Diseases Commons^™

Targeting The Cerebrovasculature In Sepsis: A Focus On The Brain Microvascular Endothelium, Divine C. Nwafor

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is a critical interface between the systemic circulation and the brain. It is a specialized multicellular unit composed of brain microvascular endothelial cells (BMECs), pericytes, a basement membrane, and astrocytic end foot processes. BMECs are a principal component of the BBB that provide the structural framework needed for the stringent transport of molecules into the brain. BMEC dysfunction permits the trafficking of neurotoxins from systemic circulation into the brain, which ultimately exacerbates BBB dysfunction and neuroinflammation. Studies have shown that BBB dysfunction is a key determinant of cognitive decline in sepsis. However, there are critical knowledge ...

Association Of Visceral Adiposity Index With Incident Nephropathy And Retinopathy: A Cohort Study In The Diabetic Population, Zhiyuan Wu, Siqi Yu, Xiaoping Kang, Yue Liu, Zongkai Xu, Zhiwei Li, Jinqi Wang, Xinlei Miao, Xiangtong Liu, Xia Li, Jingbo Zhang, Wei Wang, Lixin Tao, Xiuhua Guo

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: The association between visceral adiposity index (VAI) and diabetic complications has been reported in cross-sectional studies, while the effect of VAI on complication development remains unclear. This study aims to evaluate the longitudinal association of VAI and Chinese VAI (CVAI) with the incidence of diabetic nephropathy and retinopathy using a Chinese cohort. Methods: A total of 8 948 participants with type 2 diabetes from Beijing Health Management Cohort were enrolled during 2013–2014, and followed until December 31, 2019. Nephropathy was confirmed by urine albumin/creatinine ratio and estimated glomerular filtration rate; retinopathy was diagnosed using fundus photograph. Results ...

Assessment Of A Polygenic Hazard Score For The Onset Of Pre-Clinical Alzheimer’S Disease, Michael Vacher, Vincent Doré, Tenielle Porter, Lidija Milicic, Victor L. Villemagne, Pierrick Bourgeat, Sam C. Burnham, Timothy Cox, Colin L. Masters, Christopher C. Rowe, Jurgen Fripp, James D. Doecke, Simon M. Laws

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: With a growing number of loci associated with late-onset (sporadic) Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the polygenic contribution to AD is now well established. The development of polygenic risk score approaches have shown promising results for identifying individuals at higher risk of developing AD, thereby facilitating the development of preventative and therapeutic strategies. A polygenic hazard score (PHS) has been proposed to quantify age-specific genetic risk for AD. In this study, we assessed the predictive power and transferability of this PHS in an independent cohort, to support its clinical utility. Results: Using genotype and imaging data from 780 individuals enrolled ...

Comprehensive Genetic Analysis Of The Human Lipidome Identifies Loci Associated With Lipid Homeostasis With Links To Coronary Artery Disease, Gemma Cadby, Corey Giles, Phillip E. Melton, Kevin Huynh, Natalie A. Mellett, Thy Duong, Anh Nguyen, Michelle Cinel, Alex Smith, Gavriel Olshansky, Tingting Wang, Marta Brozynska, Mike Inouye, Nina S. Mccarthy, Amir Ariff, Joseph Hung, Jennie Hui, John Beilby, Marie Pierre Dubé, Gerald F. Watts, Sonia Shah, Naomi R. Wray, Wei Ling Florence Lim, Pratishtha Chatterjee, Ian Martins, Simon M. Laws, Tenielle Porter, Michael Vacher, Ashley I. Bush, Christopher C. Rowe, Victor L. Villemagne, David Ames, Colin L. Masters, Kevin Taddei, Matthias Arnold, Gabi Kastenmüller, Kwangsik Nho, Andrew J. Saykin, Xianlin Han, Rima Kaddurah-Daouk, Ralph N. Martins, John Blangero, Peter J. Meikle, Eric K. Moses

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

We integrated lipidomics and genomics to unravel the genetic architecture of lipid metabolism and identify genetic variants associated with lipid species putatively in the mechanistic pathway for coronary artery disease (CAD). We quantified 596 lipid species in serum from 4,492 individuals from the Busselton Health Study. The discovery GWAS identified 3,361 independent lipid-loci associations, involving 667 genomic regions (479 previously unreported), with validation in two independent cohorts. A meta-analysis revealed an additional 70 independent genomic regions associated with lipid species. We identified 134 lipid endophenotypes for CAD associated with 186 genomic loci. Associations between independent lipid-loci with coronary ...

