Digital Commons Network^™

Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome: De Novo Variants And Evidence For Mutational Burden In Genes Associated With Atrial Fibrillation, Zeynep H Coban-Akdemir, Wu-Lin Charng, Mahshid Azamian, Ingrid S Paine, Jaya Punetha, Christopher M Grochowski, Tomasz Gambin, Santiago O Valdes, Bryan Cannon, Gladys Zapata, Patricia P Hernandez, Shalini Jhangiani, Harsha Doddapaneni, Jianhong Hu, Fatima Boricha, Donna M Muzny, Eric Boerwinkle, Yaping Yang, Richard A Gibbs, Jennifer E Posey, Xander H T Wehrens, John W Belmont, Jeffrey J Kim, Christina Y Miyake, James R Lupski, Seema R Lalani

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome is a relatively common arrhythmia affecting ~1-3/1,000 individuals. Mutations in PRKAG2 have been described in rare patients in association with cardiomyopathy. However, the genetic basis of WPW in individuals with a structurally normal heart remains poorly understood. Sudden death due to atrial fibrillation (AF) can also occur in these individuals. Several studies have indicated that despite ablation of an accessory pathway, the risk of AF remains high in patients compared to general population.

METHODS: We applied exome sequencing in 305 subjects, including 65 trios, 80 singletons, and 6 multiple affected families. We used de novo analysis, …

Prediction Of Trimethoprim/Sulfamethoxazole Resistance In Community-Onset Urinary Tract Infections, Madeline Demarsh, P Brandon Bookstaver, Caroline Gordon, Juanne Lim, Nicole Griffith, Nicole K. Bookstaver, Julie Ann Justo, Joseph Kohn, Majdi N. Al-Hasan

Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to predict trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole (SXT) resistance in patients with community-onset urinary tract infection (UTI) due to Enterobacteriaceae based on patient-specific risk factors. METHODS: This was a retrospective case-control study in Prisma Health facilities in central South Carolina, USA, including three community hospitals, affiliated emergency departments and ambulatory clinics, including adult patients with community-onset UTI due to Enterobacteriaceae (1 April 2015 to 29 February 2016). Multivariate logistic regression was used to examine risk factors for SXT resistance. RESULTS: Among 351 unique patients with community-onset UTI, 71 (20.2%) had SXT-resistant Enterobacteriaceae urinary isolates. Overall, median age was 64 years …

Elagolix Treatment For Up To 12 Months In Women With Heavy Menstrual Bleeding And Uterine Leiomyomas, James A Simon, Ayman Al-Hendy, David F Archer, Kurt T Barnhart, Linda D Bradley, Bruce R Carr, Thomas Dayspring, Eve C Feinberg, Veronica Gillispie, Sandra Hurtado, Jinhee Kim, Ran Liu, Charlotte D Owens, Ozgul Muneyyirci-Delale, Alice Wang, Nelson B Watts, William Schlaff

Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Faculty Papers

Objective: To investigate the safety and efficacy of elagolix, an oral gonadotropin-releasing hormone antagonist, with hormonal add-back therapy for up to 12 months in women with heavy menstrual bleeding associated with uterine leiomyomas.

Methods: Elaris UF-EXTEND was a phase 3 extension study that evaluated an additional 6 months (up to 12 months total) of elagolix 300 mg twice daily with hormonal add-back therapy (estradiol 1 mg and norethindrone acetate 0.5 mg once daily) in women who completed an initial 6 months of the same treatment in one of two preceding phase 3 studies. The primary endpoint was the percentage of …

Growth Velocity In Children With Environmental Enteric Dysfunction Is Associated With Specific Bacterial And Viral Taxa Of The Gastrointestinal Tract In Malawian Children, Chandni Desai, Scott A. Handley, Rachel Rodgers, Cynthia Rodriguez, Maria I. Ordiz, Mark J. Manary, Lori R. Holtz

Open Access Publications

Environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) is characterized by diffuse villous atrophy of the small bowel. EED is strongly associated with stunting, a major public health problem linked to increased childhood morbidity and mortality. EED and subsequent stunting of linear growth are surmised to have microbial origins. To interrogate this relationship, we defined the comprehensive virome (eukaryotic virus and bacteriophage) and bacterial microbiome of a longitudinal cohort of rural Malawian children with extensive metadata and intestinal permeability testing at each time point. We found thirty bacterial taxa differentially associated with linear growth. We detected many eukaryotic viruses. Neither the total number of …

