Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Reducing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infection Project, Beatriz Agado

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) are prevalent and responsible for an estimated 13,000 deaths annually in the United States. Reported cases of CAUTIs remain disproportionately high at a rehabilitation center located in South Texas.

PICOT: This evidence-based project answered the following question: In rehabilitation patients, what is the effect of a nurse-driven protocol (NDP) CAUTI bundle on the number of indwelling urinary catheter-related infections, compared to the current practice, over a 12-week time period?

Evidence: Twenty high-quality studies that met the inclusion and exclusion criteria recommended using an NDP CAUTI bundle, education, and champions to …

Epidemiology And Pathophysiology Of Common Skin Diseases In West Africa: An Immunodermatological Framework, Osazomon Imarenezor

All HCAS Student Capstones, Theses, and Dissertations

This capstone reviews the common skin diseases on a global scale. With these dermatoses being further funneled into Africa and then magnified into common West African dermatoses, the meta-analyses of literature available paints a clear picture of the epidemiological & pathological factors and their contribution to the skin disease. Each article analysed in this analysis was taken from a 20-year span of January 2000 to December 2019. The selection of articles was fine-tuned by identifying the distribution of skin disease, revealing the populations affected (age, gender, ethnicity, etc), the main causes, country of origin, the prognosis of disease, and the …

Comorbidity And Quality Of Life Of Hiv-Positive Adults Living In Supportive Housing, Rose Sharp

Dissertations

Problem: Life expectancy for people living with HIV significantly increased with widespread use of antiretroviral therapy, resulting in population increases in comorbidity prevalence. The increased burden of living with both HIV and comorbidities lowers health-related quality of life (HRQoL).

Methods: Using a descriptive, correlational, cross-sectional design, a convenience sample of HIV-positive adults was selected from seven supportive housing communities. Comorbidities were assessed using a modified Self-Administered Comorbidity Questionnaire, and HRQoL using the Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System Scale v1.2 – Global Health.

Results: A sample of 17 (N = 17) adults reported a mean of 4.2 (SD = …

Nurse-Initiated Protocols For Chest Pain In The Emergency Department, Matthew Hodges

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: Emergency department crowding inhibits the ability to provide safe patient care to chest pain patients and negatively impact patient outcomes. A Veteran Affairs emergency department has identified a similar concern and implemented a nurse-initiated protocol to decrease the length of stay and improve patient outcomes.

PICOT: This evidence-based practice (EBP) project was guided by the following PICOT question: In the emergency department (ED), how does a nurse-initiated protocol (NIP) for chest pain (CP) patients compared to no protocol use influence length of stay (LOS) in the ED over 8 weeks?

Evidence: The reviewed literature supported the evidence of …

The Effect Of Mtor Inhibitor Rapamycin On A Dietary Drosophila Melanogaster Model Of Calcium Oxalate Nephrolithiasis, Michael T. Pignanelli

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Impaired cellular tolerance of reactive oxygen species (ROS) has been suggested as a common mechanistic link associated with aging in both metabolic syndrome and nephrolithiasis. The mechanistic (mammalian) target of rapamycin (mTOR) activity is characteristic of metabolic syndrome. When nutrients are abundant, mTOR is active. Conversely, fasting inhibits mTOR. Metabolic syndrome is correlated with an increased risk of self-reported or imaging findings of nephrolithiasis. At the individual level, patients with a higher BMI have an increased prevalence of recurrent symptomatic nephrolithiasis, 24-hour urinary excretion of oxalate, sodium, uric acid, calcium, and phosphorous as well as lower pH. Calcium oxalate crystals …

Incorporation Of Lignin In Natural And Synthetic Biomaterials To Alter Mechanical And Biochemical Properties For Enhanced Wound Healing, Jorge Alfonso Belgodere

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

It is estimated that chronic, non-healing wounds affect more than 6.5 million Americans annually, with an estimated healthcare cost beyond $14 billion. Here, we attempted to create composites of natural (collagen type I or gelatin-methacrylate) or synthetic (poly(ethylene glycol) polymers incorporating a natural plant component, lignin, to combat the costs and limitations current wound healing methods face. Three-dimensional matrices of collagen type I (Col I) are widely used in tissue engineering applications for its abundance in many tissues, bioactivity with many cell types, and excellent biocompatibility. Inspired by the structural role of lignin in plant tissue, we found that sodium …

