Digital Commons Network^™

A Descriptive Analysis Of Patients With Attempted Suicide At A Rural Level I Trauma Center, Evelyn Coile, Tatiana Eversley-Kelso, Eric K. Shaw, Cynthia Ponir, Mickey M. Ott

HCA Healthcare Journal of Medicine

Objectives

For patients with self-harm, suicide attempt, or suicide completion, the trauma bay is often the single point of contact. Regional differences and patterns exist for suicide that should be studied to enhance preventive strategies. Our goal was to critically evaluate the suicidal population of Southeast Georgia over a 9-year period.

Methods

A retrospective review of our trauma database from January 2010 through December 2019 was conducted at a Level I Trauma Center. All ages were included. All patients arriving with attempted suicide or death due to a suicidal complication were included. Patients with deaths highly suspicious for suicide were …

Gutka Consumption And Dietary Partialities Explaining Anemia In Women Of A Coastal Slum Of Karachi, Pakistan: A Mixed-Method Study, Ameer Muhammad, Sarah Saleem, Daniyaal Ahmad, Eleze Tariq, Yasir Shafiq

Community Health Sciences

Background: Limited literature is available on the dietary pattern and its consequences on health of women living in coastal slums of Karachi, Pakistan.
Material and methods: The study employed a mixed-method approach where concurrent quantitative and qualitative assessments were carried out. An analytical cross-sectional survey was conducted to collect information on demographic, household, obstetrics characteristics, and dietary pattern of married women of reproductive age (MWRA). Blood samples were collected to identify the hemoglobin level to determine anemia. For the qualitative component, focus group discussions were carried out with women and in-depth interviews with shopkeepers to understand the availability of food …

Standards In Semen Examination: Publishing Reproducible And Reliable Data Based On High-Quality Methodology, Lars Björndahl, Christopher L R Barratt, David Mortimer, Ashok Agarwal, Robert J Aitken, Juan G Alvarez, Natalie Aneck-Hahn, Stefan Arver, Elisabetta Baldi, Lluís Bassas, Florence Boitrelle, Riana Bornman, Douglas T Carrell, José A Castilla, Gerardo Cerezo Parra, Jerome H Check, Patricia S Cuasnicu, Sally Perreault Darney, Christiaan De Jager, Christopher J De Jonge, Joël R Drevet, Erma Z Drobnis, Stefan S Du Plessis, Michael L Eisenberg, Sandro C Esteves, Evangelini A Evgeni, Alberto Ferlin, Nicolas Garrido, Aleksander Giwercman, Ilse G F Goovaerts, Trine B Haugen, Ralf Henkel, Lars Henningsohn, Marie-Claude Hofmann, James M Hotaling, Piotr Jedrzejczak, Pierre Jouannet, Niels Jørgensen, Jackson C Kirkman Brown, Csilla Krausz, Maciej Kurpisz, Ulrik Kvist, Dolores J Lamb, Hagai Levine, Kate L Loveland, Robert I Mclachlan, Ali Mahran, Liana Maree, Sarah Martins Da Silva, Michael T Mbizvo, Andreas Meinhardt, Roelof Menkveld, Sharon T Mortimer, Sergey Moskovtsev, Charles H Muller, Maria José Munuce, Monica Muratori, Craig Niederberger, Cristian O'Flaherty, Rafael Oliva, Willem Ombelet, Allan A Pacey, Michael A Palladino, Ranjith Ramasamy, Liliana Ramos, Nathalie Rives, Eduardo Rs Roldan, Susan Rothmann, Denny Sakkas, Andrea Salonia, Maria Cristina Sánchez-Pozo, Rosanna Sapiro, Stefan Schlatt, Peter N Schlegel, Hans-Christian Schuppe, Rupin Shah, Niels E Skakkebæk, Katja Teerds, Igor Toskin, Herman Tournaye, Paul J Turek, Gerhard Van Der Horst, Monica Vazquez-Levin, Christina Wang, Alex Wetzels, Theodosia Zeginiadou, Armand Zini

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Biomedical science is rapidly developing in terms of more transparency, openness and reproducibility of scientific publications. This is even more important for all studies that are based on results from basic semen examination. Recently two concordant documents have been published: the 6th edition of the WHO Laboratory Manual for the Examination and Processing of Human Semen, and the International Standard ISO 23162:2021. With these tools, we propose that authors should be instructed to follow these laboratory methods in order to publish studies in peer-reviewed journals, preferable by using a checklist as suggested in an Appendix to this article.