Beyond An Updated Graded Prognostic Assessment (Breast Gpa): A Prognostic Index And Trends In Treatment And Survival In Breast Cancer Brain Metastases From 1985 To Today, Paul W Sperduto, Shane Mesko, Jing Li, Daniel Cagney, Ayal Aizer, Nancy U Lin, Eric Nesbit, Tim J Kruser, Jason Chan, Steve Braunstein, Jessica Lee, John P Kirkpatrick, Will Breen, Paul D Brown, Diana Shi, Helen A Shih, Hany Soliman, Arjun Sahgal, Ryan Shanley, William Sperduto, Emil Lou, Ashlyn Everett, Drexell Hunter Boggs, Laura Masucci, David Roberge, Jill Remick, Kristin Plichta, John M Buatti, Supriya Jain, Laurie E Gaspar, Cheng-Chia Wu, Tony J C Wang, John Bryant, Michael Chuong, James Yu, Veronica Chiang, Toshimichi Nakano, Hidefumi Aoyama, Minesh P Mehta

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: Brain metastases are a common sequelae of breast cancer. Survival varies widely based on diagnosis-specific prognostic factors (PF). We previously published a prognostic index (Graded Prognostic Assessment [GPA]) for patients with breast cancer with brain metastases (BCBM), based on cohort A (1985-2007, n = 642), then updated it, reporting the effect of tumor subtype in cohort B (1993-2010, n = 400). The purpose of this study is to update the Breast GPA with a larger contemporary cohort (C) and compare treatment and survival across the 3 cohorts.

METHODS AND MATERIALS: A multi-institutional (19), multinational (3), retrospective database of 2473 …

Effects Of Ruxolitinib Cream On Pruritus And Quality Of Life In Atopic Dermatitis: Results From A Phase 2, Randomized, Dose-Ranging, Vehicle- And Active-Controlled Study, Brian S Kim, Kang Sun, Kim Papp, May Venturanza, Adnan Nasir, Michael E. Kuligowski

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Atopic dermatitis (AD), a chronic, highly pruritic skin disorder, impairs quality of life (QoL). Janus kinase inhibitors suppress inflammatory and pruritus-associated cytokine signaling in AD.

OBJECTIVE: To report the effects of ruxolitinib (RUX) cream on itch and QoL in AD.

METHODS: A total of 307 adult patients with an Investigator's Global Assessment (score of 2 or 3) and 3% to 20% affected body surface area were randomly assigned for 8 weeks to receive double-blind treatment with RUX (1.5% twice daily, 1.5% once daily, 0.5% once daily, or 0.15% once daily), vehicle twice daily, or triamcinolone cream (0.1% twice daily …

Phase 2 Study Of Cemiplimab In Patients With Metastatic Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Primary Analysis Of Fixed-Dosing, Long-Term Outcome Of Weight-Based Dosing, Danny Rischin, Leonel Hernandez-Aya, Et Al

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Cemiplimab, a high-affinity, potent human immunoglobulin G4 monoclonal antibody to programmed cell death-1 demonstrated antitumor activity in a Phase 1 advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (CSCC) expansion cohort (NCT02383212) and the pivotal Phase 2 study (NCT02760498). Here we report the primary analysis of fixed dose cemiplimab 350 mg intravenously every 3 weeks (Q3W) (Group 3) and provide a longer-term update after the primary analysis of weight-based cemiplimab 3 mg/kg intravenously every 2 weeks (Q2W) (Group 1) among metastatic CSCC (mCSCC) patients in the pivotal study (NCT02760498).

METHODS: The primary objective for each group was objective response rate (ORR) per …

Epigenomic Programming In Early Fetal Brain Development, Luolan Li, Ting Wang, Et Al

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

Natural History Of Geographic Atrophy Secondary To Age-Related Macular Degeneration: Results From The Prospective Proxima A And B Clinical Trials, Nancy Holekamp, Charles C Wykoff, Steffen Schmitz-Valckenberg, Jordi Monés, Eric H Souied, Hugh Lin, Melvin D Rabena, Ronald A Cantrell, Erin C Henry, Fan Tang, Balakumar Swaminathan, Jillian Martin, Daniela Ferrara, Giovanni Staurenghi

2020-Current year OA Pubs

PURPOSE: To better characterize visual function decline and geographic atrophy (GA) progression secondary to age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

DESIGN: Proxima A (NCT02479386)/Proxima B (NCT02399072) were global, prospective, noninterventional, observational clinical trials.