Regulation Of Mpcs And Kat8 During Adipogenesis And Nutritional Regulation, Jasmine Burrell

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Obesity is a global epidemic characterized by an expansion of adipose tissue. Adipose tissue, composed of adipocytes and a stromal vascular fraction, is an endocrine organ that regulates whole body homeostasis. Obesity leads to the dysregulation of adipocytes and is often associated with increased susceptibility to metabolic diseases such as Type II diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Understanding the mechanisms by which adipocyte function and development are regulated is crucial. Mitochondrial pyruvate carriers (MPCs) are transmembrane proteins that transport pyruvate from the cytosol into the mitochondrial matrix to generate acetyl CoA. Although MPCs have been studied extensively, their roles in adipocytes are …

Cardiovascular Effects Of Exercise And Use Of Abdominal Binder In Patients Of Parkinson’S Disease With Orthostatic Hypotension, Faizan Ahmed

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Orthostatic hypotension (OH) is a common manifestation of autonomic dysfunction in Parkinson’s Disease. It can adversely affect a patient’s functional capacity, exercise tolerance and quality of life, while increasing the risk of falls, cerebrovascular disease and overall mortality. Use of an abdominal binder (AB) can help counter OH; however, this has not been sufficiently studied in patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PwPD). Moreover, the hemodynamic effects of upper and lower extremity exercise are unclear in PwPD with OH. Although OH can impair the cerebral circulation, the consequences on the cerebral hemodynamics of wearing an AB or performing exercise are unknown in …

Dissecting Drivers Of Basal Immunity And Acute Responses To Viral Infection, Aisha Nadia Hegab Souquette

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Heterogeneity in the human immune system can lead to limited vaccine efficacy, poor response to therapeutics, increased susceptibility to immune mediated diseases, and differential outcome to infection. Studies to date have suggested a role for biological, environmental, and genetic factors in immune variation; however, they are often focused on a specific subset of the population (e.g. ancestral group, age range) which can exclude phenotypes unique to a diverse population and bias results. To address this gap, we have utilized samples from healthy or influenza virus infected subjects from 8 distinct populations in 5 countries to conduct an integrative analysis of …

Role Of Cerebral Vasculature And Effect Of Circulating Exosomes In Propagation Of Systemic Inflammatory Responses Into The Central Nervous System, Mahesh Chandra Kodali

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) is an acutely progressing brain dysfunction induced by systemic inflammation. The mechanism of initiation of neuroinflammation during SAE, which ultimately leads to delirium and cognitive dysfunction, remains elusive. The goal of this project was to study the molecular events of SAE to capture its onset and progression into the central nervous system (CNS), and further identify the cellular players involved in mediating acute inflammatory signaling. Gene expression profiling on the cerebral vessels isolated from the brains of the mice treated with peripheral lipopolysaccharide (LPS) revealed that the cerebral vasculature responds within minutes to acute systemic inflammation by …

Attenuation Of Interferon Responses In The Obese Host And Ramifications For Influenza Virus Evolution, Rebekah Reed Honce

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

The most insidious pandemic of modern life does not arise from an infectious agent but rather from malnutrition. With its global incidence tripling over the past three decades, obesity is a major public health concern. Obesity’s rising prevalence has also illuminated its impact on communicable diseases. Following the 2009 H1N1 influenza A virus pandemic, obesity was identified as a risk factor for increased disease severity and mortality in infected individuals. Obesity causes a chronic state of meta-inflammation with systemic implications for immunity, including delayed antiviral responses to influenza virus infection, poor recovery, and impaired immunological memory. However, the majority of …

Vitamin D Levels Affect Survival In A Bcr-Abl Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Mouse Model But Do Not Cause Vitamin-Drug Interactions, Kavya Annu

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

It is a well-established phenomenon that dietary components containing CYP3A inducers or inhibitors if co-administered with drugs that are CYP3A4 substrates lead to marked drug-drug interactions. Because vitamin D is known to regulate intestinal CYP3A expression and gut CYP3A expression plays an important role in pre-systemic metabolism of CYP3A drugs, we determined the impact of vitamin D (VD3) status on systemic exposure and efficacy of chemotherapeutic agents that are CYP3A substrates. We employed VD3 sufficient and deficient mice to perform pharmacokinetics (PK) and anti-leukemic efficacy studies.