The Risks Of Birth Defects And Childhood Cancer With Conception By Assisted Reproductive Technology, Barbara Luke, Morton B Brown, Ethan Wantman, Maria J Schymura, Marilyn L Browne, Sarah C Fisher, Nina E Forestieri, Chandrika Rao, Hazel B Nichols, Mahsa M Yazdy, Susan T Gershman, Caitlin R Sacha, Melanie Williams, Mary K Ethen, Mark A Canfield, Kevin J Doody, Michael L Eisenberg, Valerie L Baker, Carrie Williams, Alastair G Sutcliffe, Melissa A Richard, Philip J Lupo

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Study question: Is there an association between fertility status, method of conception and the risks of birth defects and childhood cancer?

Summary answer: The risk of childhood cancer had two independent components: (i) method of conception and (ii) presence, type and number of birth defects.

What is known already: The rarity of the co-occurrence of birth defects, cancer and ART makes studying their association challenging. Prior studies have indicated that infertility and ART are associated with an increased risk of birth defects or cancer but have been limited by small sample size and inadequate statistical power, failure to adjust for …

Sleep Quality And Affecting Factors Among Elderly Living In A Nursing Home In East Nusa Tenggara Indonesia, Asyifa Robiatul Adawiyah, Kusharisupeni Djokosujono, Jumiati Lelu Sanga

Indonesian Journal of Public Health Nutrition (IJPHN)

Sleep is one of the processes that greatly affects aging, It is essential for mental, physical, and maintenance of physical health. A research study was conducted in a public nursing home in Kupang East Nusa Tenggara Indonesia. This study aimed to analyze the sleep quality and the factors affecting sleep quality, among old age living in the nursing home. The research design was cross-sectional with primary data on 103 elderly living in nursing homes. There was a relationship between age, gender, marital status, spouse, educational background, have a chronic disease, living arrangement, anxiety, and depression with sleep quality (p

The 3p Framework: A Comprehensive Approach To Coping With The Emerging Infectious Disease Crisis, Orsolya Molnár, Eric Hoberg, Valeria Trivellone, Gábor Földvári, Daniel R. Brooks

MANTER: Journal of Parasite Biodiversity

The COVID-19 pandemic is the latest example of the profound socioeconomic impact of the emerging infectious disease (EID) crisis. Current health security measures are based on a failed evolutionary paradigm that presumes EID is rare and cannot be predicted because emergence requires the prior evolution of novel genetic capacities for colonizing a new host. Consequently, crisis response through preparation for previously emerged diseases and palliation following outbreaks have been the only health security options, which have become unsustainably expensive and unsuccessful. The Stockholm paradigm (SP) is an alternative evolutionary framework that suggests host changes are the result of changing conditions …

Loneliness And Alcohol-Related Problems Among College Students Who Report Binge Drinking Behavior: The Moderating Role Of Food And Alcohol Disturbance, Luke Herchenroeder, Stacy M Post, Michelle L Stock, Ellen W Yeung

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Loneliness and alcohol misuse are common among college students and pose a threat to public health. To better understand the longitudinal association between these public health concerns we examined food and alcohol disturbance (FAD; i.e., restricting one's caloric intake prior to drinking) as a moderator in the association between loneliness and alcohol-related problems. Participants were 456 college students from a mid-sized university who engaged in past 30-day binge drinking. The majority of participants identified as being White (67.1%), female (78.1%), and reported a mean age of 19.61 (SD = 1.54) years. Participants completed two surveys (3 weeks apart) over the …

Prodrugs Of A 1-Hydroxy-2-Oxopiperidin-3-Yl Phosphonate Enolase Inhibitor For The Treatment Of Eno1-Deleted Cancers, Victoria C Yan, Cong-Dat Pham, Elliot S Ballato, Kristine L Yang, Kenisha Arthur, Sunada Khadka, Yasaman Barekatain, Prakriti Shrestha, Theresa Tran, Anton H Poral, Mykia Washington, Sudhir Raghavan, Barbara Czako, Federica Pisaneschi, Yu-Hsi Lin, Nikunj Satani, Naima Hammoudi, Jeffrey J Ackroyd, Dimitra K Georgiou, Steven W Millward, Florian L Muller