PARTICIPANTS: Eligible patients were aged ≥50 years. Patients in Proxima A had bilateral GA without choroidal neovascularization (CNV) in either eye (N = 295). Patients in Proxima B had GA without CNV in the study eye and CNV±GA in the fellow eye (fellow eye CNV cohort, n = 168) or GA without CNV in the study eye, no CNV/GA in the fellow eye (fellow eye intermediate AMD cohort, n …

Surgical Endoepicardial Linear Ablation For Ventricular Tachycardia With Postinfarction Left Ventricular Aneurysm, Changcheng Liu, Zhaoping Su, Liangshan Wang, Bo Li, Jin Wang, Yang Yu, Chengxiong Gu

The Texas Heart Institute Journal

This retrospective study evaluated the feasibility of surgical endoepicardial linear ablation for ventricular tachycardia in patients with postinfarction left ventricular aneurysm. Sixty-four patients with multivessel coronary artery disease and left ventricular aneurysm but no mural thrombosis of the aneurysm or valve disease were treated at our institution from March 2012 through July 2015. All underwent off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting and left ventricular aneurysm repair by linear plication. Twenty-three patients (35.9%) had ventricular tachycardia and underwent surgical endoepicardial linear ablation on the beating heart guided by epicardial substrate mapping with the Carto 3 system. The remaining 41 patients (64.1%) composed …

Altered Mental Status And Hyponatremia After 20 Hours Of Amiodarone Therapy, Andrea Qi, John C Moscona, Justin Reed, Thierry H Le Jemtel

The Texas Heart Institute Journal

A 66-year-old woman with no relevant medical history presented at the emergency department with new-onset atrial fibrillation. We initiated intravenous amiodarone therapy. At 20 hours, the patient experienced severe neurologic symptoms, hyponatremia, and syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone. We discontinued amiodarone, infused saline solution, and restricted the patient's fluid intake. She recovered in 3 days. This case illustrates that amiodarone-induced syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone with hyponatremia can occur far earlier than expected during acute amiodarone therapy.

Incidental Cannulation Of Left Ventricular Thebesian Vein, Kalyan Chakravarthy Potu, Jay N Patel, Majd Ibrahim, Sujitha Sree Ketineni, Sudhir Mungee

The Texas Heart Institute Journal

No abstract provided.

Emergency Potassium Normalization Treatment Including Sodium Zirconium Cyclosilicate: A Phase Ii, Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study (Energize), W Frank Peacock, Zubaid Rafique, Konstantin Vishnevskiy, Edward Michelson, Elena Vishneva, Tatiana Zvereva, Rajaa Nahra, Dao Li, Joseph Miller

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVES: Sodium zirconium cyclosilicate (SZC) is a novel, highly selective potassium binder currently approved in the United States and European Union for treatment of hyperkalemia. This pilot evaluation explored the efficacy of SZC with insulin and glucose as hyperkalemia treatment in the emergency department (ED).

METHODS:This exploratory, phase II, multicenter, randomized, double‐blind, placebo‐controlled study (NCT03337477) enrolled adult ED patients with blood potassium ≥ 5.8 mmol/L. Patients were randomized 1:1 to receive SZC 10 g or placebo, up to three times during a 10‐hour period, with insulin and glucose. The primary efficacy outcome was the mean change in serum …

Tfeb Is A Master Regulator Of Tumor-Associated Macrophages In Breast Cancer, Yong Li, Johnie Hodge, Qing Liu, Junfeng Wang, Yuzhen Wang, Trent D Evans, Diego Altomare, Yongzhong Yao, E. Angela Murphy, Babak Razani, Daping Fan

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) play key roles in the development of many malignant solid tumors including breast cancer. They are educated in the tumor microenvironment (TME) to promote tumor growth, metastasis, and therapy resistance. However, the phenotype of TAMs is elusive and how to regulate them for therapeutic purpose remains unclear; therefore, TAM-targeting therapies have not yet achieved clinical success. The purposes of this study were to examine the role of transcription factor EB (TFEB) in regulating TAM gene expression and function and to determine if TFEB activation can halt breast tumor development.

