ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: ChatGPT has recently emerged as a novel resource for patients' disease-specific inquiries. There is, however, limited evidence assessing the quality of the information. We evaluated the accuracy and quality of the ChatGPT's responses on male lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) suggestive of benign prostate enlargement (BPE) when compared to two reference resources. METHODS: Using patient information websites from the European Association of Urology and the American Urological Association as reference material, we formulated 88 BPE-centric questions for ChatGPT 4.0+. Independently and in duplicate, we compared the ChatGPT's responses and the reference material, calculating accuracy through F1 score, precision, and recall metrics. We used a 5-point Likert scale for quality rating. We evaluated examiner agreement using the interclass correlation coefficient and assessed the difference in the quality scores with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. RESULTS: ChatGPT addressed all (88/88) LUTS/BPE-related questions. For the 88 questions, the recorded F1 score was 0.79 (range: 0-1), precision 0.66 (range: 0-1), recall 0.97 (range: 0-1), and the quality score had a median of 4 (range = 1-5). Examiners had a good level of agreement (ICC = 0.86). We found no statistically significant difference between the scores given by the examiners and the overall quality of the responses (p = 0.72). DISCUSSION: ChatGPT demostrated a potential utility in educating patients about BPE/LUTS, its prognosis, and treatment that helps in the decision-making process. One must exercise prudence when recommending this as the sole information outlet. Additional studies are needed to completely understand the full extent of AI's efficacy in delivering patient education in urology.
ABSTRACT
Laminin, a non-collagenous glycoprotein present in the brain extracellular matrix, helps to maintain blood-brain barrier (BBB) integrity and regulation. Neuroinflammation can compromise laminin structure and function, increasing BBB permeability. The aim of this paper is to determine if neuroinflammation-induced laminin functional changes may serve as a potential biomarker of alterations in the BBB. The 38 publications included evaluated neuroinflammation, BBB disruption, and laminin, and were assessed for quality and risk of bias (protocol registered in PROSPERO; CRD42020212547). We found that laminin may be a good indicator of BBB overall structural integrity, although changes in expression are dependent on the pathologic or experimental model used. In ischemic stroke, permanent vascular damage correlates with increased laminin expression (ß and γ subunits), while transient damage correlates with reduced laminin expression (α subunits). Laminin was reduced in traumatic brain injury and cerebral hemorrhage studies but increased in multiple sclerosis and status epilepticus studies. Despite these observations, there is limited knowledge about the role played by different subunits or isoforms (such as 411 or 511) of laminin in maintaining structural architecture of the BBB under neuroinflammation. Further studies may clarify this aspect and the possibility of using laminin as a biomarker in different pathologies, which have alterations in BBB function in common.
