Digital Commons Network^™

Importance Of Defining Anatomy: Uncovering An Unexpected Finding With Ct Coronary Angiography After Abnormal Spect Results, Anushree Puttur, Laith Alhuneafat, Omar Obeidat, Andreas Kyvernitakis, Ahmad Jabri, Abdallah Naser, Ahmad Al-Abdouh, Farhan Katchi

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Coronary CT angiography extends beyond detecting obstructive coronary artery disease by providing vital anatomical insights into extra-coronary pathologies, including acute aortic syndromes. This non-invasive modality enables early identification of life-threatening conditions and informs multidisciplinary management strategies, underscoring its critical role in comprehensive diagnostic evaluation and patient-centered care.

The Multilevel Limb-Loss And Preservation Rehabilitation Continuum Model (Mlprc): An Evidence-Based Implementation Model Integrating Multiple Perspectives To Improve Outcomes For People Facing Limb Loss, Prateek Grover, Elvin Geng, Rachel G Tabak

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: The patient journey from threatened to actual limb loss, subsequent rehabilitation, and limb preservation through the health system is complicated and prone to delays, attrition, and inequities. A shared multi(socioecological)-level conceptualization of this journey among the multiple stakeholders is the first step for systematically improving limb care through identification of bottlenecks and gaps, contributory factors, and responsive interventions and implementation strategies.

OBJECTIVE: To meet this knowledge gap by presenting a novel implementation model, the Multilevel Limb-loss and Preservation Rehabilitation Continuum (MLPRC), that can be used to develop multilevel applications.

METHODS: MLPRC was developed in three overlapping steps: (1) design …

Comparing Effectiveness And Safety Of Left Atrial Appendage Closure Devices: A Network Meta-Analysis Of Randomized Controlled Trials, John W Davis, Steven L Mai, Wissam Harmouch, Jenna Reisler, Micaela Mackay, Elizabeth Davis, Pavel Osmancik, Michael W Rich

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: Atrial fibrillation-related stroke is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. The comparative effectiveness and safety of left atrial appendage closure (LAAC) devices, compared with one another and with anticoagulation, is unclear.

METHODS: We conducted a systematic review and network meta-analysis (NMA) of all clinical trials comparing the Watchman and Amplatzer Amulet LAAC devices with each other or with warfarin or direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs). The primary comparison was between LAAC devices with secondary comparisons to anticoagulation. The primary effectiveness outcomes were any stroke and all-cause death. Safety outcomes included any thromboembolism, device embolization, and pericardial effusion.

RESULTS: There …

Real-World Effectiveness And Safety Of Upadacitinib In Crohn's Disease: A Multicenter Study, Jalpa Devi, Katherine Huang, Fnu Jaiprada, Julia Huecker, Parakkal Deepak, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND & AIMS: We aimed to describe the real-world effectiveness and safety of upadacitinib (UPA), an oral Janus kinase 1 inhibitor, in patients with Crohn's disease (CD).

METHODS: A retrospective analysis was conducted across 9 centers in the United States, focusing on adults with CD treated with UPA, 45 mg, as induction therapy for active luminal disease. The coprimary end points were clinical remission at 12 weeks (Harvey Bradshaw Index ≤4 or absence of symptoms on physician's global assessment) and endoscopic remission at 6 months (Simplified Endoscopic Mucosal Assessment for Crohn's Disease score of 0-1 or absence of ulcers). Secondary …

Hiv Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Does Not Increase Gonorrhea And Chlamydia Incidence In Young Black And Hispanic Men Who Have Sex With Men: An Observational Cohort Study, Octavio C Mesner, Rishabh Jain, Aditi Ramakrishnan, Derrick D Matthews, Jeremy T Goldbach

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use has been linked with increases in sexually transmitted infection (STI) incidence. Despite efforts to expand PrEP uptake among young Black and Hispanic men who have sex with men (YBHMSM), little research has been done to understand the impact of PrEP on STI incidence within these communities. We examine the effect of PrEP use on gonorrhea and chlamydia (NG/CT) incidence, condom use, and external STI testing (ie, outside of study visits).

