Diseases Commons^™

Smurf1 Attenuates Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress By Promoting The Degradation Of Keap1 To Activate Nrf2 Antioxidant Pathway, Amita Singh, Gabriel Bonnell, Justin De Prey, Natalie Buchwald, Kyrillos Eskander, Keith J Kincaid, Christina A Wilson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Cerebral small-vessels are generally located in the brain at branch points from major cerebral blood vessels and perfuse subcortical structures such as the white matter tracts, basal ganglia, thalamus, and pons. Cerebral small-vessel disease (CSVD) can lead to several different clinical manifestations including ischemic lacunar stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, and vascular dementia. Risk factors for CSVD overlap with conventional vascular risk factors including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and hypercholesterolemia, as well as genetic causes. As in cardiovascular disease, treatment of CSVD involves both primary and secondary prevention. Aspirin has not been established as a primary prevention strategy for CSVD among the general …

Invasive Mold Infections Following Hurricane Harvey-Houston, Texas, Mitsuru Toda, Samantha Williams, Brendan R Jackson, Sebastian Wurster, Jose A Serpa, Masayuki Nigo, Carolyn Z Grimes, Robert L Atmar, Tom M Chiller, Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner, Dimitrios P Kontoyiannis

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Characterizing invasive mold infection (IMI) epidemiology in the context of large flooding events is important for public health planning and clinical decision making.

METHODS: We assessed IMI incidence (per 10 000 healthcare encounters) 1 year before and after Hurricane Harvey at 4 hospitals in Houston, Texas. Potential IMI cases were assigned as proven or probable cases using established definitions, and surveillance cases using a novel definition. We used rate ratios to describe IMI incidence and multivariable logistic regression to examine patient characteristics associated with IMI case status.

RESULTS: IMI incidence was significantly higher posthurricane (3.69 cases) than prehurricane (2.50 …

Direct Costs Of Second Aqueous Shunt Implant Versus Transscleral Cyclophotocoagulation (The Assists Trial), Jack X Ma, Alice Z Chuang, Robert M Feldman, Steve L Mansberger, Angelo P Tanna, Lauren S Blieden, Daniel Shoham, Nicholas P Bell, Ronald L Gross, Louis R Pasquale, David S Greenfield, Jeffrey M Liebmann, Robert N Weinreb

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PRCIS: The cost of cyclophotocoagulation is less than the cost of a second glaucoma drainage device.

PURPOSE: To compare the total direct costs of implantation of a second glaucoma drainage device (SGDD) with transscleral cyclophotocoagulation (CPC) for patients with inadequately controlled intraocular pressure (IOP) reduction, despite the presence of a preexisting glaucoma drainage device in the ASSISTS clinical trial.

METHODS: We compared the total direct cost per patient, including the initial study procedure, medications, additional procedures, and clinic visits during the study period. The relative costs for each procedure during the 90-day global period and the entire study period were …

Risk Factors For Bronchiolitis Obliterans Syndrome After Initial Detection Of Pulmonary Impairment After Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, Mansour Alkhunaizi, Badar Patel, Luis Bueno, Neel Bhan, Tahreem Ahmed, Muhammad H Arain, Rima Saliba, Gabriela Rondon, Burton F Dickey, Lara Bashoura, David E Ost, Liang Li, Shikun Wang, Elizabeth Shpall, Richard E Champlin, Rohtesh Mehta, Uday R Popat, Chitra Hosing, Amin M Alousi, Ajay Sheshadri

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Pulmonary chronic graft-versus-host-disease (cGVHD), or bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome (BOS), is a highly morbid complication of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). The clinical significance of a single instance of pulmonary decline not meeting the criteria for BOS is unclear. We conducted a retrospective analysis in a cohort of patients who had an initial post-HCT decline in the absolute value of forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) of ≥10% or mid-expiratory flow rate of ≥25% but not meeting the criteria for BOS (pre-BOS). We examined the impact of clinical variables in patients with pre-BOS on the risk for subsequent BOS. Pre-BOS developed …

Automated Ct Pancreas Segmentation For Acute Pancreatitis Patients By Combining A Novel Object Detection Approach And U-Net, Yang Deng, Lan Lan, Lei You, Kai Chen, Li Peng, Weiling Zhao, Bin Song, Yi Wang, Zhiwei Ji, Xiaobo Zhou