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cancers harboring homozygous deletion of the glycolytic enzyme enolase 1 (ENO1) are selectively vulnerable to inhibition of the paralogous isoform, enolase 2 (ENO2). A previous work described the sustained tumor regression activities of a substrate-competitive phosphonate inhibitor of ENO2, 1-hydroxy-2-oxopiperidin-3-yl phosphonate (HEX) (5), and its bis-pivaloyoxymethyl prodrug, POMHEX (6), in an ENO1-deleted intracranial orthotopic xenograft model of glioblastoma [Nature Metabolism 2020, 2, 1423-1426]. Due to poor pharmacokinetics of bis-ester prodrugs, this study was undertaken to identify potential non-esterase prodrugs for further development. Whereas phosphonoamidate esters were efficiently bioactivated in ENO1-deleted glioma …

Exploring Parenthood And The Influence Of Lived Experiences On Parenting Behaviors Among Child Welfare-Involved Adults, Veronica Howell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The World Health Organization asserts the healthy development of children is essential. Cases of violence and maltreatment impede the development of children worldwide. Six in 10 adults in the general US population have reported at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE), while vulnerable populations, including child welfare-involved adults (i.e., parents and caregivers), often report more. This history is associated with higher morbidity and mortality rates alongside higher economic costs; therefore, preventing ACEs and promoting safe, stable, and nurturing relationships between parents and children is critical. The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to understand the meanings and responsibilities associated …

Neurodevelopment Assessment Of Small For Gestational Age Children In A Community-Based Cohort From Pakistan, Sabahat Naz, Zahra Hoodbhoy, Ali Jaffar, Sidra Kaleem Jafri, Babar Hasan, Devyani Chowdhury, Melissa Gladstone

Department of Paediatrics and Child Health

Background: Children born small for gestational age (SGA) may experience more long-term neurodevelopmental issues than those born appropriate for gestational age (AGA). This study aimed to assess differences in the neurodevelopment of children born SGA or AGA within a periurban community in Pakistan.
Methods: This was a prospective cohort study in which study participants were followed from the pilot Doppler cohort study conducted in 2018. This pilot study aimed to develop a pregnancy risk stratification model using machine learning on fetal Dopplers. This project identified 119 newborns who were born SGA (2.4±0.4 kg) based on International Fetal and Newborn Growth …

An Algorithm For Indoor Sars-Cov-2 Transmission, Daniel Maxin, Spencer Gannon

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

We propose a computer modeling approach for SARS-CoV-2 transmission that can be preferable to a purely mathematical framework. It is illustrated its functionality in a specific case of indoor transmission. Based on literature, we assume that infection is due to aerosols with viral particles that persist and accumulate for hours in the air even after the persons who produced them left the space. We incorporate also restricted opening hours as a mitigation measure and one possible behavioral change in response to this measure. It is shown via several examples how this algorithmic modeling approach can be used to run various …

A Comprehensive Update On Cido: The Community-Based Coronavirus Infectious Disease Ontology, Yongqun He, Hong Yu, Anthony Huffman, Asiyah Yu Lin, Darren A Natale, John Beverley, Ling Zheng, Yehoshua Perl, Zhigang Wang, Yingtong Liu, Edison Ong, Yang Wang, Philip Huang, Long Tran, Jinyang Du, Zalan Shah, Easheta Shah, Roshan Desai, Hsin-Hui Huang, Yujia Tian, Eric Merrell, William D Duncan, Sivaram Arabandi, Lynn M Schriml, Jie Zheng, Anna Maria Masci, Liwei Wang, Hongfang Liu, Fatima Zohra Smaili, Robert Hoehndorf, Zoë May Pendlington, Paola Roncaglia, Xianwei Ye, Jiangan Xie, Yi-Wei Tang, Xiaolin Yang, Suyuan Peng, Luxia Zhang, Luonan Chen, Junguk Hur, Gilbert S Omenn, Brian Athey, Barry Smith

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The current COVID-19 pandemic and the previous SARS/MERS outbreaks of 2003 and 2012 have resulted in a series of major global public health crises. We argue that in the interest of developing effective and safe vaccines and drugs and to better understand coronaviruses and associated disease mechenisms it is necessary to integrate the large and exponentially growing body of heterogeneous coronavirus data. Ontologies play an important role in standard-based knowledge and data representation, integration, sharing, and analysis. Accordingly, we initiated the development of the community-based Coronavirus Infectious Disease Ontology (CIDO) in early 2020.