Genetic Liability Between Covid-19 And Heart Failure: Evidence From A Bidirectional Mendelian Randomization Study, Huachen Wang, Zheng Guo, Yulu Zheng, Bing Chen

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Previous studies have observed inconsistent associations between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and heart failure (HF), but these studies were prone to bias based on reverse causality and residual confounding factors. We aimed to investigate genetic liability between COVID-19 and heart failure using a bidirectional Mendelian randomization study. Methods: The causal relationship between COVID-19 (including COVID-19, hospitalized COVID-19 compared with the general population, and severe COVID-19) and HF are determined by using a bidirectional Mendelian randomization analysis. We drew on summary statistics from the largest HF genome-wide association study (GWAS) meta-analysis on individuals of European ancestry, which included 47,309 ...

Childhood And Adolescent Obesity: Related Comorbidities And Interventions, Jasmine Wong

Nursing | Senior Theses

Background

The prevalence of childhood and adolescent obesity in the United States has steadily risen over the years and has become a public health concern. Obesity is defined as a BMI at or above the 95th percentile for children and teens of the same age and sex. Obese children and adolescents are at risk for poor health and poor quality of life. Furthermore, there are numerous comorbidities associated with childhood and adolescent obesity. While some of the associated diseases are acute, others can become chronic and result in lifelong conditions.

Objective

The purpose of the present thesis is to explore ...

Physical Activity, Sitting Time, And Feelings Of Energy And Fatigue During The Early Stages Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: Does Grit Make A Difference?, Andreas Stamatis, Jessica Adams, Joel Martin, Matthew L. Smith, Italia Milani, Shane V. Caswell, Nelson Cortes, Ali Boolani

Health Behavior Research

Grit has been associated with feelings of energy when measured as the opposite end of fatigue. During the COVID-19 pandemic, grit has been linked to positive health-related behaviors, which are known to influence feelings of energy and fatigue. The objective of this study was to identify the association between grit, time spent sitting, physical activity (PA), and feelings of mental and physical energy (ME, PE) and fatigue (MF, PF) during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Participants (n = 859) completed surveys once. Using a series of multivariate regression models, we assessed the association between grit ...

Novel Drugs Approved In 2021-2022, Michael Do, Bona Shin, Elaina Lioudis, Emaleigh Munn

Transformative Medicine (T-Med)

No abstract provided.

Vitamin C Deficiency In A Food Insecure Patient: A Rare Case Report, Gersham J. Rainone, Tatiana J. Han, Muhammed Rahim, Gregory J. Pirolli, Alina Popa, Jayaram Thimmapuram

Transformative Medicine (T-Med)

No abstract provided.

Do You Know The Pathophysiology Of Cytokine Storm During Covid-19?, Shameera Shaik Masthan, Deekshitha Turaka, Ahmed Abdelhaleem, Mounica Vorla, Steven B. Lippmann

The University of Louisville Journal of Respiratory Infections

No abstract provided.

The Development And Growth Of Cardio-Oncology Or Onco-Cardiology, Bernard Man Yung Cheung, Chu Pak Lau

Journal of the Hong Kong College of Cardiology

No abstract provided.

Covid Experience, Jorge Gracia

Community Reflections

My personal experience about the pandemic has been for me a lesson of life from which I was able to learn many things.

Classification Of Breast Cancer Histopathological Images Using Semi-Supervised Gans, Balaji Avvaru, Nibhrat Lohia, Sowmya Mani, Vijayasrikanth Kaniti

SMU Data Science Review

Breast cancer is diagnosed more frequently than skin cancer in women in the United States. Most breast cancer cases are diagnosed in women, while children and men are less likely to develop the disease. Various tissues in the breast grow uncontrollably, resulting in breast cancer. Different treatments analyze microscopic histopathology images for diagnosis that help accurately detect cancer cells. Deep learning is one of the evolving techniques to classify images where accuracy depends on the volume and quality of labeled images. This study used various pre-trained models to train the histopathological images and analyze these models to create a new ...

Predicting Insulin Pump Therapy Settings, Riccardo L. Ferraro, David Grijalva, Alex Trahan

SMU Data Science Review

Millions of people live with diabetes worldwide [7]. To mitigate some of the many symptoms associated with diabetes, an estimated 350,000 people in the United States rely on insulin pumps [17]. For many of these people, how effectively their insulin pump performs is the difference between sleeping through the night and a life threatening emergency treatment at a hospital. Three programmed insulin pump therapy settings governing effective insulin pump function are: Basal Rate (BR), Insulin Sensitivity Factor (ISF), and Carbohydrate Ratio (ICR). For many people using insulin pumps, these therapy settings are often not correct, given their physiological needs ...

