Digital Commons Network^™

Maternal Rest Improves Growth In Small-For-Gestational-Age Fetuses (<10th Percentile), Greggory R Devore, Bardo Polanco, Wesley Lee, Jeffrey Brian Fowlkes, Emma E Peek, Manesha Putra, John C Hobbins

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Optimal management of fetuses diagnosed as small for gestational age based on an estimated fetal weight ofHowever, maternal bed rest has not been recommended based on the results of a randomized clinical trial that showed that maternal rest does not improve fetal growth in small-for-gestational-age fetuses. This study was conducted to revisit this question.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to determine whether maternal bed rest was associated with an increase in the fetal biometric parameters that reflect growth after the diagnosis of a small-for-gestational-age fetus.

STUDY DESIGN: A retrospective study was conducted on fetuses who were diagnosed as small for …

Longitudinal Host Transcriptional Responses To Sars-Cov-2 Infection In Adults With Extremely High Viral Load, Vasanthi Avadhanula, Chad J Creighton, Laura Ferlic-Stark, Divya Nagaraj, Yiqun Zhang, Richard Sucgang, Erin G Nicholson, Anubama Rajan, Vipin Kumar Menon, Harshavardhan Doddapaneni, Donna Marie Muzny, Ginger A Metcalf, Sara Joan Javornik Cregeen, Kristi Louise Hoffman, Richard A Gibbs, Joseph F Petrosino, Pedro A Piedra

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Current understanding of viral dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 and host responses driving the pathogenic mechanisms in COVID-19 is rapidly evolving. Here, we conducted a longitudinal study to investigate gene expression patterns during acute SARS-CoV-2 illness. Cases included SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals with extremely high viral loads early in their illness, individuals having low SARS-CoV-2 viral loads early in their infection, and individuals testing negative for SARS-CoV-2. We could identify widespread transcriptional host responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection that were initially most strongly manifested in patients with extremely high initial viral loads, then attenuating within the patient over time as viral loads decreased. Genes …

Goldenbraid20 E Coli: A Comprehensive And Characterized Toolkit For Enterics, Matthew B Cooke, Kobie T Welch, Laura D Ramirez, Alice X Wen, David C Marciano, Christophe Herman

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Modular cloning systems streamline laboratory workflows by consolidating genetic 'parts' into reusable and modular collections, enabling researchers to fast-track strain construction. The GoldenBraid 2.0 modular cloning system utilizes the cutting property of type IIS restriction enzymes to create defined genetic 'grammars', which facilitate the reuse of standardized genetic parts and assembly of genetic parts in the right order. Here, we present a GoldenBraid 2.0 toolkit of genetic parts designed to accelerate cloning in the model bacterium

The Dna Demethylase Tet1 Modifies The Impact Of Maternal Folic Acid Status On Embryonic Brain Development, Lehua Chen, Bernard K Van Der Veer, Qiuying Chen, Spyridon Champeris Tsaniras, Wannes Brangers, Harm H M Kwak, Rita Khoueiry, Yunping Lei, Robert Cabrera, Steven S Gross, Richard H Finnell, Kian Peng Koh

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Folic acid (FA) is well known to prevent neural tube defects (NTDs), but we do not know why many human NTD cases still remain refractory to FA supplementation. Here, we investigate how the DNA demethylase TET1 interacts with maternal FA status to regulate mouse embryonic brain development. We determined that cranial NTDs display higher penetrance in non-inbred than in inbred Tet1−/− embryos and are resistant to FA supplementation across strains. Maternal diets that are either too rich or deficient in FA are linked to an increased incidence of cranial deformities in wild type and Tet1+/− offspring and to …

Poor Sleep Is Common In Treatment-Resistant Late-Life Depression And Associated With Poorer Antidepressant Response: Findings From The Optimum Clinical Trial, Michael S B Mak, Marie Anne Gebara, Eric J Lenze, Daniel M Blumberger, Patrick J Brown, Pilar Cristancho, Alastair J Flint, Jordan F Karp, Helen Lavretsky, J Philip Miller, Charles F Reynolds 3rd, Steven P Roose, Benoit H Mulsant, Sarah T Stahl

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Adults with treatment-resistant late-life depression (TRLLD) have high rates of sleep problems; however, little is known about the occurrence and change in sleep during pharmacotherapy of TRLLD. This analysis examined: (1) the occurrence of insufficient sleep among adults with TRLLD; (2) how sleep changed during pharmacotherapy; and (3) whether treatment outcomes differed among participants with persistent insufficient sleep, worsened sleep, improved sleep, or persistent sufficient sleep.