RESULTS: As an Open Biomedical Ontology …

Higher Adherence To A Mediterranean Diet Is Associated With Improved Insulin Sensitivity And Selected Markers Of Inflammation In Individuals Who Are Overweight And Obese Without Diabetes, Surbhi Sood, Jack Feehan, Catherine Itsiopoulos, Kirsty Wilson, Magdalena Plebanski, David Scott, James Hébert Scd, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., Aya Mousa, Elena S. George, Barbora De Courten

Faculty Publications

Insulin resistance (IR) and chronic low-grade inflammation are risk factors for chronic diseases including type 2 diabetes (T2D) and cardiovascular disease. This study aimed to investigate two dietary indices: Mediterranean Diet Score (MDS) and Dietary Inflammatory Index (DII®), and their associations with direct measures of glucose metabolism and adiposity, and biochemical measures including lipids, cytokines and adipokines in overweight/obese adults. This cross-sectional study included 65 participants (males = 63%; age 31.3 ± 8.5 years). Dietary intake via 3-day food diaries was used to measure adherence to MDS (0–45 points); higher scores indicating adherence. Energy-adjusted DII (E-DII) scores were calculated with …

Maternal Prenatal Cortisol Trajectories Predict Accelerated Growth In Infancy, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Elysia Poggi Davis, Curt A. Sandman, Laura M. Glynn

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Higher maternal cortisol in pregnancy has been linked to childhood obesity. Much of the previous research has been limited in that cortisol in pregnancy is only measured at one time-point, precluding the ability to examine critical timing effects of prenatal maternal cortisol. To fill this gap, this longitudinal study measured maternal plasma cortisol at 15, 19, 25, and 31 weeks of pregnancy, and assessed infant body mass index percentile (BMIP)1 at birth, 3, 6, 12, and 24 months in 189 mother-infant pairs. Three distinct patterns of maternal cortisol in pregnancy (typical, steep, and flat trajectories) were identified using general growth …

Understanding The Interconnection Between Public Health And Political Behaviors In A Politically Polarized Context: The Impact Of Race, Political Attitudes, And Policy Factors On The Us Covid-19 Pandemic Response., Florent Nkouaga

Political Science ETDs

This dissertation evaluates the interconnection between health and political behaviors in a polarized context such as the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic unveiled the current political polarization and the structural health disparities among racial communities. Using the system theory delineated by David Easton, this dissertation demonstrates that health attitudes and behaviors in the electorate can influence voting behaviors, as was the case with the 2020 US presidential election. An evaluation of the 2021 African American COVID-19 Vaccine Polls (AACVP), and the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Postelection Survey (CMPS) demonstrates that factors such as public health compliance, trust in federal health institutions, …

Interactions Between Environmental Factors And Glutathione S-Transferase (Gst) Genes With Respect To Detectable Blood Aluminum Concentrations In Jamaican Children, Mohammad H Rahbar, Maureen Samms-Vaughan, Yuansong Zhao, Sepideh Saroukhani, Jan Bressler, Manouchehr Hessabi, Megan L Grove, Sydonnie Shakespeare-Pellington, Katherine A Loveland

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Aluminum (Al) is a metallic toxicant at high concentrations following natural or unnatural exposures. Dietary intake is considered as the main source of aluminum exposure in children. We used data from 366 typically developing (TD) children (ages 2−8 years) who participated as controls in an age- and sex-matched case−control study in Jamaica. We investigated additive and interactive associations among environmental factors and children’s genotypes for glutathione S-transferase (GST) genes (GSTT1, GSTM1, GSTP1), in relation to having a detectable blood aluminum concentration (BAlC) of >5.0 μg/L, using multivariable logistic regression models. Findings from interactive models revealed that the odds of having …