METHODS: In a longitudinal cohort of HIV-negative YBHMSM (ages 16-24 years), we modeled the effect of PrEP use on study-external STI testing and number …

Moderators Of Antidepressant Augmentation Versus Switch In The Optimum Randomised Controlled Trial, Helena K Kim, Jordan F Karp, Helen Lavretsky, Daniel M Blumberger, Patrick J Brown, Alastair J Flint, Emily Lenard, J Philip Miller, Charles F Reynolds, Steven P Roose, Eric J Lenze, Benoit H Mulsant

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Older adults with treatment-resistant depression (TRD) benefit more from treatment augmentation than switching. It is useful to identify moderators that influence these treatment strategies for personalised medicine.

AIMS: Our objective was to test whether age, executive dysfunction, comorbid medical burden, comorbid anxiety or the number of previous adequate antidepressant trials could moderate the superiority of augmentation over switching. A significant moderator would influence the differential effect of augmentation versus switching on treatment outcomes.

METHOD: We performed a preplanned moderation analysis of data from the Optimizing Outcomes of Treatment-Resistant Depression in Older Adults (OPTIMUM) randomised controlled trial (

RESULTS: Of …

Association Of Hospital Surgical Volume With Outcomes In Resected Stage I Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer, Steven Tohmasi, Daniel B Eaton Jr, Brendan T Heiden, Nikki E Rossetti, Theodore S Thomas, Martin W Schoen, Su-Hsin Chang, Ana A Baumann, Yan Yan, Mayank R Patel, Whitney S Brandt, Bryan F Meyers, Varun Puri

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: Prior research examining the volume-outcome relationship for lung cancer resection has focused primarily on non-Veteran populations treated across diverse healthcare systems. This study aimed to evaluate the relationship between hospital surgical volume and postoperative outcomes for early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in Veteran and non-Veteran populations in the United States.

METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients diagnosed with stage I NSCLC who underwent surgical resection in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) from 2007-2019 and National Cancer Database (NCDB) from 2010-2019. Hospitals were categorized based on their annual volume of lung cancer resections. Multivariable regression models …

Maternal Separation Disrupts Noradrenergic Control Of Adult Coping Behaviors, Chayla R Vazquez, Léa J Becker, Chao-Cheng Kuo, Solana A Cariello, Ayah N Hamdan, Ream Al-Hasani, Susan E Maloney, Jordan G Mccall

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Early life stress (ELS) profoundly impacts the brain and correlates with negative affective behaviors in adulthood. The locus coeruleus (LC), a stress-responsive brainstem nucleus that supplies most of the brain with norepinephrine (NE), is known to modulate negative affect. Using repeated maternal separation stress (MSS), we investigated the impact of ELS on the LC and stress-related behaviors in adulthood. We performed ex vivo cell-attached electrophysiology across the lifespan to reveal that MSS significantly increased LC firing during early development and adulthood but not in pre-adolescence and adolescence. We next examined potential changes in the expression of genes linked to LC …

Hospitalizations As An Outcome Measure In Courage-Als, Stacy A Rudnicki, Timothy M Miller, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

Nirfasterff: An Accessible, Cross-Platform Python Package For Fast Photon Modeling, Jiaming Cao, Samuel Montero-Hernandez, Rickson C Mesquita, Adam T Eggebrecht, Hamid Dehghani

2020-Current year OA Pubs

SIGNIFICANCE: Accurate and efficient photon modeling plays an essential role in the rapidly developing field of diffuse optical imaging, whereby the use of model-based analysis and image reconstruction can provide both educational and research benefits.

AIM: NIRFASTerFF is a cross-platform (Linux, macOS, and Windows) Python package for finite element method (FEM)-based light propagation modeling, supporting continuous-wave, frequency-domain, and time-resolved data for both exogenous and endogenous optical imaging applications. It also enables modeling of the autocorrelation function (

APPROACH: NIRFASTerFF incorporates highly parallelized FEM solvers for efficient computation on both CPU and GPU, leveraging OpenMP and CUDA acceleration. To support image …

Comparison Of Rule- And Large Language Model-Based Phenotype Extraction From Clinical Notes For Neurofibromatosis Type 1, Levi Kaster, Ethan Hillis, Inez Y Oh, Elizabeth C Cordell, Randi E Foraker, Albert M Lai, Stephanie M Morris, David H Gutmann, Philip R O Payne, Aditi Gupta

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a rare genetic disorder affecting multiple organ systems with significant clinical heterogeneity. Managing individuals with NF1 is challenging due to variability in disease progression and outcomes and limited early risk assessment tools.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to develop an effective, generalizable, user-friendly clinical entity extraction pipeline for identifying NF1-related phenotypes from unstructured clinical notes to enhance research and risk-modeling efforts. We compare the benefits of rule-based natural language processing (NLP) vs large language models (LLMs) for this purpose.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Four phenotype extraction pipelines (3 LLM-based vs 1 rule-based) were developed to automatically …