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Acute pancreatitis is an inflammatory disorder of the pancreas. Medical imaging, such as computed tomography (CT), has been widely used to detect volume changes in the pancreas for acute pancreatitis diagnosis. Many pancreas segmentation methods have been proposed but no methods for pancreas segmentation from acute pancreatitis patients. The segmentation of an inflamed pancreas is more challenging than the normal pancreas due to the following two reasons. 1) The inflamed pancreas invades surrounding organs and causes blurry boundaries. 2) The inflamed pancreas has higher shape, size, and location variability than the normal pancreas. To overcome these challenges, we propose an …

Deep Learning-Based Pathology Image Analysis Predicts Cancer Progression Risk In Patients With Oral Leukoplakia, Xinyi Zhang, Frederico O Gleber-Netto, Shidan Wang, Roberta Rayra Martins-Chaves, Ricardo Santiago Gomez, Nadarajah Vigneswaran, Arunangshu Sarkar, William N William, Vassiliki Papadimitrakopoulou, Michelle Williams, Diana Bell, Doreen Palsgrove, Justin Bishop, John V Heymach, Ann M Gillenwater, Jeffrey N Myers, Renata Ferrarotto, Scott M Lippman, Curtis Rg Pickering, Guanghua Xiao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Oral leukoplakia (OL) is associated with an increased risk for oral cancer (OC) development. Prediction of OL cancer progression may contribute to decreased OC morbidity and mortality by favoring early intervention. Current OL progression risk assessment approaches face large interobserver variability and is weakly prognostic. We hypothesized that convolutional neural networks (CNN)-based histology image analyses could accelerate the discovery of better OC progression risk models.

METHODS: Our CNN-based oral mucosa risk stratification model (OMRS) was trained to classify a set of nondysplastic oral mucosa (OM) and a set of OC H&E slides. As a result, the OMRS model could …

Vaccine Politics: Comparison Of Acceptance Of Covid-19 Vaccines Produced By Democratic And Non-Democratic Countries, Akbar Fasya Habibilla, Adhi Cahya Fahadayna

Jurnal Politik

The unequal distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine worldwide is one of humanity's global challenges due to political factors entering and influencing the distribution of vaccines to countries worldwide. Vaccine-producing countries are fragmented into two sides: democratic and non-democratic countries. This article aims to answer how political factors can influence the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine globally and which vaccine is the global favorite. This article uses vaccine politics theory as its basis and uses descriptive-comparative methods in the data analysis process. The results of this research found that there were indications that illiberal democratic practices were widespread during the COVID-19 …

Dysregulated Amino Acid Sensing Drives Colorectal Cancer Growth And Metabolic Reprogramming Leading To Chemoresistance, Sumeet Solanki, Katherine Sanchez, Varun Ponnusamy, Vasudha Kota, Hannah N Bell, Chun-Seok Cho, Allison H Kowalsky, Michael Green, Jun Hee Lee, Yatrik M Shah

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a devastating disease that is highly modulated by dietary nutrients. Mechanistic target of rapamycin complex 1 (mTORC1) contributes to tumor growth and limits therapy responses. Growth factor signaling is a major mechanism of mTORC1 activation. However, compensatory pathways exist to sustain mTORC1 activity after therapies that target oncogenic growth factor signaling. Amino acids potently activate mTORC1 via amino acid-sensing GTPase activity towards Rags (GATOR). The role of amino acid-sensing pathways in CRC is unclear.

METHODS: Human colon cancer cell lines, preclinical intestinal epithelial-specific GATOR1 and GATOR2 knockout mice subjected to colitis-induced or sporadic …

Long-Chain Polyunsaturated Lipids Associated With Responsiveness To Anti-Pd-1 Therapy Are Colocalized With Immune Infiltrates In The Tumor Microenvironment, Mary E King, Robert Yuan, Jeremy Chen, Komal Pradhan, Isabel Sariol, Shirley Li, Ashish Chakraborty, Oscar Ekpenyong, Jennifer H Yearley, Janica C Wong, Luis Zúñiga, Daniela Tomazela, Maribel Beaumont, Jin-Hwan Han, Livia S Eberlin