Early Life Exposure To Unpredictable Parental Sensory Signals Shapes Cognitive Development Across Three Species, Elyssia Poggi Davis, Kari Mccormack, Hina Arora, Desiree Sharpe, Annabel K. Short, Jocelyne Bachevalier, Laura M. Glynn, Curt A. Sandman, Hal S. Stern, Mar Sanchez, Tallie Z. Baram

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Exposure to early life adversity has long term consequences on cognitive function. Most research has focused on understanding components of early life adversities that contribute to later risk, including poverty, trauma, maltreatment, and neglect. Whereas these factors, in the aggregate, explain a significant proportion of emotional and cognitive problems, there are serious gaps in our ability to identify potential mechanisms by which early life adversities might promote vulnerability or resilience. Here we discuss early life exposure to unpredictable signals from the caretaker as an understudied type of adversity that is amenable to prevention and intervention. We employ a translational approach …

Covid-19 Newsletter (Vol. 141), Center For Disaster Medicine, New York Medical College

COVID-19 Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Conference Proceedings: Select Abstracts Presented At Advocate Aurora Scientific Day 2022

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

The abstracts published in this supplement were presented at the 48th annual Advocate Aurora Scientific Day on May 25, 2022. This scholarly symposium provides a closed forum for sharing preliminary results from research studies conducted by faculty physicians and nurses, fellows, residents, scientists, and other health professionals associated with U.S. Midwest-based health system Advocate Aurora Health, publisher of the Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews.

Daphnia As A Sentinel Species For Environmental Health Protection: A Perspective On Biomonitoring And Bioremediation Of Chemical Pollution, Muhammad Abdullahi, Xiaojing Li, Mohamed Abou-Elwafa Abdallah, William Stubbings, Norman Yan, Marianne Barnard, Liang-Hong Guo, John K Colbourne, Luisa Orsini

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Despite available technology and the knowledge that chemical pollution damages human and ecosystem health, chemical pollution remains rampant, ineffectively monitored, rarely prevented, and only occasionally mitigated. We present a framework that helps address current major challenges in the monitoring and assessment of chemical pollution by broadening the use of the sentinel species Daphnia as a diagnostic agent of water pollution. And where prevention has failed, we propose the application of Daphnia as a bioremediation agent to help reduce hazards from chemical mixtures in the environment. By applying “omics” technologies to Daphnia exposed to real-world ambient chemical mixtures, we show improvements …

Building Coalitions To Support Indigenous Language Speakers During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Erika Hernández Cuevas, Laura J. Gonzales

Journal of Rhetoric, Professional Communication, and Globalization

While the work of language access is ongoing and has been taking place for a long time in various contexts, language access efforts often ignore Indigenous communities. As such, more interventions are needed to recognize how health-related messaging needs to be adapted not only across languages, but across worldviews. In this article, a technical communication scholar and Spanish-English translator and a Chinateco-Spanish translator, interpreter, and activist from the Municipio de San Pedro Yolox discuss their work to foster language access during the COVID-19 pandemic for and with Indigenous language speakers in Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico, and Gainesville, Florida, USA. Through …

Should Health Systems Share Genetic Findings With At-Risk Relatives When The Proband Is Deceased? Interviews With Individuals Diagnosed With Lynch Syndrome, Jessica Ezzell Hunter, Jennifer L. Schneider, Alison J. Firemark, James V. Davis, Sara Gille, Pamala A. Pawloski, Su-Ying Liang, Victoria Schlieder, Alanna Kulchak Rahm

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

Purpose: Genetic information has health implications for patients and their biological relatives. Death of a patient before sharing a genetic diagnosis with at-risk relatives is a missed opportunity to provide important information that could guide interventions to minimize cancer-related morbidity and mortality in relatives.