METHODS: Secondary analysis of data from 634 participants age 60+ years in the OPTIMUM clinical trial for TRLLD. Sleep was assessed using the sleep item from the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale at the …

Vibrotactile Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation Alters Limbic System Connectivity In Humans: A Pilot Study, Kara M. Donovan, Joshua D. Adams, Ki Yun Park, Phillip Demarest, Gansheng Tan, Jon T. Willie, Peter Brunner, Jenna L. Gorlewicz, Eric C. Leuthardt

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Vibration offers a potential alternative modality for transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS). However, mechanisms of action are not well-defined. The goal of this pilot study was to evaluate the potential of vibrotactile stimulation of the outer ear as a method for activating central brain regions similarly to established vagal nerve stimulation methods. Seven patients with intractable epilepsy undergoing stereotactic electroencephalography (sEEG) monitoring participated in the study. Vibrotactile taVNS was administered across five vibration frequencies (2, 6, 12, 20, and 40 Hz) following a randomized stimulation pattern with 30 trials per frequency. Spectral coherence during stimulation was analyzed across theta …

First Successful Ovarian Cortex Allotransplant To A Turner Syndrome Patient Requiring Immunosuppression: Wide Implications, Sherman J Silber, Sierra Goldsmith, Benjamin Rubinoff, Eduardo Kelly, Rowena Delos Santos, Anibal Melo, Daniel Brennan

2020-Current year OA Pubs

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether we can safely and successfully transplant an ovary tissue allograft from a nonidentical donor to her Turner syndrome sister.

DESIGN: Transplantation of cryopreserved ovary tissue, as well as fresh transplantation of ovarian tissue between identical twins, is now well established with numerous reported successful cases. However, there have not yet been any ovary transplants between nonidentical women requiring immunosuppression (ovary allotransplant). This could be a much more common indication for ovary tissue transplantation if safe and reliable immunosuppression were available.

PATIENT(S): A 20-year-old amenorrheic woman with nonmosaic 45-XO Turner syndrome requested ovary tissue transplantation from her …

The Infected Diabetic Foot: Incidence And Risk Factors For Dehiscence After Surgery For Diabetic Foot Infections, Lawrence A Lavery, Mario C Reyes, Bijan Najafi, Tyler L Coye, Jayer Chung, Michael C Siah, Arthur N Tarricone

Center on Aging Staff Publications

Our objective was to assess the incidence, risk factors and clinical outcomes of dehiscence after foot surgery in diabetic patients. We used pooled patient‐level data from two randomised clinical trials with 240 diabetic patients who required foot surgery for infections. Most patients (n = 180, 75.0%) had surgical wound closure. We defined dehisced surgical wounds (DSW) when the surgical site was not completely epithelialized with no drainage after sutures/staples were removed with a 2‐week validation of healing. We evaluated the time to heal, re‐infection, re‐ulceration, hospital admissions and amputations. Moderate and severe infection was based on criteria of the …

Depression And Weight Loss Trajectories During An Integrated Behavioral Intervention: Within-Treatment Analysis Of The Rainbow Trial, Bailey W. Osweiler, Daphne Lew, Nan Lv, Jun Ma, Thomas G. Kannampallil

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: Depression and obesity are two of the most common chronic conditions among US adults. The Research Aimed at Improving Both Mood and Weight (RAINBOW) study was the first randomized clinical trial to demonstrate the effectiveness of an integrated behavioral treatment for depression and obesity. We aimed to characterize the trajectories of both depression symptoms and weight loss during the RAINBOW intervention.

METHODS: Participants (N = 201) randomly assigned to the RAINBOW treatment arm who provided serial data on depression symptoms (via the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire [PHQ9]) and self-measured weight were included. Group-Based Multi-Trajectory Modeling is a statistical technique …

Talking About Suffering In The Intensive Care Unit, Brent M Kious, Judith B Vick, Peter A Ubel, Olivia Sutton, Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, Christopher E Cox, Deepshikha Ashana

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Background: Some have hypothesized that talk about suffering can be used by clinicians to motivate difficult decisions, especially to argue for reducing treatment at the end of life. We examined how talk about suffering is related to decision-making for critically ill patients, by evaluating transcripts of conversations between clinicians and patients' families.

