Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Virtual Infection Prevention And Control In Low- And Middle-Income Countries, Tristan Jones, Kalisvar Marimuthu, Gonzalo Bearman

Internal Medicine Publications

COVID-19 brought new challenges and opportunities for infection prevention and control. Virtual infection prevention and control (VIPC), although nascent, is rapidly becoming a viable and necessary strategy for combatting the COVID-19 pandemic. Benefits of VIPC include extending the impact of globally scarce infectious disease providers and public health practitioners, allowing coordination between disparate professionals to more effectively combat infectious disease, and increasing access to and quality of healthcare. Although mainly applied in developed countries, VIPC may play its greatest role in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) with fewer healthcare resources. We conducted a brief literature search of VIPC in LMICs …

High-Resolution Mapping And Successful Ablation Of Purkinje Ectopy–Triggered Ventricular Fibrillation Storm, Alexandre Raymond-Paquin, Scott Lovejoy, Kenneth A. Ellenbogen, Santosh K. Padala

Internal Medicine Publications

Catheter ablation is recognized as a central therapeutic option in treating patients with drug-refractory, scar-related monomorphic ventricular tachycardia (VT). Catheter ablation also has a role in selected cases of polymorphic VT (PMVT) and/or ventricular fibrillation (VF). Rarely, premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) originating from the Purkinje network can induce PMVT/VF. Although not completely elucidated, the electrophysiologic mechanisms behind this lethal arrhythmia have generally been thought to be related to abnormal automaticity and triggered activity. Ablation of the triggering PVCs can prevent VF recurrence and is potentially lifesaving

Cystic Fibrosis And Sleep Circadian Rhythms, Mariam Louis, Peter Staiano, Lavender Micalo, Nauman Chaudary

Internal Medicine Publications

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is due to a mutation in the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator gene (CFTR), which leads to unusual water and chloride secretion across epithelial surfaces. The lungs are responsible for most morbidity, though other organs are frequently affected. Sleep abnormalities have long been recognized in CF. Abnormal ventilation and oxygenation, sinus disease, deconditioning due to muscle weakness and recurrent infections, and inflammation have been thought to play a role in sleep disorders in CF. However, there is evidence that CFTR gene dysregulation can affect circadian rhythms in CF. Early recognition and treatment of circadian rhythms may improve …

Effect Of Interleukin-1 Blockade With Anakinra On Leukocyte Count In Patients With St-Segment Elevation Acute Myocardial Infarction, Marco Giuseppe Del Buono, Juan I. Damonte, Cory R. Trankle, Dinesh Kadariya, Salvatore Carbone, Georgia Thomas, Jeremy Turlington, Roshanak Markley, Justin M. Canada, Giuseppe G. Biondi‐Zoccai, Michael C. Kontos, Benjamin W. Van Tassell, Antonio Abbate

Internal Medicine Publications

Leukocytosis is a common finding in patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) and portends a poor prognosis. Interleukin 1-β regulates leukopoiesis and pre-clinical studies suggest that anakinra (recombinant human interleukin-1 [IL-1] receptor antagonist) suppresses leukocytosis in myocardial infarction. However, the effect of IL-1 blockade with anakinra on leukocyte count in patients with STEMI is unknown. We reviewed the white blood cell (WBC) and differential count of 99 patients enrolled in a clinical trial of anakinra (n = 64) versus placebo (n = 35) for 14 days after STEMI. A complete blood cell count with differential count were obtained at …

Influence Of Extracellular Volume Fraction On Peak Exercise Oxygen Pulse Following Thoracic Radiotherapy, Justin M. Canada, Elisabeth Weiss, John D. Grizzard, Cory R. Trankle, Leila Rezai Gharai, Franklin Dana, Leo F. Buckley, Salvatore Carbone, Dinesh Kadariya, Anthony Ricco, Jennifer H. Jordan, Ronald K. Evans, Ryan S. Garten, Benjamin W. Van Tassell, W. Gregory Hundley, Antonio Abbate

