Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Muscle Circumference And Tendon Width Correlation In Rotator Cuff Tears, Michael Marcinko, Michael Bamimore, Mark Ujevic

Research Day

Introduction: Rotator cuff tears are a common pathology presenting in much of the population especially those with repetitive overhead activity. There are many papers that looked at the supraspinatus as the most commonly torn rotator cuff muscle, however, there is a lack of research on the correlation between muscle morphology and injury. This was the framework for our anatomical study using cadavers, in which the circumference of the muscle bellies and tendon widths of the supraspinatus and infraspinatus muscles were measured.

Methods: 27 Cadavers provided by the Physician assistant program and first-year Osteopathic students in their respective anatomy …

Aromatherapy Use For Post-Operative Nausea And Vomiting For Patients Undergoing Same-Day Surgeries, Anna Baughman, Cooper C. Anderson, Taylor Anspach, Lisa J. Choe, Lisa Y. Follett, Aubrie Bills, Lindsey Coyle, Angelsa Slampak-Cindric, Carolyn James, Tara Leisenring, Aimee Hess

Research Day

Description: Nausea and vomiting are frequent complications of anesthesia post-operatively. There is an increased prevalence of postoperative nausea and vomiting (PONV) in patients undergoing intra-abdominal and gynecologic surgeries. Many injectable and enteral medications are available for the prevention and treatment of PONV, each with the potential for side effects. Utilization of medications requires a provider order, which has the potential to delay initiation of therapy.

The use of aromatherapy via inhalation for the treatment of PONV has been shown to eliminate nausea in up to 85% of patients. Patients have reported perceived effectiveness and favorable improvement with the use …

Renovate, Innovate, Rejuvenate: Transforming The Oj Snyder Memorial Library, Matt Mcnelis

Research Day

Over the course of three years the staff of the PCOM Library have worked to create new spaces, offer new services, and update old processes in order to improve the visitor experience for students and staff of PCOM. Usage of spaces and services have increased, and both staff and students have anecdotally expressed their approval of the changes.

A Rare Variation Of The Inferior Mesenteric Vein With Clinical Implications, Sheeva Norooz, Danielle Park, Sarah Blizard, Natalie O'Toole, Martin Dela Torre, Young Son, Michael Mcguinness, Mei Xu

Research Day

The portal venous system has unique blood drainage from the gastrointestinal tract, spleen, pancreas and gallbladder to the liver. It consists of 4 large veins: the hepatic portal, splenic (SV), superior mesenteric (SMV) and inferior mesenteric (IMV). The SMV collects the venous return from the small intestine tributaries, ileocolic, right colic, middle colic and marginal veins (MarV). The IMV receives the blood from the superior rectal, sigmoid and left colic veins. However, anatomic variations of the portal venous system have occasionally been noted. During our routine gross dissection over the past years, we have found several common variations of the …

Feeding Outcomes In Children With Craniofacial Anomalies, Meghan R. Hansen, Shannon M. Theis, Deanna Britton

Student Research Symposium

Feeding disorders in children with craniofacial anomalies, specifically cleft lip and/or palate, have been documented in the literature as a source of parental stress and can lead to difficulties with the early parent-infant bonding process, as well other medical co-morbidities including poor growth, impairment to the respiratory and developmental health of the child, and increased hospitalizations (Miller, 2011). However, there is a dearth of information in the literature regarding atypical craniofacial anomalies and early feeding difficulties. By utilizing an interdisciplinary team approach, we present a series of three case studies of early feeding difficulties in children with varying degrees of …

Socialsibs: The Effects Of A Hybrid Intervention On The Core Social Communicative Behaviors Of Children With Asd, Marissa Montejano

Student Research Symposium

Purpose/Introduction
Social communication challenges are a central feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASD; APA, 2013). Social communication skills are often a key focus of intervention; however, generalization of skills to natural contexts, particularly peer relationships is a challenge for many children on the spectrum (Ferraioli & Harris, 2011; Schreiber, 2011; Wang & Spillane, 2009).