Diagnostic Efficacy And Clinical Impact Of Image-Guided Core Needle Biopsy Of Suspected Adult Nonvertebral Osteomyelitis, Winston L Winkler, Ige A George, Sumanth Gandra, Jonathan C Baker, Anderanik Tomasian, Benjamin Northrup, Theodore L Vander Velde, Travis J Hillen, Chongliang Luo, Resten Imaoka, Gino M Dettorre, Jack W Jennings

2020-Current year OA Pubs

OBJECTIVES: The diagnostic yield and clinical impact of image-guided core needle biopsy (ICNB) of suspected nonvertebral osteomyelitis in adults is heterogenous in published studies because of small sample size, indicating the need for large cohort studies.

METHODS: A retrospective analysis of ICNBs was performed from 2010 to 2021 for patients with suspected nonvertebral osteomyelitis. For each biopsy, a series of factors were analyzed, as well as if histopathology was diagnostic of osteomyelitis and if microbiological cultures were positive. Additionally, it was recorded in what way biopsy influenced clinical management regarding antimicrobial treatment. Multivariate statistical analysis was performed to evaluate the …

Basal Cell Of Origin Resolves Neuroendocrine-Tuft Lineage Plasticity In Cancer, Abbie S Ireland, Ramaswamy Govindan, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Neuroendocrine and tuft cells are rare chemosensory epithelial lineages defined by the expression of ASCL1 and POU2F3 transcription factors, respectively. Neuroendocrine cancers, including small cell lung cancer (SCLC), frequently display tuft-like subsets, a feature linked to poor patient outcomes

Degenerating Intervertebral Discs In The Streptozotocin-High-Fat Diet Model Of Type 2 Diabetes Show Extensive Inflammation, Christian E Gonzalez, Rachana S Vaidya, Sade W Clayton, Simon Y Tang

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The chronic inflammation observed during type 2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with spinal pathologies, including intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration and chronic spine pain. Despite confounding factors, such as obesity, studies show that, after adjusting for age, body mass index and genetics (e.g. twins), patients with T2D experience disproportionate severity of IVD degeneration and/or back pain than individuals without T2D. We hypothesized that chronic T2D fosters a proinflammatory microenvironment within the IVD that promotes degeneration and disrupts homeostasis. To test this, we evaluated two common mouse models of T2D - leptin-receptor deficient (db/db) mice and mice with a chronic high-fat diet …

Women With Persistent Atrial Fibrillation Need More Than Pulmonary Vein Isolation: Personalised Extra-Pulmonary Vein Ablation Strategy Vs. Pulmonary Vein Isolation Alone In The Tailored-Af Trial, Isabel Deisenhofer, Daniel H Cooper, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

AIMS: There is still conflicting evidence if women with persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) profit from a pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) plus strategy. We evaluated the efficacy of a spatio-temporal dispersion-targeted ablation strategy in women from the TAILORED-AF trial.

METHODS AND RESULTS: In TAILORED-AF, 370 patients were randomised to either a personalised, artificial intelligence (AI)-guided tailored ablation or to PVI-only. AF substrate mapping data and 12-month ablation outcomes were compared between women and men. Overall, 21% patients were female (70.4 ± 6.9 vs. 64.5 ± 8.5 years for men, P < 0.001). While spatio-temporal dispersion extent was similar between groups, left atrial low-voltage surface area (< 0.2 mV) was significantly larger in women (P < 0.01). In women, the single-procedure freedom from AF (76% vs. 50%, log-rank P < 0.001) and any atrial arrhythmia (56% vs. 38%, log-rank P < 0.05) were significantly superior to PVI alone with a tailored procedure. In the PVI-only group, the single-procedure freedom from AF (50% vs. 70%, log-rank P < 0.001) and any atrial arrhythmia (38% vs. 61%, log-rank P < 0.001) were significantly lower in women. After a tailored ablation, no significant differences were observed between women and men regarding freedom from AF (76% vs. 91%, log-rank P = 0.07) or any atrial arrhythmia (56% vs. 62%, log-rank P = 0.69) free survival.