METHODS: Microarrays were used to analyze the …

Maternal Viral Load Monitoring: Coverage And Clinical Action At 4 Kenyan Hospitals., Matthew Sandbulte, Melinda Brown, Catherine Wexler, May Maloba, Brad Gautney, Kathy Goggin, Elizabeth Muchoki, Shadrack Babu, Nicodemus Maosa, Sarah Finocchario-Kessler

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: Kenya's guidelines for prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV (PMTCT) recommend routine viral load (VL) monitoring for pregnant and breastfeeding women.

METHOD: We assessed PMTCT VL monitoring and clinical action occurring between last menstrual period (LMP) and 6 months postpartum at 4 Kenyan government hospitals. Pregnant women enrolled in the HIV Infant Tracking System from May 2016-March 2018 were included. We computed proportions who received VL testing within recommended timeframes and who received clinical action after unsuppressed VL result.

RESULTS: Of 424 participants, any VL testing was documented for 305 (72%) women and repeat VL testing was documented for …

Decomposing Loss Aversion From Gaze Allocation And Pupil Dilation, Feng Sheng, Arjun Ramakrishnan, Darsol Seok, Wenjia Joyce Zhao, Samuel Thelaus, Puti Cen, Michael Louis Platt

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Loss-averse decisions, in which one avoids losses at the expense of gains, are highly prevalent. However, the underlying mechanisms remain controversial. The prevailing account highlights a valuation bias that overweighs losses relative to gains, but an alternative view stresses a response bias to avoid choices involving potential losses. Here we couple a computational process model with eye-tracking and pupillometry to develop a physiologically grounded framework for the decision process leading to accepting or rejecting gambles with equal odds of winning and losing money. Overall, loss-averse decisions were accompanied by preferential gaze toward losses and increased pupil dilation for accepting gambles. …

Characteristics Of Nontuberculous Mycobacterial Infections At A Midwestern Tertiary Hospital: A Retrospective Study Of 365 Patients., Claire E Hannah, Bradley A Ford, Jina Chung, Dilek Ince, Karolyn A Wanat

Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Biology Faculty Papers

Background: The prevalence of infections due to nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) is increasing worldwide, yet little is known about the epidemiology and pathophysiology of these ubiquitous environmental organisms. Pulmonary disease due to Mycobacterium avium complex is most prevalent, but many other NTM species can cause disease in virtually any organ system. As NTM becomes an increasingly common cause of morbidity and mortality, more information is needed about the epidemiology of NTM disease.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of all patients with cultures that grew NTM at a Midwestern tertiary hospital from 1996 to 2017. Information on demographics, medical history, …

Vascular Risk Reduction In Obesity Through Reduced Granulocyte Burden And Improved Angiogenic Monocyte Content Following Bariatric Surgery., David A Hess, Justin Z Trac, Stephen A Glazer, Daniella C Terenzi, Adrian Quan, Hwee Teoh, Mohammed Al-Omran, Deepak L Bhatt, C David Mazer, Ori D Rotstein, Subodh Verma

Physiology and Pharmacology Publications

Bariatric surgery, in addition to the benefit of sustained weight loss, can also reduce cardiometabolic risk and mortality. Lifelong vessel maintenance is integral to the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Using aldehyde dehydrogenase activity, an intracellular detoxifying enzyme present at high levels within pro-vascular progenitor cells, we observed an association between chronic obesity and "regenerative cell exhaustion" (RCE), a pathology whereby chronic assault on circulating regenerative cell types can result in adverse inflammation and diminished vessel repair. We also describe that, at 3 months following bariatric surgery, systemic inflammatory burden was reduced and pro-angiogenic macrophage precursor content was improved in subjects …

Coronary Heart Disease And Mortality Following A Breast Cancer Diagnosis, Aixia Guo, Kathleen W Zhang, Kristi Reynolds, Randi E Foraker

Open Access Publications

BACKGROUND: Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality for breast cancer survivors, yet the joint effect of adverse cardiovascular health (CVH) and cardiotoxic cancer treatments on post-treatment CHD and death has not been quantified.