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1) is highly expressed on the surface of antigen-specific exhausted T cells and, upon interaction with its ligand PD-L1, can result in inhibition of the immune response. Anti-PD-1 treatment has been shown to extend survival and result in durable responses in several cancers, yet only a subset of patients benefit from this therapy. Despite the implication of metabolic alteration following cancer immunotherapy, mechanistic associations between antitumor responses and metabolic changes remain unclear. Here, we used desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry imaging to examine the lipid profiles of tumor tissue from three syngeneic murine models with …

A Randomized, Controlled Phase 1b Trial Of The Sm-Tsp-2 Vaccine For Intestinal Schistosomiasis In Healthy Brazilian Adults Living In An Endemic Area, David J Diemert, Rodrigo Correa-Oliveira, Carlo Geraldo Fraga, Frederico Talles, Marcella Rezende Silva, Shital M Patel, Shirley Galbiati, Jessie K Kennedy, Jordan S Lundeen, Maria Flavia Gazzinelli, Guangzhao Li, Lara Hoeweler, Gregory A Deye, Maria Elena Bottazzi, Peter J Hotez, Hana M El Sahly, Wendy A Keitel, Jeffrey Bethony, Robert L Atmar

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Recombinant Schistosoma mansoni Tetraspanin-2 formulated on Alhydrogel (Sm-TSP-2/Alhydrogel) is being developed to prevent intestinal and hepatic disease caused by S. mansoni. The tegumentary Sm-TSP-2 antigen was selected based on its unique recognition by cytophilic antibodies in putatively immune individuals living in areas of ongoing S. mansoni transmission in Brazil, and preclinical studies in which vaccination with Sm-TSP-2 protected mice following infection challenge.

METHODS: A randomized, observer-blind, controlled, Phase 1b clinical trial was conducted in 60 healthy adults living in a region of Brazil with ongoing S. mansoni transmission. In each cohort of 20 participants, 16 were randomized to receive …

Developing A Parsimonious Frailty Index For Older, Multimorbid Adults With Heart Failure Using Machine Learning, Javad Razjouyan, Molly J Horstman, Ariela R Orkaby, Salim S Virani, Orna Intrator, Parag Goyal, Christopher I Amos, Aanand D Naik

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Frailty is associated with adverse outcomes in heart failure (HF). A parsimonious frailty index (FI) that predicts outcomes of older, multimorbid patients with HF could be a useful resource for clinicians. A retrospective study of veterans hospitalized from October 2015 to October 2018 with HF, aged ≥50 years, and discharged home developed a 10-item parsimonious FI using machine learning from diagnostic codes, laboratory results, vital signs, and ejection fraction (EF) from outpatient encounters. An unsupervised clustering technique identified 5 FI strata: severely frail, moderately frail, mildly frail, prefrail, and robust. We report hazard ratios (HRs) of mortality, adjusting for age, …

Association Of Rare Protein-Truncating Dna Variants In Apob Or Pcsk9 With Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Level And Risk Of Coronary Heart Disease, Jacqueline S Dron, Aniruddh P Patel, Yiyi Zhang, Sean J Jurgens, Dimitri J Maamari, Minxian Wang, Eric Boerwinkle, Alanna C Morrison, Paul S De Vries, Myriam Fornage, Lifang Hou, Donald M Lloyd-Jones, Bruce M Psaty, Russell P Tracy, Joshua C Bis, Ramachandran S Vasan, Daniel Levy, Nancy Heard-Costa, Stephen S Rich, Xiuqing Guo, Kent D Taylor, Richard A Gibbs, Jerome I Rotter, Cristen J Willer, Elizabeth C Oelsner, Andrew E Moran, Gina M Peloso, Pradeep Natarajan, Amit V Khera

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

IMPORTANCE: Protein-truncating variants (PTVs) in apolipoprotein B (APOB) and proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) are associated with significantly lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol concentrations. The association of these PTVs with coronary heart disease (CHD) warrants further characterization in large, multiracial prospective cohort studies.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the association of PTVs in APOB and PCSK9 with LDL cholesterol concentrations and CHD risk.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This studied included participants from 5 National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) studies and the UK Biobank. NHLBI study participants aged 5 to 84 years were recruited between 1971 and 2002 across the …

Case Report: Exposure To Relapsing Fever Group Borreliae In Patients With Undifferentiated Febrile Illness In Mexico, Edwin Vázquez-Guerrero, Guadalupe Gordillo-Pérez, Nora Ríos-Sarabia, Job E Lopez, J Antonio Ibarra

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Relapsing fever (RF) borreliosis is a neglected disease in Mexico. A retrospective serological survey using diagnostic antigens GlpQ and BipA from Borrelia turicatae was performed to evaluate human exposure to RF borreliae. Seventy serum samples were used from a cohort of patients with undifferentiated febrile illness in Mexico. Four samples were positive to GlpQ and three to BipA. Results indicate that RF borreliae continue to circulate in regions of Mexico and pose a risk to human health.