Socialsibs is a hybrid intervention that targets social interaction, communication, and reciprocity using a combination of video modeling and sibling-mediation within a naturalistic behavioral framework. The intervention was examined within a waitlist control design study with children with ASD and their neurotypical siblings. The current poster …

An Ocean Of Brain Waves: Analyzing Methods To Find Erp Signals In The Noise, Andrea Hamblen, Mallary Owen, Lindsay Robb, Susan Wiggins, Sarah Key-Delyria

Student Research Symposium

Questions:
Will the N400 ERP be observed when participants read word pairs that are either related (semantically, causally, hierarchically, or associatively) or unrelated?

Will a replication of a study using word pairs with varying degrees of relatedness produce similar results to the model study in terms of N400 latency and amplitude?

Can results from a robust, easily-recognizable ERP be used to validate methods for the discovery of more subtle ERP’s?

Hypotheses:

It is expected that our results will mirror the findings of our model study, revealing significant negative-going neural activity between 200 and 500ms after seeing the stimulus. We anticipate …

Loss Of Nrf2 Results In Decreased Neuronal Arborization And Synaptic Density And Causes Exacerbated Age-Related Cognitive Impairment., Mikah Brandes, Nora Gray, Maya Caruso, Jonathan Zweig, Amala Soumyanath, Joseph F. Quinn

Student Research Symposium

Background: As the brain ages, free radicals accumulate and cause damage to cellular macromolecules. This increased oxidative damage is thought to contribute to the cognitive decline observed in aging. Activation of the antioxidant regulatory transcription factor NRF2 (Nuclear factor erythroid-derived 2) has been shown to improve neuronal health in aging and neurodegenerative diseases. Yet exactly how NRF2 participates in maintaining synaptic and cognitive function has not been fully elucidated. This study investigates how loss of NRF2 affects synaptic density and cognitive performance in aged mice.

Methods: Dendritic arborization and synaptic was evaluated in hippocampal neurons isolated from mice lacking NRF2 …

Amino-Terminal Sequencing Of Ssv1 Major Capsid Protein Vp1 Mutants, Nichole D. Procter, Kenneth M. Stedman, Ignacio De La Higuera, George Kasun, Ajay Sapre

Student Research Symposium

Unique lemon-shaped viruses, the Fuselloviridae, or Sulfolobus Spindle-Shaped Viruses (SSVs) of hyperthermophilic archaea are characterized by both their unusual structure and extreme thermal tolerance. The most well characterized of the SSVs is SSV1. Wild-type SSV1 tolerates multiple mutations to its genome while still remaining infectious, making this virus ideal to study molecular processes in extreme environments. The major capsid protein, VP1 forms the unique structure of the virus and provides protection for the genome. The amino terminus of the VP1 protein purified from wild-type SSV1 is glutamate 66 (E66) indicating proteolytic cleavage. E66 is universally conserved in all SSVs. Interestingly, …

Predictive Validity Of A New Self-Report Measure Of Individual Skin Type Through Characterization Of Skin Melanin Using Reflectance Photospectroscopy, Mark Sanchez, Lisa Marriott, Teala Alvord, R. Samatham, S. Chang

Student Research Symposium

In the realm of research and dermatology, the Fitzpatrick Skin Type scale (FST) has been the gold standard of measurement to classify sun sensitivity for human’s skin. This scale is based on an individual’s dermal reaction to ultraviolet exposure (Parrish, et al., 1974; Fitzpatrick, 1975; Pathak, et al., 1976; Fitzpatrick, 1988). It was assumed in science as well as popular culture that individuals with darker skin were less susceptible to issues related to UV damage of their skin. More recent research (Eilers, et al., 2013) suggests that while melanin affords some skin protection, damage can still occur that may result …

Use Of Mdma & Psilocybin In The Treatment Of Ptsd, Camden Grant-Howard, Joel Steele

Student Research Symposium

For years, the promise of psychedelics in therapeutic settings has been deterred by their general illegality. However, present day research shows promise in treating varying mental disorders. Amongst these disorders is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). According to the organization, PTSD United, PTSD presently effects about eight percent of Americans. Many of the current treatments only offer symptomatic relief and do not work for every case of PTSD. Psychedelics presently offer an alternative method of healing that focuses on treatment of the core issue with an emphasis on human connection and guided confrontation of emotions and/or trauma. Currently, it is …

Cross-Language Transfer In Intervention With Bilingual Adults Who Stutter: Two Case Studies, Marlen Castellanos, Hillary Landers, Megann Mcgill

Student Research Symposium

The purposes of this study are 1) to examine the effectiveness of bilingual stuttering intervention in two sequential Spanish-English bilingual individuals who stutter 2) to evaluate the degree of cross-language transfer in an AB-single-subject design model of intervention.

