19] hours).

Conclusions and relevance: This multicenter quality improvement study found that use of an ambient AI scribe platform was associated with a significant reduction in burnout, cognitive task load, and time spent documenting, as well as the perception that it could improve patient access to care and increase attention on patient concerns in an ambulatory environment. These findings suggest that AI may help reduce administrative burdens for clinicians and allow more time for meaningful work and professional well-being.

Objective: To assess the efficacy and safety of various exercise modalities as therapeutic interventions for managing knee osteoarthritis.

Design: Systematic review with network meta-analysis.

Data sources: PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, Web of Science, CINAHL, PsycINFO, AMED, PEDro, Scopus, ClinicalTrials.gov, ICTRP, and ClinicalTrialsRegister.eu from database inception to August 2024.

Eligibility criteria for selecting studies: Randomised controlled trials comparing different exercise modalities, including aerobic exercise, flexibility exercise, mind-body exercise, neuromotor exercise, strengthening exercise, mixed exercise, and control group for patients with knee osteoarthritis.

Main outcome measures: Primary outcomes included pain, function, gait performance, and quality of life, assessed at short term (four weeks), mid-term (12 weeks), and long term (24 weeks) follow-up. When exact time points were unavailable, data from adjacent time windows were used.

Results: 217 randomised controlled trials involving 15 684 participants were included. Moderate certainty evidence showed that, compared with the control group, aerobic exercise probably results in large improvements in pain at short term (standardised mean difference -1.10, 95% confidence interval -1.68 to -0.52) and mid-term follow-up (-1.19, -1.59 to -0.79), function at mid-term (1.78, 1.05 to 2.51), gait performance at mid-term (0.85, 0.55 to 1.14), and quality of life at short term (1.53, 0.47 to 2.59). Mind-body exercise probably results in a large increase in function at short term follow-up (0.88, 0.03 to 1.73; moderate certainty), while neuromotor exercise probably results in a large increase in gait performance at short term follow-up (1.04, 0.51 to 1.57; moderate certainty). Strengthening (0.86, 0.53 to 1.18) and mixed exercise (1.07, 0.68 to 1.46) probably result in a large increase in function at mid-term follow-up, all with moderate certainty evidence. Regarding long term follow-up, flexibility exercise may result in a large reduction in pain (-0.99, -1.63 to -0.36; low certainty); aerobic exercise may result in a large increase in function (0.87, 0.02 to 1.72, low certainty); and mixed exercise may increase function (0.56, 0.26 to 0.86; low certainty) and probably increases gait performance (0.57, 0.21 to 0.92, moderate certainty). Overall, aerobic exercise consistently showed the highest probability of being the best treatment, as reflected by surface under the cumulative ranking curve values (mean 0.72) across outcomes. The safety outcome was reported in a small proportion of studies (40 studies, 18%), and no clear differences were observed between exercise interventions and control.

Conclusions: In patients with knee osteoarthritis, aerobic exercise is likely the most beneficial exercise modality for improving pain, function, gait performance, and quality of life, with moderate certainty.

Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42023469762.