Methods: We conducted a secondary qualitative content analysis of audio-recorded family meetings from a multicenter trial conducted in the adult intensive care units of five hospitals from 2012-2017 to look at how the term "suffering" and its variants were used. A coding guide was developed by consensus-oriented discussion …

Different Responses Involving Tfh Cells Delay Parasite-Specific Antibody Production In Trypanosoma Cruzi Acute Experimental Models, Ana Carolina Leão, Maria Jose Villar, Rakesh Adhikari, Cristina Poveda, Leroy Versteeg, Gregório Almeida, Peter J Hotez, Maria Elena Bottazzi, Kathryn M Jones

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Introduction: Chagas disease (CD), caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi, affects millions globally. Despite treatment options in the acute phase, most infections progress to a chronic indeterminate form or develop severe cardiac/gastrointestinal complications. Understanding the immune response is crucial for the development of vaccines and more efficient drugs for the disease control.

Methods: This work investigates the immune response to T. cruzi H1 K68 strain infection in female BALB/c and C57BL/6 mice to characterize differences in Tfh and B cell responses that may be involved in the poor parasite-specific antibody production during acute infection. For this, mice were euthanized …

Midterm Outcomes Of Pediatric Mitral Valvuloplasty For Moderate To Severe Mitral Valve Regurgitation And Associated Risk Factors For Postoperative Deterioration, Hongyuan Fu, Aijun Liu, Ming Yang, Zeyu Liu, Junwu Su

The Texas Heart Institute Journal

BACKGROUND: Mitral valvuloplasty is considered the best treatment for pediatric mitral valve regurgitation. The objective of this analysis was to identify risk factors for postoperative mitral valve regurgitation progression and evaluate valvuloplasty effectiveness.

METHODS: This retrospective, single-center study investigated the clinical efficacy of mitral valvuloplasty and identified factors that affect prognosis. Pediatric patients with moderate or severe mitral valve regurgitation who had undergone mitral valvuloplasty between September 2016 and August 2023 were included. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was used to assess freedom from both mitral valve deterioration and cardiovascular death. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to identify potential …

Recurrent Carotid Paragangliomas In A Syndromic Patient With A Heterozygous Missense Variant In Dna Methyltransferase 3 Alpha, Ryan J German, Blake Vuocolo, Liesbeth Vossaert, Lisa Saba, Robin Fletcher, Matthew L Tedder, Bekim Sadikovic, Jennifer Kerkhof, Michael Wangler, Carlos A Bacino

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

We report a 40-year-old African American female with a novel variant in exon 8 of DNA methyltransferase 3 alpha (DNMT3A), (NM_022552.4: c.905G>C, p.G302A) who presented with a history of recurrent carotid paragangliomas, mediastinal mass, intellectual disability, dysarthria, cholelithiasis, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and dysmorphic features. We interpret this novel variant as likely pathogenic and causative for the patient's syndromic features of Heyn-Sproul-Jackson syndrome. Heyn-Sproul-Jackson syndrome is a condition caused by gain-of-function genetic changes in DNMT3A. Paragangliomas have also been observed in non-syndromic patients with genetic alterations in DNMT3A. We describe a patient with clinical features of Heyn-Sproul-Jackson syndrome such as …

Novel Loci For Triglyceride/Hdl-C Ratio Longitudinal Change Among Subjects Without T2d, Lihua Wang, Siyu Wang, Jason A Anema, Vaha A Moghaddam, Yanli Lu, Shiow Lin, E Warwick Daw, Allison L Kuipers, Iva Miljkovic, Michael Brent, Gary J Patti, Bharat Thygarajan, Joseph M Zmuda, Michael A Province, Ping An

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Triglyceride (TG)/HDL-C ratio (THR) is a surrogate predictor of hyperinsulinemia. To identify novel genetic loci for THR change over time (ΔTHR), we conducted genome-wide association study (GWAS) and genome-wide linkage scan (GWLS) among nondiabetic Europeans from the Long Life Family Study (n = 1,384). Subjects with diabetes or on dyslipidemia medications were excluded. ΔTHR was derived using growth curve modeling and adjusted for age, sex, field centers, and principal components. GWAS used a linear mixed model accounting for familial relatedness. GWLS employed haplotype-based identity-by-descent estimation with 0.5 cM average spacing. Heritability of ΔTHR was moderate (46%). Our GWAS identified a …

The Cross-Sectional Association Between State-Level Public Health Funding Per Capita And Physical Health Among Adults In The United States, Stephen Hunter, Sze Y. Liu, Daniel M. Cook, Kia L. Davis, Brendan T. Smith, Roman Pabayo

2020-Current year OA Pubs

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the association between state-level public health funding per capita and the odds of poor physical health.

STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional.

METHODS: Data from the 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) were used. Participants' self-reported physical health was reported using the CDC Healthy Days Core Module. State-level public health funding per capita was obtained from the State Health Access Data Assistance Center website. Multilevel logistic regression was used to adjust for self-reported individual-level characteristics and state-level characteristics from the 2018 American Community Survey. We also tested whether household income or education attainment moderated any observed associations.

RESULTS: …

Viral Kinetics Among Persons Living With Hiv (Plwh) On Dolutegravir-Based Antiretroviral Regimen: A Retrospective And Prospective Analysis From Selected Hiv Clinics In Ghana, Samuel Badu Nyarko, Joel Adu Twum, Aikins Sarpong Obeng, Helena Dede Djangba, Oksana Ryabinina, Foster Kyei, George Boateng Kyei, Nicholas Ekow Thomford

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Dolutegravir (DTG)-based antiretroviral therapy has demonstrated superior efficacy, tolerability, and durability when compared to other HIV treatment regimens. However, monitoring viral kinetics is critical for determining treatment efficacy and making sound judgments. The purpose of this study was to assess viral kinetics in people living with HIV (PLWH) on DTG-based ART and identify characteristics related to virologic response in the Cape Coast Metropolis, Ghana.

METHODS: Among people living with HIV (PLWH) attending HIV clinics between January 2020 and December 2023, a prospective and retrospective analysis of viral kinetics and clinical data were carried out. Data on viral loads, clinical …

The Role Of Telehealth In Sepsis Care In Rural Emergency Departments: A Qualitative Study Of Emergency Department Sepsis Telehealth User Perspectives, Nicholas M. Mohr, Kimberly A. S. Merchant, Brian M. Fuller, Brett Faine, Luke Mack, Amanda Bell, Katie Dejong, Edith A. Parker, Keith Mueller, Elizabeth Chrischilles, Christopher R. Carpenter, Michael P. Jones, Steven Q. Simpson, Marcia M. Ward

2020-Current year OA Pubs

PURPOSE: Sepsis is a leading cause of hospitalization and death in the United States, and rural patients are at particularly high risk. Telehealth has been proposed as one strategy to narrow rural-urban disparities. The objective of this study was to understand why rural emergency department (ED) staff use provider-to-provider telehealth (tele-ED) and how tele-ED care changes the care for rural patients with sepsis.

METHODS: We conducted a qualitative interview study between February 15, 2022, and May 22, 2023, with participants from upper Midwest rural EDs and tele-ED hub physicians in a single tele-ED network that delivers provider-to-provider consultation for sepsis …

Cause Of Death For Heart Transplant Patients, An Autopsy Study, Justin Burk, Cory T Bernadt, Jon Ritter, Chieh-Yu Lin

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: Heart transplantations are lifesaving for patients with end-stage heart failure. It is pertinent for the multidisciplinary care team to understand how heart transplant patients succumbed to death and the complications that occurred. In this study, we performed a comprehensive retrospective review of all the autopsies performed in our institute for heart transplant patients and report the trend of demographic data, cause of death, and autopsy findings.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Reports, photos, and slides of autopsies performed at our institute from 1990 to 2023 for heart transplant patients were reviewed. Pertinent demographic data (age, gender, pretransplant diagnosis), clinical data (clinical …

Persistent Advanced Hiv Disease In Rural Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa: Trends, Characteristics, And The Urgent Need For Targeted Interventions, Marcel K. Kitenge, Geoffrey Fatti, Ingrid Eshun-Wilson, Peter S. Nyasulu

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Advanced HIV disease (AHD) remains a persistent public health challenge. Data regarding the burden, characteristics and predictors of AHD is scarce specifically for rural settings of sub-Saharan Africa. This study aimed to describe trends in annual CD4 count distribution and to characterise adult persons living with HIV (PLWH) on ART who have AHD in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

METHODS: A retrospective cohort design of annual CD4 count distribution was conducted among antiretroviral therapy (ART) patients aged 18 years and older. We used routinely collected data from adults receiving ART in Eshowe and Mbongolwane areas in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, between …

Thalamic And Visual Network Dysfunction Relates To Tremor Response In Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation, Aimee E Morris, Babatunde Adeyemo, Meghan C Campbell, Abraham Z Snyder, Joel S Perlmutter, Jonathan W Mink, Scott A Norris

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Essential tremor (ET) is the most common movement disorder in adults, but its pathogenesis is incompletely understood. Deep brain stimulation of the ventral intermediate thalamic nucleus (VIM DBS) provides effective treatment for medically-refractory cases. We aimed to determine how pre-surgical resting-state functional connectivity (FC) in medically-refractory ET relates to VIM DBS clinical response.