METHODS: We conducted statistical and machine learning approaches to evaluate 10-year risk of these outcomes among 1934 women diagnosed with breast cancer during 2006 and 2007. Overall CVH scores were classified as poor, intermediate, or ideal for 5 factors, smoking, body mass index, blood pressure, glucose/hemoglobin A1c, and cholesterol from clinical data within 5 years prior to the breast cancer diagnosis. …

Demographic And Socioeconomic Characteristics Of Canadian Medical Students: A Cross-Sectional Study., Rishad Khan, Tavis Apramian, Joel Hosung Kang, Jeffrey Gustafson, Shannon Sibbald

Health Studies Publications

BACKGROUND: While the importance of medical students' demographic characteristics in influencing the scope and location of their future practice is recognized, these data are not systematically collected in Canada. This study aimed to characterize and compare the demographics of Canadian medical students with the Canadian population.

METHODS: Through an online survey, delivered in 2018, medical students at 14 English-speaking Canadian medical schools provided their age, sex, gender identity, ethnicity, educational background, and rurality of the area they grew up in. Respondents also provided information on parental income, occupation, and education as markers of socioeconomic status. Data were compared to the …

Protein-Altering Germline Mutations Implicate Novel Genes Related To Lung Cancer Development., Xuemei Ji, Semanti Mukherjee, Maria Teresa Landi, Yohan Bosse, Philippe Joubert, Dakai Zhu, Ivan Gorlov, Xiangjun Xiao, Younghun Han, Olga Gorlova, Rayjean J Hung, Yonathan Brhane, Robert Carreras-Torres, David C Christiani, Neil Caporaso, Mattias Johansson, Geoffrey Liu, Stig E Bojesen, Loic Le Marchand, Demetrios Albanes, Heike Bickeböller, Melinda C Aldrich, William S Bush, Adonina Tardon, Gad Rennert, Chu Chen, Jinyoung Byun, Konstantin H Dragnev, John K Field, Lambertus Fa Kiemeney, Philip Lazarus, Shan Zienolddiny, Stephen Lam, Matthew B Schabath, Angeline S Andrew, Pier A Bertazzi, Angela C Pesatori, Nancy Diao, Li Su, Lei Song, Ruyang Zhang, Natasha Leighl, Jakob S Johansen, Anders Mellemgaard, Walid Saliba, Christopher Haiman, Lynne Wilkens, Ana Fernandez-Somoano, Guillermo Fernandez-Tardon, Erik H F M Van Der Heijden, Jin Hee Kim, Michael P A Davies, Michael W Marcus, Hans Brunnström, Jonas Manjer, Olle Melander, David C Muller, Kim Overvad, Antonia Trichopoulou, Rosario Tumino, Gary E Goodman, Angela Cox, Fiona Taylor, Penella Woll, Erich Wichmann, Thomas Muley, Angela Risch, Albert Rosenberger, Kjell Grankvist, Mikael Johansson, Frances Shepherd, Ming-Sound Tsao, Susanne M Arnold, Eric B Haura, Ciprian Bolca, Ivana Holcatova, Vladimir Janout, Milica Kontic, Jolanta Lissowska, Anush Mukeria, Simona Ognjanovic, Tadeusz M Orlowski, Ghislaine Scelo, Beata Swiatkowska, David Zaridze, Per Bakke, Vidar Skaug, Lesley M Butler, Kenneth Offit, Preethi Srinivasan, Chaitanya Bandlamudi, Matthew D Hellmann, David B Solit, Mark E Robson, Charles M Rudin, Zsofia K Stadler, Barry S Taylor, Michael F Berger, Richard Houlston, John Mclaughlin, Victoria Stevens, David C Nickle, Ma'en Obeidat, Wim Timens, María Soler Artigas, Sanjay Shete, Hermann Brenner, Stephen Chanock, Paul Brennan, James D Mckay, Christopher I Amos

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

Few germline mutations are known to affect lung cancer risk. We performed analyses of rare variants from 39,146 individuals of European ancestry and investigated gene expression levels in 7,773 samples. We find a large-effect association with an ATM L2307F (rs56009889) mutation in adenocarcinoma for discovery (adjusted Odds Ratio = 8.82, P = 1.18 × 10-15) and replication (adjusted OR = 2.93, P = 2.22 × 10-3) that is more pronounced in females (adjusted OR = 6.81 and 3.19 and for discovery and replication). We observe an excess loss of heterozygosity in lung tumors among ATM L2307F allele carriers. L2307F is …

Mentored Training And Its Association With Dissemination And Implementation Research Output: A Quasi-Experimental Evaluation, Rebekah R Jacob, Angeline Gacad, Margaret Padek, Graham A Colditz, Karen M Emmons, Jon F Kerner, David A Chambers, Ross C Brownson

Open Access Publications

BACKGROUND: There is a continued need to evaluate training programs in dissemination and implementation (D&I) research. Scientific products yielded from trainees are an important and objective measure to understand the capacity growth within the D&I field. This study evaluates our mentored training program in terms of scientific productivity among applicants.