First, using hCYP3A4 transgenic mouse model we evaluated the intestinal, hepatic and renal expression …

Eukaryotic Initiation Factor 5a2 (Eif5a2) Contributes To Ovarian Tumor Growth And Metastasis, Guannan Zhao

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Ovarian cancer has the highest mortality rate among all gynecological malignancies due to lack of effective biomarkers for early diagnosis. The majority of ovarian cancer patients are already at an advanced stage when diagnosed. In addition, ovarian cancers often become chemoresistant and metastatic, and recur following initial chemotherapy.

Veru-111 As An Oral Tubulin Inhibitor Suppressing Triple-Negative Breast Cancer And Evaluation Of Novel Tubulin Inhibitors For Cancer Therapy, Shanshan Deng

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) has aggressive clinical features strongly associated with poorer overall prognosis and higher mortality rates relative to other molecular subtypes. FDA-approved drugs, such as paclitaxel, are effective in treating TNBC. Yet, treatment failure is commonly observed due to the development of acquired chemoresistance, which remains a clinical challenge for TNBC therapy.

Stroke Preventive In African American Women Ages 20-40 That Are Using Or Have Used Oral Contraceptives, Ashanti L. N. Coleman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This Doctor of Nursing Practice project will inform the audience of stroke awareness as it pertains to oral contraceptives. The study’s focus was to enhance the knowledge of African American women ages 20–40 that have used or are currently using an oral contraceptive. It has been identified that this patient population lacked the knowledge regarding stroke and oral contraceptives, and African American women continue to have the highest incidence of stroke. African American women also make up more than half of the consumers utilizing oral contraceptives. An oral contraceptive knowledge questionnaire was utilized from previous research to determine if any …

Model-Based Dose-Exposure-Response Assessment For Lead And Backup Spectinamide In A Mouse Model Of Tuberculosis, Santosh Janardan Wagh

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Despite decades of research, tuberculosis remains the oldest pathogen-based disease that is the leading cause of death from a single infectious agent. Among many anti-tubercular therapies under investigation, the semisynthetic compounds spectinamides are a promising novel class of anti-tuberculosis agents. One such lead candidate, spectinamide 1810, and backup spectinamide 1599 have demonstrated excellent efficacy, safety, and drug-like properties in various in vitro and in vivo assessments. The dose-ranging and dose fractionation studies were designed to characterize the dose-exposure-response relationship for lead and backup spectinamide in a mouse model of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection. In this current study, we used 26 and …

Ultrasound-Guided Resuscitation In Open Aortic Surgery - The Aortus Trial, John H. Landau

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Introduction: Major abdominal aortic surgery requires significant fluid resuscitation in the post-operative phase. Patients are at significant risk of perioperative morbidity and mortality which can be affected by the approach to post-operative fluid resuscitation. Point of care ultrasonography (POCUS) has evolved as a tool to perform whole-body assessments at the bedside to augment the physical exam and guide the resuscitation of the critically ill. This study will aim to explore the value of rigorous goal-directed resuscitation in aortic surgery using point of care ultrasonography (POCUS).

Methods: In an open-label, randomized, feasibility trial we enrolled 17 patients to receive resuscitation guided …

Can Viruses Cause Lupus?, Stephen I. Reeder

Selected Honors Theses

Like so many autoimmune diseases, the exact cause of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) remains unknown. Evidence points to both genetics and environment playing roles in the onset of the disease, but neither acts independent of the other. Genetics are the easier of the two to study with recent advances in the field making it easier to isolate genes shared by individuals with the disease. However, genetic studies reveal that there is almost certainly an environmental component to the development of SLE. The underlying pathology and existing research on environmental contributors to the development of SLE suggest that viruses could potentially …

The Effects Of E-Vapor On The Pathogenesis Of Rheumatoid Arthritis Mouse Models And Potential Implications For Future Generations, Christiana Daas