Attrition Effects In Mandarin-English Bilinguals Of Varying Proficiency, Sarah Elkinton, Jared Forman, Diana Yuen, Carolyn Quam

Student Research Symposium

Previous research has shown that English dominance caused an attrition effect in tone processing in native Mandarin speakers (Quam & Creel, 2017). There were two explanations offered, either tones are more prone to attrition because of their unique mental representation, or English dominant bilinguals are able to recruit English perceptual categories to process the Mandarin vowels. This research project is a verification and expansion of that research investigating how dominance in English, a non-tonal language, impacts lexical tonal processing in Mandarin for Mandarin-English bilinguals. This research project is testing the robustness of this effect in two ways. The first is …

Bilingual Adults With Tbi And Abi: Current State Of Portland Metro Slp Assessment Resources, Sarah Shellard, Sarah Key-Delyria

Student Research Symposium

This study aims to identify the extent and nature of available resources in inpatient, outpatient, and rehabilitation settings for speech-language assessment and treatment in Spanish-speaking adults with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and acquired brain injury (ABI) in the Portland Metro area. Identification of lack of resources could be used for future improvements in resources. To investigate this, a web-based survey was answered by 25 participants via Qualtrics. Participants were speech-language pathologists (SLPs) in the Portland metro area who have treated bilingual / multilingual clients in the past 1-2 years.

Results are presented descriptively to answer four research questions: (1) Have …

Trauma Analysis From Rapid Staircase Descension, Srinanti Bhattacharya

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

This experiment was designed after the release of the Netflix show called the “The Staircase.” A true documentary, a woman’s fall down the staircase results in her death, but the investigators question whether it was an accident or murder. The woman’s husband was initially accused of murder, but after a lengthy trial and the review of additional evidence, it was ruled an accident. In the autopsy results, there was evidence of blunt force trauma (Figure 1) inconsistent with an accidental fall. Therefore this research asks what is the difference in trauma from an accidental fall versus a intentional, assisted descent?

Opioid Withdrawal Post Incarceration, Samantha Spampinato

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

This literature review attempts to provide a more complete understanding of the increasing opioid concern and its detrimental effects from withdrawal in incarcerated individuals. Opioid-related fatal overdoses will significantly decrease with the implementation of opioid treatment in jails and prisons nationwide. The incarcerated populations that are typically affected by Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) include about 8.5% of Hispanics and Whites, and about 7.4% of Blacks. One solution involves Medication-Assisted Treatment (MAT) with the use of opioid agonists, such as methadone and buprenorphine-naloxone. These medications offer a slow release of dopamine and can reduce the patient’s opioid withdrawal effects. However, fewer …

Determination Of Intersex Humans In Human Remains, Audria Payne

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

Currently, there isn’t much research on whether forensic anthropologists include the identification of intersex humans in human remains. Forensic anthropologists tend to have varied training that is related to identifying skeletal remains, but there isn’t much research about how to identify intersex humans after death or whether they have come across intersex in skeletal remains at all, besides those they have classified as ambiguous. In this paper, I will be researching various skeletal remains to see if the current identification methods of identifying sex are accurate in identifying intersex. I will also research ambiguous and undetermined remains to see if …

Effects Of Macrophages With Dying Heart Cells, Shannon Alexander

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

Cardiovascular disease involves degraded or dying cells, caused from myocardial infarction, commonly known as a heart attack. When cardiomyocytes, or heart muscle cells, do not receive a high supply of nutrients and oxygenated blood, proper heart functioning is affected, resulting in MI. One cause of this is atherosclerosis. This is a disease when the arterial lumen becomes narrowed due to plaque build-up. Plaque forms when fat, cholesterol, protein, calcium, and white blood cell deposits gradually build up in the inner artery walls, which progressively impedes the arterial blood flow supply, eventually causing organ cell death. The lipids, and most especially …

