Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Ebola, A Deadly Viral Disease Affecting The West African Country Of Sierra Leone, Unisa Seisay

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Presently, there has been an outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in the West African countries of Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Senegal and Guinea. The outbreak was first discovered in Guinea in March 21, 2014 and has spread to the neighboring countries. This has resulted in a lot of fatalities and is now considered a global public health concern (WHO, 2014).

Diagnosis, Pathophysiology, And Clinical Treatment Of A Patient With A Pheochromocytoma, Tricia L. Hale

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Hypertension is an extremely common diagnosis today. This condition can be caused by a multitude of factors, and can inversely cause numerous unfavorable processes in the body. One rare but significant source of hypertension is a tumor known as a pheochromocytoma, or PCC. This usually benign tumor is most often located on an adrenal gland, and can have a grave impact on the cardiovascular system. The tumor intermittently secretes an excess of the catecholamine norepinephrine, and if large enough, also secretes epinephrine [9]. These episodic bursts can cause extreme hypertension and tachycardia, leading to, at times fatal results. By understanding …

Enterococcus Faecalis Endocarditis: A Case Study, Torri Curtis

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Infectious endocarditis is an uncommon disease of the heart stemming from a bacterial or fungal infection on the endocardial surface of the heart or heart valve (Pierce, Calkins, & Thornton, 2012). From review of the literature, infective endocarditis is fairly uncommon and may be difficult to initially diagnose. Per Sabe, Shrestha, and Menon, occurrence of infective endocarditis (IE) is nearly 0.9-6.2 per 100,000 persons per year (2013). Several preexisting conditions such as aging, heart valve disease, implantable cardiac devices, a history of heart disease such as rheumatic fever, and invasive procedures can put a patient at higher risk for IE …

Craniocervical Arterial Dissection, Joseph Weisenberger

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

The annual incidence for spontaneous carotid artery dissection (CAD) ranges from 2 to 3/100,000 patients and is even lower for a spontaneous vertebral artery dissection (VAD). Furthermore, there is only a .08% - .04% chance for the incidence of a traumatic dissection (TD), of the entire trauma population (Mortazvi, Verma, Tubbs, Harrigan, 2011). However, despite these low levels, CAD/VADs pose a serious threat to a patient’s plan of care if not identified and treated early.

Marshall University Joan C. Edwards School Of Medicine, Professional Enhancement Newsletter, Fall 2014, Darshana Shah Ph.D

Professional Enhancement News (PEN)

Fall 2014, Volume 6, Number 2

Ct Perfusion Imaging As An Early Biomarker Of Differential Response To Stereotactic Radiosurgery In C6 Rat Gliomas, Timothy Pok Chi Yeung, Maher Kurdi, Yong Wang, Baraa Al-Khazraji, Laura Morrison, Lisa Hoffman, Dwayne Jackson, Cathie Crukley, Ting-Yim Lee, Glenn Bauman, Slav Yartsev

Medical Biophysics Publications

BACKGROUND: The therapeutic efficacy of stereotactic radiosurgery for glioblastoma is not well understood, and there needs to be an effective biomarker to identify patients who might benefit from this treatment. This study investigated the efficacy of computed tomography (CT) perfusion imaging as an early imaging biomarker of response to stereotactic radiosurgery in a malignant rat glioma model.

METHODS: Rats with orthotopic C6 glioma tumors received either mock irradiation (controls, N = 8) or stereotactic radiosurgery (N = 25, 12 Gy in one fraction) delivered by Helical Tomotherapy. Twelve irradiated animals were sacrificed four days after stereotactic radiosurgery to assess acute …

Dopaminergic Therapy Affects Learning And Impulsivity In Parkinson's Disease., Nole M Hiebert, Ken N Seergobin, Andrew Vo, Hooman Ganjavi, Penny A Macdonald

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

OBJECTIVE: The aim was to examine the effect of dopaminergic medication on stimulus-response learning versus performing decisions based on learning.

