Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Large, Long Range Tensile Forces Drive Convergence During, David R. Shook, Eric Kasprowicz, Md, Lance A. Davidson, Raymond Keller

Division of Internal Medicine Faculty Papers & Presentations

Indirect evidence suggests that blastopore closure during gastrulation of anamniotes, including amphibians such as Xenopus laevis, depends on circumblastoporal convergence forces generated by the marginal zone (MZ), but direct evidence is lacking. We show that explanted MZs generate tensile convergence forces up to 1.5 mN during gastrulation and over 4 mN thereafter. These forces are generated by convergent thickening (CT) until the midgastrula and increasingly by convergent extension (CE) thereafter. Explants from ventralized embryos, which lack tissues expressing CE but close their blastopores, produce up to 2 mN of tensile force, showing that CT alone generates forces sufficient to close …

The Association Of Hyponatremia With Race, Ethnicity, And Gender In Patients Admitted For Acute Decompensated Heart Failure Diagnoses, Vikas Sunder, Md, Rene Alvarez, Md, Evan Carabelli, Md

Division of Internal Medicine Faculty Papers & Presentations

Background: Hyponatremia, defined by a serum sodium concentration less than 135 mEq/L, is seen in approximately 25% of patients admitted with congestive heart failure (CHF). Hyponatremia on admission has been shown to increase in-hospital mortality and to be an independent predictor of 6month mortality. Prior work has shown that CHF patients with hyponatremia on admission are more likely to be Caucasian. Given its prognostic significance, hyponatremia and its association with patient characteristics warrants further study.

Methods: We queried for unique admissions to Temple University Hospital between 2011 and 2015 with a DRG code of "291-293" to represent a …