The Value Of 3d Vena Contracta Area In A Patient With Degenerative Mitral Regurgitation And Multiple Jets, Shing Ching, Chiu Sun Yue

Journal of the Hong Kong College of Cardiology

Quantification of degenerative mitral regurgitation with multiple jets in atrial fibrillation is challenging with two dimensional techniques and may underestimate the severity. We report the feasibility and advantages of vena contracta area in three dimensional transesophageal echocardiography in evaluation of such a patient.

From Bad To Worse: The Clinical Spectrum Of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Myocarditis And Associated 3m Syndrome With Concomitant Myositis And Myasthenia, Tsun-Ho Lam, Jeffrey Sum-Lung Wong, Chun-Ka Wong, Gerry Gin Wai Kwok, Miaochang Zhou, Benjamin Yu-Fai So, Ian Yu-Hin Leung, Hung-Fat Tse

Journal of the Hong Kong College of Cardiology

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), though revolutionizing cancer care, are well known to cause a diverse array of autoimmune side effects termed immune-related adverse events (IRAEs). ICI Myocarditis is a rare manifestation of IRAE associated with high mortality. We report two cases of fulminant ICI myocarditis refractory to potent immunosuppressants. Our first patient received pembrolizumab for lymphoma, small cell lung cancer and renal cell carcinoma. After 13 doses of ICIs, he developed fulminant myocarditis with concomitant lower-motor neuron type facial nerve palsy. Despite receiving triple immunosuppressive therapies with pulse steroid, mycophenolate mofetil and basiliximab, his cardiac condition progressively worsened and eventually ...

Epidemiology And Characteristics Of Surgical Intervention For Infective Endocarditis: A Population-Based Study In The Past Two Decades (2000 – 2019) In Hong Kong, Hang-Long Li, Yi-Kei Tse, Cong Chen, Si-Dong Cai, Meng-Qi Su, Mei-Zhen Wu, Qing-Wen Ren, Jia-Yi Huang, Si-Yeung Yu, Yap-Hang Chan, Hung-Fat Tse, Kai-Hang Yiu

Journal of the Hong Kong College of Cardiology

Background

The ‘inflamm-ageing’ phenomenon may worsen the prognosis of heart diseases including infective endocarditis (IE), while surgery may reduce inflammatory burden by direct removal of bacterial vegetation. This study aims to characterize the epidemiological and clinical features of surgical intervention for IE in Hong Kong in the past two decades.

Methods

All patients with incident IE from 2000-2019 in a territory-wide database were identified. We studied the trends in age-specific incidence of IE and identified the most significant contributors to 1-year all-cause death using the population attributable fraction (PAF). A propensity score approach was used to evaluate the benefits of ...

Indicators Of Cardiac Autonomic Dysfunction Associated With Chronic Hyperglycemia: Implications On Vascular Surrogates And Heart Failure, Yap-Hang Chan, Bernard Man-Yung Cheung, Hung-Fat Tse

Journal of the Hong Kong College of Cardiology

Background: Limited data exist on the role of chronic hyperglycemia-related cardiac autonomic dysfunction in incident heart failure (HF). We investigated the relations of resting heart rate (HR) and PR interval with chronic hyperglycemia, and effects on new-onset HF.

Methods: We prospectively studied 550 patients with prior coronary disease, ischemic stroke and/ or type 2 diabetes. Incident HF was ascertained. Heart rate-PR interval dissociation was defined as counter-physiological co-occurrence of increased PR interval (>mean; 173.3ms) and increased resting HR (>mean; 64.4 beats/min).

Results: Over 63 ±11 months, 6.7% patients developed new-onset HF. Resting HR³75bpm was independently predictive ...

Clinical Features And Prognosis Of Chinese Childhood Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension-Related Gene Mutation Carriers, Zhuoyuan Xu, Hongsheng Zhang, Chen Zhang, Qiangqiang Li, Hong Gu

Journal of the Hong Kong College of Cardiology

Background: The impact of PAH-related gene mutations on the clinical phenotype are not yet fully understood, especially in childhood.

Methods: Retrospective study of 114 pediatric Chinese Han population whose onset of PAH was between 3 months and 18 years of age with IPAH were performed. Whole exome sequencing results, clinical characteristics, treatments and outcomes were recorded in all patients.

Results: Thirty-one BMPR2, nine ACVRL1 and 33 other PAH-related gene mutation carriers were detected in this cohort. The median age at diagnosis of PAH was 5.9 (3.4,10.3) years. 54 (47.4%) patients were female. 80 patients including ...

Understanding The Genotypes And Phenotypes Relationship: Progress Toward A Precision Medicine Approach In Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension, Kin Shing Lun

Journal of the Hong Kong College of Cardiology

No abstract provided.