Selected Honors Theses

Rheumatoid arthritis is the most prevalent autoimmune disease. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has no cure, and the direct cause of the disease is still unknown. The two leading hypotheses concerning its etiology are based on the effects of HLA-DRB1 gene expression, and cigarette smoke. Conjunctively, the use of vaping devices amongst adolescents has increased significantly since introduced in 2007. There is no long-term data on the effects of e-vapor and its aerosols on bodily health. Cigarette smoke is the most noteworthy environmental factor contributing to RA therefore the question is raised as to whether or not vaping relates to rheumatoid arthritis …

Validation And Application Of A Novel Target-Based Whole-Cell Screen To Identify Antifungal Compounds, Christian Alexander Dejarnette

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Traditional approaches to drug discovery are inefficient and have several key limitations that constrain our capacity to rapidly identify and develop novel experimental therapeutics. To address this, we have devised a second-generation target-based whole-cell screening assay based on the principles of competitive fitness, which can rapidly identify target-specific and physiologically-active compounds. Briefly, strains expressing high, intermediate, and low levels of a preselected target protein were constructed, tagged with spectrally distinct fluorescent proteins (FPs), and mixed together. The pooled strains were then grown in the presence of various small molecules, and the relative growth of each strain within the mixed culture …

Plasma Proteins That May Cause Parkinson’S Disease And Multiple Sclerosis: A Mendelian Randomization Study, Brigid A. Staley

Dissertations and Theses

Multiple sclerosis (MS) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) are progressively disabling neurologic disorders that profoundly affect quality of life and shorten life expectancy. There is no cure for either disease, and current treatments only alleviate symptoms and may cause serious side effects. The causes of MS and PD are not well understood. Previous epidemiologic studies have documented numerous environmental risk factors for both diseases. However, these studies are inherently prone to bias from confounding which may generate spurious results. The lack of unbiased evidence on environmental causes of MS and PD has been a critical barrier to fully understanding their pathophysiology. …

An Approach For The In-Vivo Characterization Of Brain And Heart Inflammation In Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Joanne Tang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a neuromuscular disorder caused by dystrophin loss—notably within muscles and CNS neurons. DMD presents as cognitive weakness, progressive skeletal and cardiac muscle degeneration until pre-mature death from cardiac or respiratory failure. Innovative therapies improved life expectancy, but this is accompanied by increased late-onset heart failure and emergent cognitive degeneration. Thus, there is an increasing need to both better understand and track disease pathophysiology in the dystrophic heart and brain prior to onset of severe degenerative symptoms. Chronic inflammation is strongly associated with skeletal and cardiac muscle degeneration, however chronic neuroinflammation’s role is largely unknown in …

Developing A Model To Assess The Contribution Of Cytokeratin 19-Expressing Cells During Multipotent Stromal Cell-Induced Islet Regeneration, Brianna Ananthan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Previously, pharmacological activation of Wnt-signaling in human bone marrow-derived multipotent stromal cells (hMSC) generated conditioned media (CM) that promoted β-cell regeneration in streptozotocin-treated mice. Ductal-derived endocrine progenitors, which have been shown to generate β-cells following pancreatic injury, represent a candidate for the ‘signal-receiving cell’. Ductal (CK19+) cells from mice pancreata obtained by purification of live Dolichos Biflorus Agglutinin lectin+ cells and cultured in minimal media supplemented with Untreated, Wnt-activated, or Wnt-inhibited CM demonstrated a significantly increased proportion of EdU+/CK19+ cells following 48-hours of supplementation but no endocrine phenotype acquisition. Lineage-tracing CK19-CreERT;Ai9(RCL-tdT) mice treated with tamoxifen (single dose) demonstrated specific labeling …

Genomic Instability And The Oncohistone H3k27m Drive Gliomagenesis In A Murine Model, Lee J. Pribyl

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Maintaining genome stability is crucial for human health and it is of particular importance in neural cells during early brain development. Genome maintenance occurs at two broad stages; surveillance during DNA replication and DNA damage repair in differentiating and mature cells. Neural cells are particularly sensitive to DNA strand breaks and defective DNA damage responses can result in detrimental effects on the nervous system, including cancer. Multiple DNA repair pathways play critical roles in preventing DNA damage accumulation in stem and neural progenitor cells. The mechanisms that protect progenitor genomes also suppress DNA mutations that can result in cancer. A …