METHODS: Post-doctoral and early-career cancer researchers were recruited and applied to the R25 Mentored Training for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer (MT-DIRC) between 2014 and 2017. Using application details and publicly available bibliometric and funding data, we compared selected fellows with unsuccessful applicants (nonfellows). We extracted Scopus citations and …

Can Cities Be Feminist? A Cross-National Analysis Of Factors Affecting Local Female Representation In Latin America, Katie Davis

Honors Theses

Women are underrepresented in mayor’s offices and on city councils across Latin America. In this paper, I examine gender-based differences in individual opinions toward running for office in Argentina and Uruguay, as well as conduct a twenty-six country analysis on factors related to female representation in municipal government. Based on these analyses, I make three main conclusions about female local representation in Latin America. The first conclusion is that women in Latin America are significantly less likely to want to run or feel qualified to run for office. The second conclusion is that cross-national variation in the percentage of female …

The Effects Of Activity-Based Anorexia On The Rewarding Properties Of Methamphetamine And Wheel Running, Rachael M. Langa

Theses and Dissertations

An activity-based anorexia (ABA) paradigm in adolescent female mice was used to explore whether anorexia affects circuits underlying reward. The ABA paradigm significantly enhanced methamphetamine-induced conditioned place preference (CPP), but not wheel-induced CPP. These results indicate that the ABA paradigm enhances the rewarding properties of methamphetamine, but not wheel running.

Dna Methylation Signature For Ezh2 Functionally Classifies Sequence Variants In Three Prc2 Complex Genes, Sanaa Choufani, William T. Gibson, Andrei L. Turinsky, Brian H Y Chung, Tianren Wang, Kopal Garg, Alessandro Vitriolo, Ana S A Cohen, Sharri Cyrus, Sarah Goodman, Eric Chater-Diehl, Jack Brzezinski, Michael Brudno, Luk Ho Ming, Susan M. White, Sally Ann Lynch, Carol Clericuzio, I Karen Temple, Frances Flinter, Vivienne Mcconnell, Tom Cushing, Lynne M. Bird, Miranda Splitt, Bronwyn Kerr, Stephen W. Scherer, Jerry Machado, Eri Imagawa, Nobuhiko Okamoto, Naomichi Matsumoto, Guiseppe Testa, Maria Iascone, Romano Tenconi, Oana Caluseriu, Roberto Mendoza-Londono, David Chitayat, Cheryl Cytrynbaum, Katrina Tatton-Brown, Rosanna Weksberg

Pediatrics Research and Scholarship

Weaver syndrome (WS), an overgrowth/intellectual disability syndrome (OGID), is caused by pathogenic variants in the histone methyltransferase EZH2, which encodes a core component of the Polycomb repressive complex-2 (PRC2). Using genome-wide DNA methylation (DNAm) data for 187 individuals with OGID and 969 control subjects, we show that pathogenic variants in EZH2 generate a highly specific and sensitive DNAm signature reflecting the phenotype of WS. This signature can be used to distinguish loss-of-function from gain-of-function missense variants and to detect somatic mosaicism. We also show that the signature can accurately classify sequence variants in EED and SUZ12, which encode two other …

Association Of Multisetting Community Programs And Policies With Child Body Mass Index: The Healthy Communities Study, Vicki L. Collie-Akers, Stephen B. Fawcett, Jerry A. Schultz, Kandace K. Fleming, Rebecca E. Swinburne Romine, Lorrene D. Ritchie, Edward A. Frongillo Jr., S Sonia Arteaga

Faculty Publications

INTRODUCTION:

Expert opinion suggests that efforts to address childhood obesity should seek to transform the environments in which children operate. The objective of this study was to describe the extent to which multisetting programs and policies interact with community and child predictors and are associated with child body mass index (BMI) in the 130 US communities participating in the Healthy Communities Study.