METHOD: To see the effect of dopaminergic therapy on stimulus-response learning and response selection, participants with Parkinson's disease (PD) were either tested on and/or off their prescribed dose of dopaminergic therapy during different testing days. Forty participants with PD and 34 healthy controls completed the experiment on consecutive days. On Day 1, participants learned to associate abstract images with spoken, "right" or "left" responses via feedback (Session 1). On Day 2, participants recalled these responses (Session 2) and indicated the …

Developmental Stress, Condition, And Birdsong: A Case Study In Song Sparrows., Kim L Schmidt, Elizabeth A Macdougall-Shackleton, Shawn P Kubli, Scott A Macdougall-Shackleton

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Sexual-selection theory posits that ornaments and displays can reflect a signaler's condition, which in turn is affected both by recent and developmental conditions. Moreover, developmental conditions can induce correlations between sexually selected and other traits if both types of traits exhibit developmental phenotypic plasticity in response to stressors. Thus, sexually selected traits may reflect recent and/or developmental characteristics of signalers. Here, we review data on the relationships between birdsong, a sexually selected trait, and developmental and current condition of birds from a long-term study of a population of song sparrows (Melospiza melodia). Field studies of free-living birds indicate that the …

Lymphedema: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis & Management, Bernadine Cruz

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Lymphedema is a disfiguring condition whose hallmark is progressive, increasing swelling which occurs as a result of the accumulation of protein rich fluid in interstitial spaces. Those individuals who are affected suffer from either primary lymphedema or secondary lymphedema; the pathophysiology of both conditions is similar. Lymphedema can be a chronic, acute, or transient alteration, which can eventually lead to keratinization of the skin. An increase in the incidence of lymphedema has also been observed with increase in levels of obesity.

Atrial Fibrillation Post-Lung Lobectomy, Laura Adorni

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

According to the American Heart Association, atrial fibrillation affected 2.66 million individuals in the United States in 2010 and is expected to double by year 2050 (Sanoski, 2010, p. S11). Post-operative atrial fibrillation (POAF), a classification of atrial fibrillation (AF), can occur after thoracic surgery and is an ongoing source of morbidity and mortality (Imperatori et al., 2012). There is a 10-20% occurrence rate of POAF after non-cardiac surgery, such as a lung lobectomy, and a 40% incidence rate after a pneumonectomy (Omae & Kanmura, 2012, p. 429). Cardiovascular events such as heart failure, cerebral infarction, renal failure, and infection …

Myocardial Infarction (Mi) In Women, Samuel Agyenim Boateng

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Cardiovascular disease (CAD) is the most common cause of death for men and women in the US. The disease has been extensively studied in males (Gulati & Bairey Merz, 2012, p. 141). CVD poses an obvious challenge to the health of women. Coronary heart disease (CHD) is described as a "modern epidemic" (Banner, 2010, p. 3123). Although, the prevalence of CVD has prompted many studies for prevention and treatment, little is known about CVD in women. It Is now known that the mortality rates In women have surpassed that of men. Recent reports Indicate that CVD killed more women in …

Early Onset Alzheimer’S Disease In Individuals With Down Syndrome: Explored Theories Of Pathophysiology, Amanda Pack

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

This presentation is a focus on some of the theories of the pathophysiology of early-onset Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) in individuals with Down Syndrome (DS). Down Syndrome, a genetic condition where an individual has a partial or full extra chromosome 21, is the most common chromosomal condition in the United States (National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS), 2012). Average life expectancy for individuals with DS has vastly increased in the last thirty years from age 25 to age 60 (NDSS, 2012). The extra chromosome genetically makes individuals with DS predisposed to certain conditions, including early onset dementia and AD, therefore as their …

Literary Research On Alport Syndrome, Shailendra Jain

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Alport syndrome is rare genetic disorder of the glomerulus in the kidneys that can be X-linked, Autosomal recessive, or Autosomal dominant in nature. Clinical manifestation includes hearing loss, hematuria, proteinuria, and hypertension (Cheungpasitporn, Kaewpoowat, Suksaranjit, Kittanamongkolchai, Srivali, Ungprasert, & Rangan, 2012). It is most common disease in males. A 24-hour urine specimen is usually obtained to check for proteinuria and elevated creatinine, which indicate acute renal failure (Cosgrove, 2012). A renal biopsy and ultrasounds is used to confirm the diagnosis of Alport Syndrome. Patients that are diagnosed with such disease require dialysis and referral to an ophthalmology and audiology. The …

Enterovirus D68, Kimberly Meyers

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Enterovirus D68 (EVD68) “belongs to the family Picornaviridae, genus Enterovirus, and species Human enterovirus D: (Kaida et al.,2011, para.2). It is a small nonenveloped RNA virus (Xiang et al., 2012). EVD68 “shares characteristics with rhinoviruses, such as infection of the respiratory tract and acid lability” (Lauinger et al., 2012). There is no specific treatment for EVD68. Since the infection is caused by a virus, antibiotics would be ineffective. There are no antiviral medications currently available to treat EVD68 (Herold, 2014). Treatment may include antipyretics, cough medicines, bronchodilators, oxygen, and mechanical ventilation if required.

Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis (Cvst), Meghan N. Delong

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) is an uncommon condition with incidence resulting in approximately 1-3 % of all strokes. Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis remains often unrecognized initially due to its vague manifestations of symptoms which range from isolated headaches to focal neurological signs and symptoms. CVST is slightly more common in women, particularly in the age group of 20 to 35, due to pregnancy, puerperium and oral contraceptive use (Stam, 2005).

Acute Pancreatitis, Laura Payne

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Acute pancreatitis is a common diagnosis seen in intensive care units worldwide. The incidence of pancreatitis has increased over the last decade. It ranks third amongst the gastrointestinal diseases resulting in hospital admissions. The destructive complications of pancreatitis make it a life-threatening disease. If pancreatitis progresses to the severe form the mortality rate significantly increase from one percent to upwards of thirty percent. Pancreatitis is associated with high rates of morbidity, mortality, and prolonged hospital admissions(Goozen, Besselink, Santroort, & Bollen, 2013). An increased understanding of the pathophysiology of pancreatitis has changed the approach to treatment from early surgical treatment to …

Ascaris Lumbricoides: The Unforeseen Diagnosis, Suzette Maynard

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Infections from Ascaris lumbricoides have become very prevalent in lesser developed countries. These infections are believed to migrate into the United States through the border with Mexico, and immigration from other countries, through increased world travel and international adoptions (Cardenas et al., 2010). A. lumbricoides have been found to cause cases in the United States, one being in Westerville, Ohio (J. Leonard, personal communication, September 6, 2014). As the world has become smaller, it has become imperative that as a nation we are able to prepare for infections that are popular outside the United States. The first step in preparing …

When Exercise Is A Pain In The Head, Rebecca D. Granger

Nursing Student Class Projects (Formerly MSN)

Headache is one of the five most common chief complaints in the US, resulting in nearly 5 million visits to the ED (Lange, 2011). With great variance in quality, etiology, pathophysiology, and as a potential indicator of a serious underlying problem, it is critical that these headaches be accurately diagnosed, primarily for rapid identification of life threatening factors, but also to offer treatment and education specific to the particular type of headache the patient is experiencing. This will result in better outcomes for the patient through better control and will subsequently save health care dollars by reducing ED visits and …

Differences In Brainstem Level Encoding Of Am And Fm Signals In A Rat Model For Dyslexia, Stephen Anthony Chabot

Open Access Theses

Developmental dyslexia is a language learning disorder that affects a significant portion of the population. Many subjects who suffer from dyslexia show auditory processing deficits as children, some of which persist into adulthood, which impair their ability to learn one or more aspects of language. There is evidence that some types of training can correct the auditory processing deficits and bring the subject to a normal reading or speaking proficiency for their age group. One common rodent model for dyslexia is the cortical freeze lesion model. This model induces a lesion in the rat cortex similar to the microgyria present …

Host Cell Death In Legionella Pneumophila Pathogenesis And Immunity, Wenhan Zhu

Open Access Dissertations

Legionella pneumophila is an intracellular pathogen that causes a severe, atypical pneumonia termed Legionnaires' disease. Upon entering the host cell, L. pneumophila resides in a membrane-bound vacuole, in which the bacterium evades lysosomal fusion and replicates. The establishment of the vacuole requires the Dot/Icm (Defect in organelle trafficking/ intracellular multiplication) transport system, which translocates a large number of substrates into host cells to re-orchestrate various cellular processes, such as intracellular trafficking, protein synthesis and host cell death pathways. Therefore, a key step in understanding the biology of Legionella is to dissect the mechanisms of action of the Dot/Icm substrates. By …