Yfmk Is A Novel Nε-Lysine Acetyltransferase That Directly Acetylates The Histone-Like Protein Hbsu In Bacillus Subtilis, Valerie J. Carabetta, Todd M. Greco, Ileana M. Cristea, David Dubnau

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Recently, N^e-lysine acetylation was realized to be a prevalent bacterial post-translational modification (PTM), contrary to the historical notion that this was a rare occurrence. Acetylation can impact protein function in multiple ways, by modifying conformation, interactions, subcellular localization or activity. In bacteria, hundreds of proteins are known to be acetylated, including those involved essential processes such as DNA replication, nucleoid organization, translation, cell shape, central carbon metabolism, and even several virulence factors. Despite the growing recognition that numerous proteins are acetylated, the biological significance of the vast majority of these modifications in any bacteria remains largely unknown. Previously, …

Referral Patterns, Procedures, And Outcomes Of A Large Community- Based Urology Group: A Retrospective Chart Review, Hassan A. Al Saleh, Gregory C. Mcmahon, Michael Douglas, Michael Console, Mihir Thaker, Gordon A. Brown

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

In 2012 The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended against prostate cancer (Pca) screening. The purpose of our study is to assess the effects of the USPSTF grade D recommendation for PSA based screening on new PCa diagnoses within a large-community based private practice setting. We completed a retrospective chart review of men with an elevated PSA seen in our clinic between May 2009–May 2015 who had undergone a prostate biopsy and were diagnosed with PCa. We observed that following the 2012 USPSTF recommendations, there was a significant increase in patients with clinically significant prostate cancer GG ≥ …

Affective Disturbance In Mild Cognitive Impairment, Jason Greenhagen, Emily Matusz, Sheina Emrani, David Libon, Sherry Pomerantz

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is an identifiable, prodromal stage of cognitive impairment and has been further defined into subtypes: amnestic, language, executive functioning, and multi domain/mixed MCI (Jak et al. 2009 ). The purpose of this study is to (1) examine the differences in depression, anxiety, and apathy between MCI subtypes; and (2) assess the relationship between the neurocognitive domains (executive functioning, language, and memory and affective symptoms. We hypothesize that apathy will be greater in dysexecutive/mixed MCI (dys/mixed MCI) and be more highly correlated to neurocognitive deficits compared to depression or anxiety. This is a retrospective study of 113 …

Using The Implicit Association Test To Investigate The Strength Of Synesthetic Associations, Margaret Martinez, Nicole Steiner, Simon Lacey, Lynne C. Nygaard, K. Sathian

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Synesthesia is a phenomenon in which experiences in one sensory or cognitive domain are associated with automatic, involuntary experiences in a second domain. The present study investigated the relationship between the consistency and strength of these associations in grapheme-color synesthesia, in which a specific color is experienced when seeing a particular letter or number. Firstly, synesthetic participants completed the online Synesthesia Battery (SB) which measures the consistency with which individuals choose the same color for the same grapheme and returns a standardized score which distinguishes genuine synesthetes from non-synesthetes. Secondly, synesthetes and age/gender-matched non-synesthetic control participants completed an Implicit Association …

Addressing Lapses In Medical Education In Relation To Lgbtqia+ Healthcare Disparities, Daniel Pinto, Aubrey Olson

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

As the LGBT community gains more visibility and acceptance, the individuals identifying as LGBTQIA+ have been increasing. Unfortunately for this community, healthcare disparities for LGBT individuals continue. In fact in a national online survey done with LGBTQIA+ physicians, 65% had heard discriminatory comments made towards LGBTQIA+ patients, and 34% witnessed discriminatory care given to LGBTQIA+ patients. (Bonvinci) Rose Chapman, a senior lecturer at Curtin University Nursing School, contributed this discomfort that medical professionals seem to have with LGBTQIA+ families with socioeconomic background such as religious beliefs or familiarity with the topic. (Chapman) Nevertheless, another study published by the Medical Journal …

Painful Proximal Oriented Large Heterotopic Spur Formation In An Active Adult Non-Traumatic Amputee, Jack Annunziato, Daniel Shor, Shailesh Parikh

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Heterotopic ossification (HO) is excess bone growth in soft tissues, typically juxta-articular and interfascicular, with varying incidence. HO has been well documented in traumatic amputees but less frequently observed in the non-traumatic amputee population. Symptomatic HO usually includes pain during prosthetic use, with management involving prosthetic adjustments for comfort. This atypical case highlights a non-traumatic amputee developing proximal oriented large spur formation that was painful not with ambulation but with doffing of his prosthesis.