Venous Leg Ulcers: An Analysis Of Nursing Knowledge, Shelia Moore-Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project evaluated the knowledge level of wound center nursing staff on venous leg ulcer etiology and treatments after an educational intervention. To determine the effectiveness of the educational intervention, participants completed a pretest and posttest evaluation. Venous leg ulcers (VLUs) are chronic lower extremity ulcers affecting older Americans. VLUs are painful and negatively affect activities of daily living. Inadequate VLU treatment can become an infectious process that can ultimately threaten limb existence. A quantitative, quasi-experimental study was conducted over three weeks in a hospital-based wound care center in central Florida. The theoretical framework applied to this project is Lydia …

Pediatric Consultation-Liaison Psychology: Insights And Lessons Learned During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Nicole M Schneider, Dara M Steinberg, Andrea M Garcia, Jessy Guler, Emily Mudd, A Monica Agoston, Katherine N Schwartzkopf, Kristin A Kullgren, Laura Judd-Glossy

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

COVID-19 has presented a variety of challenges to the provision of psychology services. In the first month of the pandemic, pediatric consultation-liaison (CL) psychologists reported significant changes in methodology of service delivery (Steinberg et al. in Clin Pract Pediatr Psychol 9:1, 2020). To better understand how and if these changes persisted, as well as other emerging trends, a follow-up study examined changes and challenges six months into the pandemic. An anonymous questionnaire assessed topics related to pediatric CL psychology including practice changes, perception of changes, and institutional support. The questionnaire was sent to the APA Society of Pediatric Society's special …

In Vivo White Matter Microstructure In Adolescents With Early-Onset Psychosis: A Multi-Site Mega-Analysis, Claudia Barth, Sinead Kelly, Stener Nerland, Neda Jahanshad, Clara Alloza, Sonia Ambrogi, Ole A Andreassen, Dimitrios Andreou, Celso Arango, Inmaculada Baeza, Nerisa Banaj, Carrie E Bearden, Michael Berk, Hannes Bohman, Josefina Castro-Fornieles, Yann Chye, Benedicto Crespo-Facorro, Elena De La Serna, Covadonga M Díaz-Caneja, Tiril P Gurholt, Catherine E Hegarty, Anthony James, Joost Janssen, Cecilie Johannessen, Erik G Jönsson, Katherine H Karlsgodt, Peter Kochunov, Noemi G Lois, Mathias Lundberg, Anne M Myhre, Saül Pascual-Diaz, Fabrizio Piras, Runar E Smelror, Gianfranco Spalletta, Therese S Stokkan, Gisela Sugranyes, Chao Suo, Sophia I Thomopoulos, Diana Tordesillas-Gutiérrez, Daniela Vecchio, Kirsten Wedervang-Resell, Laura A Wortinger, Paul M Thompson, Ingrid Agartz

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Emerging evidence suggests brain white matter alterations in adolescents with early-onset psychosis (EOP; age of onset <18 >years). However, as neuroimaging methods vary and sample sizes are modest, results remain inconclusive. Using harmonized data processing protocols and a mega-analytic approach, we compared white matter microstructure in EOP and healthy controls using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Our sample included 321 adolescents with EOP (median age = 16.6 years, interquartile range (IQR) = 2.14, 46.4% females) and 265 adolescent healthy controls (median age = 16.2 years, IQR = 2.43, 57.7% females) pooled from nine sites. All sites extracted mean fractional anisotropy (FA), mean …

Risk Factors For Hcc In Contemporary Cohorts Of Patients With Cirrhosis, Fasiha Kanwal, Saira Khaderi, Amit G Singal, Jorge A Marrero, Nicole Loo, Sumeet K Asrani, Christopher I Amos, Aaron P Thrift, Xiangjun Gu, Michelle Luster, Abeer Al-Sarraj, Jing Ning, Hashem B El-Serag

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Etiological risk factors for cirrhosis have changed in the last decade. It remains unclear to what extent these trends in cirrhosis risk factors have changed HCC risk.