METHODS: We analyzed resting-state FC MRI in 21 participants with medically-refractory ET who subsequently underwent VIM DBS and 34 matched controls. We applied rigorous quality assurance to minimize motion artifact. Whole-brain correlation matrices were computed across 300 cortical, subcortical, and cerebellar regions and compared across groups …

Alternative Approaches For Monitoring And Evaluation Of Lymphatic Filariasis Following Mass Drug Treatment With Ivermectin, Diethylcarbamazine And Albendazole In East New Britain Province, Papua New Guinea, Krufinta Bun, Benedict Mode, Melinda Susapu, Joyceline Salo, Catherine Bjerum, Michael Payne, Daniel Tisch, Makoto Sekihara, Emanuele Giorgi, Gary J. Weil, Peter U. Fischer, Leanne Robinson, Moses Laman, Christopher L. King

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: WHO recommends two annual rounds of mass drug administration (MDA) with ivermectin, diethylcarbamazine, and albendazole (IDA) for lymphatic filariasis (LF) elimination in treatment naïve areas that are not co-endemic for onchocerciasis such as Papua New Guinea (PNG). Whether two rounds of MDA are necessary or sufficient and the optimal sampling strategies and endpoints for stopping MDA remain undefined.

METHODS AND FINDINGS: Two cross-sectional studies were conducted at baseline (N = 49 clusters or villages) and 12 months after mass drug administration (MDA) with IDA (N = 47 villages) to assess lymphatic filariasis (LF) by circulating filarial antigenemia (CFA) and …

Patient Stratification By Genetic Risk In Alzheimer's Disease Is Only Effective In The Presence Of Phenotypic Heterogeneity, Jack Euesden, Muhammad Ali, Chloe Robins, Praveen Surendran, Padhraig Gormley, Alzheimer’S Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, David Pulford, Carlos Cruchaga

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Case-only designs in longitudinal cohorts are a valuable resource for identifying disease-relevant genes, pathways, and novel targets influencing disease progression. This is particularly relevant in Alzheimer's disease (AD), where longitudinal cohorts measure disease "progression," defined by rate of cognitive decline. Few of the identified drug targets for AD have been clinically tractable, and phenotypic heterogeneity is an obstacle to both clinical research and basic science. In four cohorts (n = 7241), we performed genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and Mendelian randomization (MR) to discover novel targets associated with progression and assess causal relationships. We tested opportunities for patient stratification by deriving …

Cancer-Targeted Pro-Theranostic Bi-Metallic Organo-Coordination Nanoparticles, Hengbo Huang, Lei Fang, Janaka Wansapura, Julie L Prior, Brad Manion, Baogang Xu, Cody Hongsermeier, Nisha Gamadia, Nicole Blasi, Rui Tang, Christopher Egbulefu, Monica Shokeen, James D Quirk, Samuel Achilefu

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

Endogenous Self-Peptides Guard Immune Privilege Of The Central Nervous System, Min Woo Kim, Wenqing Gao, Cheryl F Lichti, Xingxing Gu, Taitea Dykstra, Jay Cao, Igor Smirnov, Pavle Boskovic, Denis Kleverov, Andrea F M Salvador, Antoine Drieu, Kyungdeok Kim, Susan Blackburn, Clair Crewe, Maxim N Artyomov, Emil R Unanue, Jonathan Kipnis

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Despite the presence of strategically positioned anatomical barriers designed to protect the central nervous system (CNS), it is not entirely isolated from the immune system

Menin Inhibition With Revumenib For Kmt2a-Rearranged Relapsed Or Refractory Acute Leukemia (Augment-101), Ghayas C Issa, John Dipersio, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

PURPOSE: Revumenib, an oral, small molecule inhibitor of the menin-lysine methyltransferase 2A (KMT2A) interaction, showed promising efficacy and safety in a phase I study of heavily pretreated patients with

METHODS: AUGMENT-101 is a phase I/II, open-label, dose-escalation and expansion study of revumenib conducted across 22 clinical sites in five countries (ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04065399). We report results from the phase II, registration-enabling portion. Individuals age ≥30 days with R/R

RESULTS: From October 1, 2021, to July 24, 2023, N = 94 patients (median [range] age, 37 [1.3-75] years) were treated. Grade ≥3 adverse events included febrile neutropenia (37.2%), differentiation syndrome (16.0%), …

Measuring Stigma In Pediatric Oncology: A Cross-Sectional Analysis Of Three Global Sites, Lara E Counts, Sara M Malone, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

PURPOSE: Stigma contributes to fear and shame, resulting in delays in care-seeking behavior among individuals with cancer. As a social construct, stigma is affected by language, religion, culture, and local norms. This study explored pediatric cancer stigma at the time of diagnosis across diverse settings through the adaptation of two stigma measures.