Methods: We performed semi-structured interviews with individuals diagnosed with Lynch syndrome at 1 of 4 health systems to explore their perspectives on whether health systems should share genetic risk information with relatives following a patient’s death. An inductive, open-coding approach was used to analyze audio-recorded content, with software-generated code reports undergoing iterative comparative analysis by a …

Chemical Relaxers And Hair-Straightening Products: Potential Targets For Hormone-Related Cancer Prevention And Control, Adana A. M. Llanos, Jasmine A. Mcdonald, Dede K. Teteh, Traci N. Bethea

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

"Emerging data show that use of permanent hair dyes, chemical relaxers, and straightening products might contribute to increased risk of hormone-related cancers (1-5) and potentially breast tumors with features indicative of more aggressive phenotypes (6). Given the wide use of these products globally, they are an important source of exposure to potentially harmful chemicals, including endocrine-disrupting chemicals—to which we are ubiquitously exposed (7)—and mutagenic and/or genotoxic compounds. The unequal burden of exposure across populations plausibly contributes to cancer inequities as the groups with the greatest exposure also experience poorer cancer outcomes (8). …

Full Issue, Winthrop Mcnair Research Bulletin

The Winthrop McNair Research Bulletin

Winthrop McNair Research Bulletin Volume 5, Full Issue

Prevalence Of Polypharmacy And Associated Adverse Outcomes And Risk Factors Among Children With Asthma In The Usa: A Cross-Sectional Study, Luyu Xie, Andrew Gelfand, Caitlin C Murphy, M Sunil Mathew, Folefac Atem, George L Delclos, Sarah Messiah

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: to estimate the prevalence of polypharmacy, identify risk factors and examine related adverse outcomes in the US children with asthma.

DESIGN, SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: This population-based, cross-sectional study included 1776 children with asthma from the 2011-2020 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys.

EXPOSURES: Polypharmacy is defined as taking ≥2 medications concurrently for ≥1 day over the past 30 days.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: (1) Weighted prevalence estimates of polypharmacy in children with asthma; (2) asthma attacks and emergency department (ED) visits.

RESULTS: The estimated prevalence of polypharmacy in the US children with asthma was 33.49% (95% CI 31.81% to …

Public Health Burden Of Secondhand Smoking: Case Reports Of Lung Cancer And A Literature Review, Ladislav Štěpánek, Jarmila Ševčíková, Dagmar Horáková, Mihir Sanjay Patel, Radka Durďáková

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Secondhand smoke (SHS), composed of mainstream and sidestream smoke, is a known human carcinogen. It contains a variety of harmful substances at even higher concentrations than mainstream smoke itself, which is inhaled during firsthand smoking. Exposure to SHS, affecting more than a third of the worldwide population, increases the likelihood of lung cancer by roughly 30%, with specific contributions depending on the histological type of cancer. This study aimed to present the harmful potential of SHS through case reports and describe the burden of SHS via a literature review. From a collection of lung cancer case reports occurring in never …

Measurement Of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Antigens In Plasma Of Pediatric Patients With Acute Coronavirus Disease 2019 Or Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome In Children Using An Ultrasensitive And Quantitative Immunoassay, George B Sigal, Tanya Novak, Anu Mathew, Janet Chou, Yubo Zhang, Navaratnam Manjula, Pradeepthi Bathala, Jessica Joe, Nikhil Padmanabhan, Daniel Romero, Gabriella Allegri-Machado, Jill Joerger, Laura L Loftis, Stephanie P Schwartz, Tracie C Walker, Julie C Fitzgerald, Keiko M Tarquinio, Matt S Zinter, Jennifer E Schuster, Natasha B Halasa, Melissa L Cullimore, Aline B Maddux, Mary A Staat, Katherine Irby, Heidi R Flori, Bria M Coates, Hillary Crandall, Shira J Gertz, Adrienne G Randolph, Nira R Pollock, Overcoming Covid-19 Investigators

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Background: Detection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) antigens in blood has high sensitivity in adults with acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but sensitivity in pediatric patients is unclear. Recent data suggest that persistent SARS-CoV-2 spike antigenemia may contribute to multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). We quantified SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid (N) and spike (S) antigens in blood of pediatric patients with either acute COVID-19 or MIS-C using ultrasensitive immunoassays (Meso Scale Discovery).

Methods: Plasma was collected from inpatients (< 21 years) enrolled across 15 hospitals in 15 US states. Acute COVID-19 patients (n = 36) had a range of disease severity and positive nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR within 24 hours of blood collection. Patients with MIS-C (n = 53) met CDC criteria and tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 (RT-PCR or serology). Controls were patients pre-COVID-19 (n = 67) or within 24 hours of negative RT-PCR (n = 43).