Contribution Of Teg49 Small Rna In The 5′ Upstream Transcriptional Region Of Sara To Virulence In Staphylococcus Aureus, Samin Kim, Dindo Reyes, Marie Beaume, Patrice Francois, Ambrose Cheung

Dartmouth Scholarship

High-throughput RNA sequencing technology has found the 5' untranslated region of sarA to contain two putative small RNAs (sRNAs), designated teg49 and teg48. Northern blot analysis disclosed that teg49 and teg48 were detectable within the P3-P1 and P1 sarA promoter regions, respectively. Focusing on teg49, we found that this sRNA, consisting of 196 nucleotides, is transcribed in the same direction as the sarA P3 transcript. The expression of both P3 and teg49 transcripts is dependent on sigB and cshA, which encodes a DEAD box RNA helicase. Within the sRNA teg49, there are two putative hairpin-loop structures, HP1 and HP2. Transversion …

Ethanol-Induced Oxidant Stress Modulates Hepatic Autophagy And Proteasome Activity., Terrence M. Donohue, Paul G. Thomes

Journal Articles: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

In this review, we describe research findings on the effects of alcohol exposure on two major catabolic systems in liver cells: the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS) and autophagy. These hydrolytic systems are not unique to liver cells; they exist in all eukaryotic tissues and cells. However, because the liver is the principal site of ethanol metabolism, it sustains the greatest damage from heavy drinking. Thus, the focus of this review is to specifically describe how ethanol oxidation modulates the activities of the UPS and autophagy and the mechanisms by which these changes contribute to the pathogenesis of alcohol-induced liver injury. Here, …

Genotypes Frequencies Of Rs9923231 And Rs7294 Snps In The Vkorci Gene Among Emiratis And Their Implications For Warfarin Dosage, Hayat Saad Al-Jaibeji

Theses

Warfarin is the most commonly used oral anticoagulant medication given as a prophylaxis and/or treatment of venous and arterial thromboembolic disorders. Warfarin doses vary up to 10-fold among patients due to pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and pharmacogenomics factors. In addition, Warfarin has a low therapeutic index with the risk of developing serious side effects such as severe bleeding or failure of therapy. Therefore, the main challenge to achieve the therapeutic goal in warfarin treatment is estimating the appropriate dose for each patient. It is estimated that pharmacogenomics factors contribute to more than 60% of dose variability. The gene encoding for the target …

Dynamics Of Alpha Control: Preparatory Suppression Of Posterior Alpha Oscillations By Frontal Modulators Revealed With Combined Eeg And Event-Related Optical Signal, Kyle E. Mathewson, Diane M. Beck, Tony Ro, Edward L. Maclin, Kathy A. Low, Monica Fabiani, Gabriele Gratton

Publications and Research

We investigated the dynamics of brain processes facilitating conscious experience of external stimuli. Previously, we proposed that alpha (8–12 Hz) oscillations, which fluctuate with both sustained and directed attention, represent a pulsed inhibition of ongoing sensory brain activity. Here we tested the prediction that inhibitory alpha oscillations in visual cortex are modulated by top–down signals from frontoparietal attention networks. We measured modulations in phase-coherent alpha oscillations from superficial frontal, parietal, and occipital cortices using the event-related optical signal (EROS), a measure of neuronal activity affording high spatiotemporal resolution, along with concurrently recorded EEG, while participants performed a visual target detection …

Effect Of Obesity And Exercise On The Expression Of The Novel Myokines, Myonectin And Fibronectin Type Iii Domain Containing 5, Jonathan M. Peterson, Ryan Mart, Cherie E. Bond

ETSU Faculty Works

Metabolic dysfunction in skeletal muscle is a major contributor to the development of type 2 diabetes. Endurance exercise training has long been established as an effective means to directly restore skeletal muscle glucose and lipid uptake and metabolism. However, in addition to the direct effects of skeletal muscle on glucose and lipids, there is renewed interest in the ability of skeletal muscle to coordinate metabolic activity of other tissues, such as adipose tissue and liver. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of endurance exercise on the expression level of two novel muscle-derived secreted factors, or myokines, …