CONCLUSION: Compared to men, PVI-only in women with persistent AF leads …

How Augmin Establishes The Angle Of The Microtubule Branch Site, Sophie M Travis, Jodi Kraus, Collin T Mcmanus, Kiana Golden, Rui Zhang, Sabine Petry

2020-Current year OA Pubs

How microtubules (MTs) are generated in the proper orientation is essential to understanding how the cytoskeleton organizes a cell and MT-dependent events such as cell division. In the spindle, most MTs are generated through the branching MT nucleation pathway. In this pathway, new MTs are nucleated from the side of existing MTs and oriented at a shallow angle by the branching factor augmin, ensuring that both MTs have the same polarity. Yet, how augmin binds MTs and sets the branch angle has remained unclear. Here, we report the cryo-electron microscopy structure of an augmin subcomplex on the MT. This structure …

Complement Activation In Secondary Thrombotic Microangiopathies, Johann Morelle, Fernando Caravaca-Fontan, Fadi Fakhouri, Eleni Frangou, Annette Bruchfeld, Jürgen Floege, Safak Mirioglu, Sarah M Moran, Stefanie Steiger, Kate I Stevens, Onno Y K Teng, Selda Aydin, Anuja Java, Sjoerd A M E G Timmermans, Andreas Kronbichler

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Secondary thrombotic microangiopathies (TMAs) represent a heterogeneous group of diseases associated with a high risk of kidney failure and death despite available therapeutic strategies. Strong evidence implicates complement activation in the pathogenesis of secondary TMA, and emerging data increasingly suggest that pharmacological blockade of the complement improves the outcomes in patients with secondary TMA. Certain forms of secondary TMA, including postpartum TMA, TMA with coexisting hypertensive emergency and de novo TMA after kidney transplantation exhibit a high prevalence of pathogenic variants in complement genes, similar to those observed in primary atypical haemolytic uraemic syndrome. These conditions should be considered as …

Enampt/Tlr4 Signaling Drives Pah Cellular Phenotypic Switching And Lung Vascular Remodeling, Mohamed Ahmed, Zhiyu Dai, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: The attenuation of cellular phenotypic switchingdriving PAH vascular remodeling remains an unmet therapeutic need. As eNAMPT (nicotinamide phosphoribosyltransferase)/TLR4 signaling significantly contributes to PH pathobiology, an eNAMPT-neutralizing ALT-100 mAb was utilized to rescue monocrotaline (MCT) and hypoxia/Sugen (Hy/Su) preclinical PH rat models and to evaluate eNAMPT/TLR4 involvement in endothelial cell (EC), smooth muscle cell (SMC) and monocyte/macrophage phenotypic switching.

METHODS: MCT-PH or Hy/Su-PH rats received IgG or ALT-100 mAb (subQ, beginning week 4) with measurements of PH severity and lung tissue scRNAseq at day 42.

RESULTS: PH severity indices (hemodynamic, histologic, vascular remodeling) were significantly attenuated in MCT-PH and Hy/Su-PH …

Chromatin Profiling Identifies Putative Dual Roles For H3k27me3 In Regulating Cell Type-Specific Genes And Transposable Elements In Choanoflagellates, James M Gahan, Lily W Helfrich, Laura A Wetzel, Natarajan V Bhanu, Zuo-Fei Yuan, Benjamin A Garcia, Robert J Klose, Alex De Mendoza, David S Booth

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Chromatin-based mechanisms contribute to the exquisite regulation of gene expression during animal development. But how those mechanisms evolved remains elusive. Here we investigate chromatin regulatory features in the closest relatives of animals, choanoflagellates. In a model choanoflagellate Salpingoeca rosetta, we compare chromatin accessibility and histone modifications to gene expression. Accessible genomic regions in S. rosetta primarily correspond to gene promoters, and we find no evidence of distal gene regulatory elements that resemble enhancers deployed to regulate developmental genes in animals. Remarkably, the histone modification H3K27me3 decorates genes with cell type-specific expression, revealing a functional similarity in S. rosetta and animals. …