METHODS:

For 2 years beginning in fall 2013, we collected data through key informant interviews on community programs and policies related to healthy weight among children that occurred in the 10 years before the interview. We characterized community …

Switching To Lurasidone Following 12 Months Of Treatment With Risperidone: Results Of A 6-Month, Open-Label Study, Greg W Mattingly, Peter M Haddad, Michael Tocco, Jane Xu, Debra Phillips, Andrei Pikalov, Antony Loebel

Open Access Publications

BACKGROUND: Patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia are at an increased risk for developing metabolic syndrome, which is associated with greater cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Treatment with some commonly used antipsychotic medications may increase the risk of developing metabolic syndrome. The aim of the study was to evaluate the safety of lurasidone in patients who continued lurasidone or switched from risperidone to lurasidone. A secondary aim was assessment of the effect of long-term lurasidone on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS).

METHODS: The treatment sample in the current study consisted of clinically stable patients with schizophrenia (N = 223) …

Nk Cell-Derived Gm-Csf Potentiates Inflammatory Arthritis And Is Negatively Regulated By Cis, Cynthia Louis, Fernando Souza-Fonseca-Guimaraes, Yuyan Yang, Damian D'Silva, Tobias Kratina, Laura Dagley, Soroor Hediyeh-Zadeh, Jai Rautela, Seth Lucian Masters, Melissa J Davis, Jeffrey J Babon, Bogoljub Ciric, Eric Vivier, Warren S Alexander, Nicholas D Huntington, Ian P Wicks

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

Despite increasing recognition of the importance of GM-CSF in autoimmune disease, it remains unclear how GM-CSF is regulated at sites of tissue inflammation. Using GM-CSF fate reporter mice, we show that synovial NK cells produce GM-CSF in autoantibody-mediated inflammatory arthritis. Synovial NK cells promote a neutrophilic inflammatory cell infiltrate, and persistent arthritis, via GM-CSF production, as deletion of NK cells, or specific ablation of GM-CSF production in NK cells, abrogated disease. Synovial NK cell production of GM-CSF is IL-18–dependent. Furthermore, we show that cytokine-inducible SH2-containing protein (CIS) is crucial in limiting GM-CSF signaling not only during inflammatory arthritis but also …

Why Do Graduates Choose To Work In A Less Attractive Specialty? A Cross-Sectional Study On The Role Of Personal Values And Expectations, Van Anh Nguyen, Karen D. Könings, E Pamela Wright Phd, Ms, Med, Rn, Cen, Giang Bao Kim, Hoat Ngoc Luu, Albert J. Scherpbier, Jeroen J. Van Merriënboer

Publications

BACKGROUND: Primary health care (PHC), of which preventive medicine (PM) is a subspecialty, will have to cope with a deficiency of staff in the future, which makes the retention of graduates urgent. This study was conducted in Vietnam, where PM is an undergraduate degree in parallel to medical training. It aims to identify facilitating and hindering factors that impact recruitment and retention of PM graduates in the specialty. METHODS: A cross-sectional study enrolled 167 graduates who qualified as PM doctors from a Vietnamese medical school, between 2012 and 2018. Data were collected via an online questionnaire that asked participants about …

Seizure Freedom Improves Health-Related Quality Of Life After Epilepsy Surgery In Children., Puneet Jain, Mary Lou Smith, Kathy Speechley, Mark Ferro, Mary Connolly, Rajesh Ramachandrannair, Salah Almubarak, Andrea Andrade, Elysa Widjaja

Paediatrics Publications

AIM: To determine whether epilepsy surgery improved health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and whether seizure freedom after surgery mediated the improvement in HRQoL.

METHOD: This multicenter cohort study compared HRQoL after epilepsy surgery to pharmacological management in children with drug-resistant epilepsy (DRE). HRQoL was measured using the Quality of Life in Childhood Epilepsy (QOLCE) questionnaire at baseline and 1-year follow-up. The mediator between treatment type and HRQoL was seizure freedom.

RESULTS: Two hundred and thirty-seven patients were recruited (surgery group: n=147 [92 males, 45 females]; pharmacological group: n=90 [53 males, 37 females]). Mean age at seizure onset was 6 years …