Taking It To Heart: Trauma And Cardiovascular Risk In Court-Involved People Of Color, Tanya Erazo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research supports that racial disparities in health persist in the United States, with cardiovascular risk and cardiovascular disease remaining particularly high in low-income, communities of color (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013; Winkleby, Jatulis, Frank, & Fortmann, 1992). Public health literature often focuses on sociodemographic variables when assessing for health disparities without considering trauma or forensic populations. This dissertation provides an overview of literature that examines cardiovascular disease and its relationship to trauma, particularly in low-income, communities of color, and forensic populations. Although the dissertation culminates in providing results for an investigation …

Comparison Of Longitudinal Changes In Resting State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Between Alzheimer’S And Healthy Controls, Berk Can Yilmaz

Theses

Resting State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (rs-fMRI) is a technique that is widely used for analyzing brain function using different approaches and methods. This study involves rs-fMRI analysis of Blood Oxygenation Level Dependent (BOLD) signals acquired from Alzheimer’s disease (AD) Patients and Healthy Controls (HC). Each subject in the study had both functional and anatomical images with at least one rs-fMRI scan with their Anatomical (T1) scans. Previous rs-fMRI studies have demonstrated that AD shows differences in Amplitude of Low Frequency (<0.1 Hz) Fluctuations (ALFF), and Regional Homogeneity (ReHo) measures according to HCs.

The aim of the study is to investigate individual and group level differences using ReHo and mALFF related …

The Kinetics Of Influenza A (A/California/4/2009-H1n1) And B (B/Phuket/3073/2013 (Byam), B/Brisbane/60/2008 (Bvic)) Virus Infection In Ferrets, Demi L. Erickson

Honors Thesis

Influenza is a persistent threat to individual and global health. Seasonal influenza kills nearly 500,000 people globally each year. Influenza viruses have circulated within the human population, causing a significant disease burden. In order to create the most effective antiviral therapies, knowledge concerning all lineages of influenza must be studied accurately and thoroughly. The influenza virus itself is not always responsible for these mortalities, rather, the secondary bacterial infections associated with death. In order to protect the population and examine the secondary infections that arise, the kinetics of influenza must be studied entirely. To understand the kinetics, researchers are turning …

Impact Of 2012 Spanish Health Care Reform On Hiv-Positive Immigrants: A Mixed Methods Approach, Megi Gogishvili

Dissertations and Theses

Background: The financial crisis of 2008 hit Spain hard. As a consequence, the government took multiple austerity measures, including reforms in the healthcare system in 2012. Specifically, the government reduced the budget for health and social services by 13.7% in 2012.The reduction was further followed with structural changes via the 2012 Royal Decree Law (RDL) and Royal Decree (RD).The 2012 RDL and RD entailed broad areas of action,but most importantly the Spanish National Health System (SNS) no longer covered undocumented immigrants. The 2012 RDL and RD excluded approximately 500,000 undocumented immigrants from SNS.

The number of immigrants in Spain has …

Reducing The Incidence Of Pressure Injuries In Adult Icu Patients At Mcallen Medical Center With The Implementation Of A Pressure Injury Preventive Bundle: A Quality Improvement Project, Cheryl Cruz

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: Pressure injuries (PIs) are a significant healthcare problem globally. Adult patients in the intensive care setting are especially vulnerable to the development of PIs given the acuity of their diagnoses requiring extensive treatments, procedures and the use of multiple medical devices.

PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was, “In adult intensive care unit (ICU) patients, how does the effect of implementing a pressure injury prevention bundle compare in patients who received the bundle, and patients receiving standard pressure injury prevention in reducing the incidence of pressure injuries after two months?”

Evidence: Evidence exist that bundle implementation …

A Policy Change To Reduce Hospital-Acquired Clostridium Difficile Infection Rates: A Quality Improvement Project, Nia Hidalgo

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: At a small community facility in Los Angeles County, there was a reporting rate of hospital-acquired Clostridium difficile cases that was higher than both state and national benchmarks.

PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was: In acute care patients aged 18-90, does not retesting for CDI for at least seven days compared to retesting in less than seven days reduce the incidence of false positive CDI tests during the first seven days of the hospital stay?

Evidence: The evidence demonstrates that if patients are tested initially for Clostridium difficile and then retested seven days after, the …