METHODS: This study was conducted with adolescents and caregivers of children with osteosarcoma and retinoblastoma at three centers in Jordan, Guatemala, and Zimbabwe. The Stigma-related Social Problems (SSP) and the eight-item Stigma Scale for Chronic Illness (SSCI-8) measures were translated into Arabic, Spanish, and Shona and contextually adapted …

Structural Diversity Of Axonemes Across Mammalian Motile Cilia, Miguel Ricardo Leung, Chen Sun, Jianwei Zeng, Jacob R Anderson, Qingwei Niu, Wei Huang, Willem E M Noteborn, Alan Brown, Tzviya Zeev-Ben-Mordehai, Rui Zhang

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Reproduction, development and homeostasis depend on motile cilia, whose rhythmic beating is powered by a microtubule-based molecular machine called the axoneme. Although an atomic model of the axoneme is available for the alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii

Barriers And Facilitators To Implementing A Task-Sharing Mental Health Intervention For Sickle Cell Disease Populations In Low- And Middle-Income Countries: A Qualitative Analysis Using The Consolidated Framework For Implementation Research (Cfir), John Patena, Leah Elster, Tania Hameed, Sumedha Kulkarni, Alden Yuanhong Lai, Annika C Sweetland, Joyce Gyamfi, Temitope Ojo, Angela Odoms-Young, Charmaine Royal, Emmanuel Peprah

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: People living with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) experience higher rates of common mental disorders (CMD). There is an alarming treatment gap in the provision of adequate mental health services for CMDs in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). One solution is the implementation of task-sharing interventions such as the Friendship Bench which utilizes concepts of problem-solving therapy (PST). This investigation uses a qualitative study design to evaluate the acceptability and feasibility of implementing a PST-based task-sharing mental health intervention for SCD populations in LMICs using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR).

METHODS: Purposive, convenience, and snowball sampling strategies were …

No Evidence Of Mmr Induced Trained Immunity To Prevent Sars Cov2: Results From A Multi-Centre Rct, Sinead Delany-Moretlwe, George Kyei, Erik Dubberke, Linda Yun, Leon Du Toit, Mary Politi, Ben Swan, Anne Deschryver, Sherry Mckinnon, Ananya Gupta, Shabaana Khader, Michael S Avidan, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Measles-containing vaccines (MCV), by training innate immune cells, are hypothesized to prevent severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

METHODS: In this international, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, we randomly assigned adults, 18 years and older, to receive MCV or saline. The primary outcome was polymerase chain reaction (PCR) confirmed symptomatic COVID-19, up to 60 days after intervention. Secondary outcomes were PCR-confirmed symptomatic COVID-19 and serologically confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, up to 150 days after intervention.

RESULTS: Of 3411 randomised participants, the modified intention-to-treat population included 1607 in the MCV and 1545 in the saline group. …

Barriers And Facilitators Of Integrating Cervical Cancer Screening Into Routine Hiv Care And Acceptability Of Self-Sampling For Hpv Dna Testing Among People With Hiv: An Exploratory Study In Southern Ghana, Evelyn Yayra Bonney, Emmanuel Frimpong Gyekye, Jonathan Klutse, Dzidzor Aku Attoh, Yeena Abla Tay, Nicholas Ekow Thomford, Mary Amoakoh-Coleman, Kwadwo Ansah Koram, George Boateng Kyei, Collins Stephen Ahorlu

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer poses a substantial global health challenge, disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income nations. Women living with HIV are disproportionately affected compared to the general population. Our study explored the acceptance and preferences of participants regarding cervical cancer screening procedures during their HIV clinic visits.

METHODS: Using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to inform questions, we conducted semi-structured in-depth qualitative interviews with 85 people with HIV (PWH), across six southern Ghana sites, to identify factors that could promote or impede the integration of cervical cancer screening into HIV care in Ghana. We also explored the acceptability of …