Brca2 Deficiency And Replication Stress Drive Apobec3-Mediated Genomic Instability, Kathy Situ, Abby M Green, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BRCA2 plays a critical role in stabilizing stalled replication forks, yet critical gaps remain in understanding how BRCA2 deficiency triggers fork collapse and drives genomic instability. Here, we identify cytidine deaminase APOBEC3B as a key driver of this process. Using a unique uracil-in-DNA probe, we show that BRCA2 loss promotes APOBEC3B-mediated uracil accumulation in single-stranded DNA (U-ssDNA) at stalled forks. These lesions when processed by UNG2 and APE1, trigger fork collapse and release ssDNA fragments into the cytoplasm, activating NF-κB signaling. This in turn upregulates APOBEC3B expression, establishing a self-reinforcing loop that amplifies cytidine deamination at stalled forks and exacerbates …

Impact Of Transplant Conditioning, Npm1 Mutations, And Measurable Residual Disease In Flt3-Itd Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Mark J Levis, Geoffrey L Uy, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

We conducted a post hoc analysis of data from Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network 1506 (MORPHO), a randomized trial of gilteritinib vs placebo as posttransplantation maintenance for patients with FLT3-ITD-mutated acute myeloid leukemia (AML) undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), focusing the interactions between conditioning regimen intensity, measurable residual disease (MRD), and NPM1 comutation status reported from diagnosis. Comparing FLT3-ITD MRD before and after conditioning, there was no difference between myeloablative conditioning (MAC) and reduced-intensity conditioning (RIC) in eradication or reduction of FLT3-ITD MRD. For participants who were FLT3-ITD MRD negative before HCT, there was no difference in …

Associations Of Early-Adulthood Adiposity With Breast Parenchymal Tissue Complexity Within Premenopausal Women, Sneha Das Gupta, Kayla Getz, Juanita Hernandez Lopez, Debbie L Bennett, Adetunji T Toriola, Aimilia Gastounioti

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Early-adulthood adiposity is associated with breast cancer risk. This study aims to evaluate the associations of early-adulthood adiposity with an emerging biomarker of breast cancer risk, breast parenchymal complexity, within premenopausal women.

METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed early-adulthood adiposity data and screening digital mammograms (DMs) of 326 premenopausal women (age in years; median: 48; range: 34-58) recruited at our institution. Adiposity measures were either assessed by trained personnel or self-reported by participants. DMs were analyzed using a well-validated computational imaging pipeline consisting of automated breast segmentation and radiomic feature extraction modules. The extracted radiomic features were fused into woman-specific breast …

Bioresponsive Hydrogel For On-Demand Nonhormonal Contraception, Giovanni M Pauletti, Pankaj Dwivedi, Ping Li, Aluet Borrego-Alvarez, Hidemi S Yamamoto, Julie Lewis, Sarah Alobaidi, Amel Ibrahim, Raina N Fichorova, Celia M Santi

2020-Current year OA Pubs

The utility of bioresponsive multifunctional hydrogel compositions for biomedical applications is rapidly increasing due to the diverse array of biological stimuli that can profoundly alter physicochemical gel properties that benefit therapeutic interventions. The purpose of this research is to explore a bioresponsive hydrogel as a drug-free bioengineering concept to fortify the natural physical contraceptive barriers at the cervicovaginal junction. The results of this research demonstrate that a hydrogel comprising 4% (

Post-Traumatic Stress And Genetic Interactions Affect Tobacco And Alcohol Use After Trauma: Findings From A Multi-Ancestry Cohort, Henri M. Garrison-Desany, Stacey L. House, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

Transdiagnostic Alterations In White Matter Microstructure Associated With Suicidal Thoughts And Behaviours In The Enigma Suicidal Thoughts And Behaviours Consortium, Laura S. Van Velzen, Alexander S. Hatoum, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

Transgenerational Adaptation To Hypoxia, Kathleen Kim, Ariel Telger, Gautam Sarkar, Sharan Surya, M Hafiz Rothi, Michael P Meers, Simon Yuan Wang, Eric Lieberman Greer

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Epigenetic inheritance alerts naïve descendants to prepare for stresses that could still be present, whereas distant descendants return to a basal state after several generations without stress. However, organisms are frequently exposed to stresses successively across generations. We found that parental hypoxia exposure increased P0 longevity, caused intergenerational lipid reduction, and elicited transgenerational fertility reduction that was dependent on generationally transmitted small RNAs. Here, we find that