Internal Medicine Publications

Background

Radiation-induced myocardial fibrosis increases heart failure (HF) risk and is associated with a restrictive cardiomyopathy phenotype. The myocardial extracellular volume fraction (ECVF) using contrast-enhanced cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) quantifies the extent of fibrosis which, in severe cases, results in a noncompliant left ventricle (LV) with an inability to augment exercise stroke volume (SV). The peak exercise oxygen pulse (O2Pulse), a noninvasive surrogate for exercise SV, may provide mechanistic insight into cardiac reserve. The relationship between LV ECVF and O2Pulse following thoracic radiotherapy has not been explored.

Methods

Patients who underwent thoracic radiotherapy for chest malignancies with significant incidental heart …

Calpain-Mediated Protein Targets In Cardiac Mitochondria Following Ischemia–Reperfusion, Ling Li, Jeremy Thompson, Ying Hu, Edward J. Lesnefsky, Belinda Willard, Qun Chen

Internal Medicine Publications

Calpain 1 and 2 (CPN1/2) are calcium-dependent cysteine proteases that exist in cytosol and mitochondria. Pharmacologic inhibition of CPN1/2 decreases cardiac injury during ischemia (ISC)–reperfusion (REP) by improving mitochondrial function. However, the protein targets of CPN1/2 activation during ISC–REP are unclear. CPN1/2 include a large subunit and a small regulatory subunit 1 (CPNS1). Genetic deletion of CPNS1 eliminates the activities of both CPN1 and CPN2. Conditional cardiomyocyte specific CPNS1 deletion mice were used in the present study to clarify the role of CPN1/2 activation in mitochondrial damage during ISC–REP with an emphasis on identifying the potential protein targets of CPN1/2. …

Cardiac Gene Therapy With Relaxin Receptor 1 Overexpression Protects Against Acute Myocardial Infarction, Teja Devarakonda, Adolfo G. Mauro, Chad Cain, Anindita Das, Fadi N. Salloum

Internal Medicine Publications

Relaxin is a pleiotropic hormone shown to confer cardioprotection in several preclinical models of cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury. In the present study, the effects of up-regulating relaxin family peptide receptor 1 (RXFP1) via adeno-associated virus serotype 9 (AAV9) vectors were investigated in a mouse model of myocardial infarction. AAV9-RXFP1 vectors were generated and injected in adult male CD1 mice. Up-regulation of Rxfp1 was confirmed via quantitative polymerase chain reaction, and overexpressing animals showed increased sensitivity to relaxin-induced ventricular inotropic response. Overexpressing animals also demonstrated reduced infarct size and preserved cardiac function 24 hours after ischemia-reperfusion. Up-regulation of RXFP1 via AAV9 vectors …

Rpop: Robust Pet-Only Processing Of Community Acquired Heterogeneous Amyloid-Pet Data, Leonardo Iaccarino, Renaud La Joie, Robert Koeppe, Barry A. Siegel, Bruce E. Hilner, Constantine Gatsonis, Rachel A. Whitmer, Maria C. Carrillo, Charles Apgar, Monica R. Camacho, Rachel Nosheny, Gil D. Rabinovici

Internal Medicine Publications

The reference standard for amyloid-PET quantification requires structural MRI (sMRI) for preprocessing in both multi-site research studies and clinical trials. Here we describe rPOP (robust PET-Only Processing), a MATLAB-based MRI-free pipeline implementing non-linear warping and differential smoothing of amyloid-PET scans performed with any of the FDA-approved radiotracers (18F-florbetapir/FBP, 18F-florbetaben/FBB or 18F-flutemetamol/FLUTE). Each image undergoes spatial normalization based on weighted PET templates and data-driven differential smoothing, then allowing users to perform their quantification of choice. Prior to normalization, users can choose whether to automatically reset the origin of the image to the center of mass or proceed with the pipeline with …