Withaferin A Alone And In Combination With Cisplatin Suppresses Growth And Metastasis Of Ovarian Cancer By Targeting Putative Cancer Stem Cells., Sham S. Kakar, Mariusz Z. Ratajczak, Karen S. Powell, Mana Moghadamfalahi, Donald M. Miller, Surinder K. Batra, Sanjay K. Singh

Journal Articles: Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Currently, the treatment for ovarian cancer entails cytoreductive surgery followed by chemotherapy, mainly, carboplatin combined with paclitaxel. Although this regimen is initially effective in a high percentage of cases, unfortunately within few months of initial treatment, tumor relapse occurs because of platinum-resistance. This is attributed to chemo-resistance of cancer stem cells (CSCs). Herein we show for the first time that withaferin A (WFA), a bioactive compound isolated from the plant Withania somnifera, when used alone or in combination with cisplatin (CIS) targets putative CSCs. Treatment of nude mice bearing orthotopic ovarian tumors generated by injecting human ovarian epithelial cancer cell …

Evaluation Of A New Method Of Fossil Retrodeformation By Symmetrization: Crania Of Papionins (Primates, Cercopithecidae) As A Test Case, Melissa Tallman, Andrea Morrow, Nina Amenta, Eric Delson, Stephen Frost, Deboshmita Ghosh, Zachary Klukkert, Gary Sawyer

Open Access Publishing Support Funded Articles

Diagenetic distortion can be a major obstacle to collecting quantitative shape data on paleontological specimens, especially for three-dimensional geometric morphometric analysis. Here we utilize the recently -published algorithmic symmetrization method of fossil reconstruction and compare it to the more traditional reflection & averaging approach. In order to have an objective test of this method, five casts of a female cranium of Papio hamadryas kindae were manually deformed while the plaster hardened. These were subsequently “retrodeformed” using both algorithmic symmetrization and reflection & averaging and then compared to the original, undeformed specimen. We found that in all cases, algorithmic retrodeformation improved …

Stratified Meta-Analysis To Examine Data Biases In Lung Cancer Studies Of Refinery Workers, Sherman Selix

Yale Day of Data

Petroleum refineries employ a variety of workers who historically experienced different potentials for asbestos exposure depending on job tasks. Associations between petroleum refinery work and lung cancer related to occupational asbestos exposure have been quantified among various locations, corporations, and time periods. To combine the data from several individual refinery studies and examine an overall effect, a systematic review and stratified meta-analysis was employed. Using set search terms among four databases, 112 potential publications were identified, of which 29 qualified for meta-analysis. Risk estimates and confidence intervals were extracted from these publications to construct four separate datasets. Inverse variance weighting …

Longitudinal Computed Tomography And Magnetic Resonance Imaging Of Copd: Thoracic Imaging Network Of Canada (Tincan) Study Objectives, Miranda Kirby, Damien Pike, David G Mccormack, Stephen Lam, Harvey O Coxson, Grace Parraga

Medical Biophysics Publications

Although the human and societal burden and cost of COPD is staggering, there are few clinical tools that provide earlier diagnoses or a means to regionally monitor disease in a way that might lead to improved therapies and outcomes. In acknowledgement of the current gaps in COPD therapy, the objective of the Thoracic Imaging Network of Canada (TINCan) is to improve COPD patient phenotyping through imaging, to provide methods and imaging-based intermediate endpoints for the development of new treatments, and to evaluate disease progression and patient-based outcomes in COPD patients and those at risk of COPD. Here we summarize and …

Inpp4b Suppresses Prostate Cancer Cell Invasion, Myles C. Hodgson, Elena I. Deryugina, Egla Suarez, Sandra M. Lopez, Dong Lin, Hui Xue, Ivan P. Gorlov

Dartmouth Scholarship

INPP4B and PTEN dual specificity phosphatases are frequently lost during progression of prostate cancer to metastatic disease. We and others have previously shown that loss of INPP4B expression correlates with poor prognosis in multiple malignancies and with metastatic spread in prostate cancer.

We demonstrate that de novo expression of INPP4B in highly invasive human prostate carcinoma PC-3 cells suppresses their invasion both in vitro and in vivo. Using global gene expression analysis, we found that INPP4B regulates a number of genes associated with cell adhesion, the extracellular matrix, and the cytoskeleton. Importantly, de novo expressed INPP4B suppressed the proinflammatory chemokine …