Whole-Genome Sequencing Reveals Individual And Cohort Level Insights Into Chromosome 9p Syndromes., Yingxi Wang, Eleanor I Sams, Rachel Slaugh, Sandra Crocker, Emily Cordova Hurtado, Sophia Tracy, Ying-Chen Claire Hou, Christopher Markovic, Kostandin Valle, Victoria Tate, Khadija Belhassan, Elizabeth Appelbaum, Titilope Akinwe, Rodrigo T Starosta, Yang Cao, Amber Neilson, Yu Liu, Nathaniel Jensen, Reza Ghasemi, Tina Lindsay, Juana Manuel, Sophia Couteranis, Milinn Kremitzki, Jack Ustanik, Thomas Antonacci, Jeffrey K Ng, Andrew Emory, Laura Metz, Tracie Deluca, Katherine N Lyons, Toni Sinnwell, Brianne Thomeczek, Katherine A King, Christina A Gurnett, Susan K Dutcher, Catherine Gooch, Yang E Li, Amjad Horani, Michael Heinz, Richard Head, Robert Fulton, Lucinda Antonacci-Fulton, Xiaoxia Cui, Robi D Mitra, F Sessions Cole, Julie Neidich, Patricia I Dickson, Jeffrey Milbrandt, Tychele N Turner, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Previous genomic efforts on chromosome 9p deletion and duplication syndromes have utilized low-resolution strategies (i.e., karyotypes, chromosome microarrays). These studies have provided important initial insights into these syndromes. This current study is the first large-scale whole-genome sequencing (WGS) study of 100 individuals from families with chromosome 9p syndromes.

METHODS: Through the newly formed 9P-ARCH (Advanced Research in Chromosomal Health: Genomic, Phenotypic, and Functional Aspects of 9p-Related syndromes) research network, we assembled a cohort of individuals from families with chromosome 9p syndromes. WGS was applied to 100 individuals, and other genomic technologies were applied to a subset of individuals. To …

Socioeconomic Disparities And Severity Of Gunshot Injuries In Israel: A Retrospective Review Of National Trauma Registry Data From Public Hospitals 2019-2022, Ahmad Awwad, Layalee Abo Naser, Arnona Ziv, Adi Givon, Jennifer Moriatis Wolf, Jason A Strelzow, Eli Farhat, Shai Luria, Israel Trauma Group

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Socioeconomic status (SES) is correlated with gunshot violence. This study examined the associations between SES and the severity of gunshot injuries in Israel.

METHODS: The Israel National Trauma Registry was reviewed for all violence-related gunshot wound patients who were admitted to all public hospitals in Israel from 2019 to 2022. Self-inflicted injuries were excluded. This time frame preceded the regional military conflict that began in October 2023 and did not include any military-related activity. The registry records patient demographics including ethnicity. Severity was assessed on the Injury Severity Score (ISS), and SES was categorized into 10 clusters based on …

Ambient Trichloroethylene Exposure And Parkinson Disease Risk In Medicare Beneficiaries, Brittany Krzyzanowski, Kassu Mehari Beyene, Jay R. Turner, Brad A. Racette

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Trichloroethylene (TCE) is an important environmental contaminant in the United States due to widespread use industrially. Epidemiologic studies suggest that occupational exposure to TCE and TCE-contaminated drinking water may increase the risk of Parkinson disease (PD). The aim of this study was to investigate the nationwide relationship between ambient TCE and PD risk.

METHODS: We performed a nationwide, population-based, case-control study to investigate the association between incident PD in US Medicare beneficiaries aged 67 years and older in 2016-2018 and their residential exposure to ambient (outdoor) TCE in 2002. We assigned residence based on the latitude and …

Facilitation As An Effective Strategy To Reduce Excessive Antibiotic Prophylaxis In Children's Hospitals: A Stepped-Wedge Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial, Virginia Mckay, Sara Malone, Emmanuel Tetteh, Jacqueline Saito, Shawn Rangel, Kelly Bono, Jade Tao, Jingxia Liu, Harry Obeng, Andrew Atkinson, Jason G Newland

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Excessive use of postoperative prophylactic antibiotics in children's hospitals is a significant public health concern, leading to increased risks of infections like Clostridioides difficile, multidrug-resistant organisms, and unnecessary healthcare costs. Antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs) are designed to optimize antibiotic use, but ideal strategies for implementing evidence-based guidelines remain unclear. We tested facilitation, a dynamic process where trained individuals support healthcare personnel in bridging evidence-practice gaps, as a promising strategy for the de-implementation of unnecessary postoperative antibiotics in healthcare.

METHODS: The OPerAtiC trial employed a stepped-wedge cluster randomized controlled design across nine hospitals to compare the effectiveness of two ASP-led …