Arthroscopic Medial Meniscus Transplant Utilizing A Multi-Technique Fixation, Elizabeth Ford, Michael Defrance, Sean Mcmillan

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Arthroscopic medial meniscus transplantation can be a daunting procedure for even the most skilled surgeon. While all-inside suture fixation devices have improved, the ability to successfully perform this procedure via arthroscopy is reliant upon the surgeon's ability to utilize a variety of fixation techniques. Based upon the review of the literature, this paper is the first of it's kind describing the methodology and algorithm for completing an arthroscopic medial meniscus transplant using four techniques.

Times Of Action And Evolutionary Conservation Of Heterochronic Genes, Maria Ivanova, Eric G. Moss

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Specific genes called heterochronic genes control the timing and sequence of developmental events during larval stages of C. elegans. Mutations in heterochronic genes can cause skipping or reiteration of cell fates associated with certain larval stages. lin-14 and lin-28 are two well-studied heterochronic genes. LIN-14 acts during the first larval stage (L1) and controls events of the L1 and L2 stages, LIN-28 acts during the L2 stage and controls its events.

Atypical Presentation Of Stemi With Cardiac Tamponade Related To Malignancy, Matthew J. Johnson, Rohan Penmetcha

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Cardiac tamponade and myocardial infarction are rare as the initial presentation of a malignancy. Here, we describe a case with an atypical presentation of a myocardial infarction due to a thrombus in the right coronary artery occurring in the setting of a pericardial effusion causing tamponade physiology related to malignancy. We present this unique case of myocardial infarction and cardiac tamponade as this was not caused by a type-A aortic dissection. In conclusion, we suggest that malignancy be considered in the differential diagnosis when these findings present together.

Occult Renal Cell Carcinoma Presenting As A Palpable Supraclavicular Virchow's Node, Luke Perry, Jandie Schwartz, Gus Slotman, Omar Al Ustwani, Nandini Kulkarni

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Occult papillary renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is a rare disease process in which there is evidence of metastatic kidney cancer, but no primary kidney tumor can be found on physical exam or imaging. The papillary subtype of RCC accounts for 10-15% of RCC’s. These lesions infrequently present as occult disease. A Virchow’s node can be positive for multiple cancer types, most notably gastric cancer, but also gallbladder, pancreas, kidneys, testicular, and prostate cancer. We describe a case of occult papillary renal cell carcinoma diagnosed by biopsy of a Virchow’s node.

Recurrent Renal Cell Carcinoma Post Radical Nephrectomy: A Case Report, Amarnath Polepalle, Neethi Dasu, Adam Freilich, Jayram Krishnan

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

This is a case of a 73-year-old Caucasian male presenting with an asymptomatic right adrenal mass.

Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) constitutes 80 to 85% of primary renal neoplasms. At presentation, up to 25% of patients with RCC will have evidence of metastases or locally advanced disease. [1] Patients will rarely present with any symptoms since the majority of patients are incidentally diagnosed due to radiologic procedures performed for other indications. RCC is considered the most lethal of urologic cancers because a patient without intervention who has stage IV metastatic disease has a 5-year survival rate of 23% in comparison to …

Amphotercin Washout Of Fungal Peritonitis In Liver Transplant Recipient: A Novel Approach, Ann Thompson, Mara Piltin, Alyssa Imperatore, Ely Sebastian, Sandra Paluzzi

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

Invasive fungal infection has a significant prevalence among organ transplant patients and is associated with high rates of morbidity and mortality. Fungal infection is difficult to identify early and subsequently difficult to effectively treat. In this case presentation we have a 45 y/o orthotopic liver transplant recipient who was profoundly sick from fungal peritonitis and due to the appearance of her abdomen and intestines, with the help of infectious disease, decided to proceed with direct amphotercin washout of the abdomen in the operating room. The patient had complete resolution of her fungal peritonitis and is doing well.