Results: Specificities of N and S assays were 95-97% and 100%, respectively. In acute COVID-19 patients, N/S plasma assays …

Metabolome-Wide Associations Of Gestational Weight Gain In Pregnant Women With Overweight And Obesity, Jin Dai, Nansi S. Boghossian, Mark Sarzynski Ph.D., Faha, Facsm, Feng Luo, Xiaoqian Sun, Jian Li, Oliver Fiehn, Jihong Liu Sc.D., Liwei Chen

Faculty Publications

Excessive gestational weight gain (GWG) is associated with adverse pregnancy outcomes. This metabolome-wide association study aimed to identify metabolomic markers for GWG. This longitudinal study included 39 Black and White pregnant women with a prepregnancy body mass index (BMI) of ≥ 25 kg/m². Untargeted metabolomic profiling was performed using fasting plasma samples collected at baseline (mean: 12.1 weeks) and 32 weeks of gestation. The associations of metabolites at each time point and changes between the two time points with GWG were examined by linear and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) regression analyses. Pearson correlations between the …

Whole Genome Sequence Analysis Of Blood Lipid Levels In >66,000 Individuals, Margaret Sunitha Selvaraj, Xihao Li, Zilin Li, Akhil Pampana, David Y Zhang, Joseph Park, Stella Aslibekyan, Joshua C Bis, Jennifer A Brody, Brian E Cade, Lee-Ming Chuang, Ren-Hua Chung, Joanne E Curran, Lisa De Las Fuentes, Paul S De Vries, Ravindranath Duggirala, Barry I Freedman, Mariaelisa Graff, Xiuqing Guo, Nancy Heard-Costa, Bertha Hidalgo, Chii-Min Hwu, Marguerite R Irvin, Tanika N Kelly, Brian G Kral, Leslie Lange, Xiaohui Li, Martin Lisa, Steven A Lubitz, Ani W Manichaikul, Preuss Michael, May E Montasser, Alanna C Morrison, Take Naseri, Jeffrey R O'Connell, Nicholette D Palmer, Patricia A Peyser, Muagututia S Reupena, Jennifer A Smith, Xiao Sun, Kent D Taylor, Russell P Tracy, Michael Y Tsai, Zhe Wang, Yuxuan Wang, Wei Bao, John T Wilkins, Lisa R Yanek, Wei Zhao, Donna K Arnett, John Blangero, Eric Boerwinkle, Donald W Bowden, Yii-Der Ida Chen, Adolfo Correa, L Adrienne Cupples, Susan K Dutcher, Patrick T Ellinor, Myriam Fornage, Stacey Gabriel, Soren Germer, Richard Gibbs, Jiang He, Robert C Kaplan, Sharon L R Kardia, Ryan Kim, Charles Kooperberg, Ruth J F Loos, Karine A Viaud-Martinez, Rasika A Mathias, Stephen T Mcgarvey, Braxton D Mitchell, Deborah Nickerson, Kari E North, Bruce M Psaty, Susan Redline, Alexander P Reiner, Ramachandran S Vasan, Stephen S Rich, Cristen Willer, Jerome I Rotter, Daniel J Rader, Xihong Lin, Gina M Peloso, Pradeep Natarajan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Blood lipids are heritable modifiable causal factors for coronary artery disease. Despite well-described monogenic and polygenic bases of dyslipidemia, limitations remain in discovery of lipid-associated alleles using whole genome sequencing (WGS), partly due to limited sample sizes, ancestral diversity, and interpretation of clinical significance. Among 66,329 ancestrally diverse (56% non-European) participants, we associate 428M variants from deep-coverage WGS with lipid levels; ~400M variants were not assessed in prior lipids genetic analyses. We find multiple lipid-related genes strongly associated with blood lipids through analysis of common and rare coding variants. We discover several associated rare non-coding variants, largely at Mendelian lipid …

Debunking Covid-19 Myths In Utah, Jessica Ulrich-Schad, Aaron Hunt

All Current Publications

Authors identified common myths about the COVID-19 vaccine and booster from a survey of over 500 adults across the state of Utah. This poster displays the myths and the respective facts. It includes links for finding more information and a place to get vaccinated or boosted.