APPROACH AND RESULTS: We used data from two contemporary, prospective multiethnic cohorts of patients with cirrhosis: the Texas Hepatocellular Carcinoma Consortium Cohort and the Houston Veterans Administration Cirrhosis Surveillance Cohort. Patients with cirrhosis were enrolled from seven US centers and followed until HCC diagnosis, transplant, death, or June 30, 2021. We calculated the annual incidence rates for HCC and examined the effects of etiology, demographic, clinical, and lifestyle factors on …

Ectopic Lymphoid Structures In The Aged Lacrimal Glands, Jeremias G Galletti, Kaitlin K Scholand, Claudia M Trujillo-Vargas, Zhiyuan Yu, Olivier Mauduit, Vanessa Delcroix, Helen P Makarenkova, Cintia S De Paiva

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Aging is a complex biological process in which many organs are pathologically affected. We previously reported that aged C57BL/6J had increased lacrimal gland (LG) lymphoid infiltrates that suggest ectopic lymphoid structures. However, these ectopic lymphoid structures have not been fully investigated. Using C57BL/6J mice of different ages, we analyzed the transcriptome of aged murine LGs and characterized the B and T cell populations. Age-related changes in the LG include increased differentially expressed genes associated with B and T cell activation, germinal center formation, and infiltration by marginal zone-like B cells. We also identified an age-related increase in B1

A Scoping Review Of Randomized Clinical Trials For Pain Management In Pediatric Tonsillectomy And Adenotonsillectomy, Michael C Shih, Barry D Long, Phayvanh P Pecha, David R White, Yi-Chun C Liu, Emily Brennan, Mariam I Nguyen, Clarice S Clemmens

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVES: To examine the volume, topics, and reporting trends in the published literature of randomized clinical trials for pharmacologic pain management of pediatric tonsillectomy and adenotonsillectomy and to identify areas requiring further research.

DATA SOURCES: PubMed (National Library of Medicine and National Institutes of Health), Scopus (Elsevier), CINAHL (EBSCO), and Cochrane Library (Wiley).

METHODS: A systematic search of four databases was conducted. Only randomized controlled or comparison trials examining pain improvement with a pharmacologic intervention in pediatric tonsillectomy or adenotonsillectomy were included. Data collected included demographics, pain-related outcomes, sedation scores, nausea/vomiting, postoperative bleeding, types of drug comparisons, modes of administration, …

Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting At Safety-Net Versus Non-Safety-Net Hospitals, William C Frankel, Christopher B Sylvester, Sainath Asokan, Christopher T Ryan, Rodrigo Zea-Vera, Qianzi Zhang, Matthew J Wall, Sandeep Markan, Joseph S Coselli, Todd K Rosengart, Subhasis Chatterjee, Ravi K Ghanta

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVES: Safety-net hospitals (SNHs) provide essential services to predominantly underserved patients regardless of their ability to pay. We hypothesized that patients who underwent coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) would have inferior observed outcomes at SNHs compared with non-SNHs but that matched cohorts would have comparable outcomes.

METHODS: We queried the Nationwide Readmissions Database for patients who underwent isolated CABG from 2016 to 2018. We ranked hospitals by the percentage of all admissions in which the patient was uninsured or insured with Medicaid; hospitals in the top quartile were designated as SNHs. We used propensity-score matching to mitigate the effect of …

Short-Term Effects Of Carbon Monoxide On Morbidity Of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease With Comorbidities In Beijing, Zhiwei Li, Feng Lu, Mengmeng Liu, Moning Guo, Lixin Tao, Tianqi Wang, Mengyang Liu, Xiuhua Guo, Xiangtong Liu

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The association between CO and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has been widely reported; however, the association among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) or hypertension has remained largely unknown in China. Over-dispersed generalized additive model was adopted to quantity the associations between CO and COPD with T2DM or hypertension. Based on principal diagnosis, COPD cases were identified according to the International Classification of Diseases (J44), and a history of T2DM and hypertension was coded as E12 and I10-15, O10-15, P29, respectively. A total of 459,258 COPD cases were recorded from 2014 to 2019. Each interquartile range uptick in …

2022 American College Of Rheumatology Guideline For Vaccinations In Patients With Rheumatic And Musculoskeletal Diseases, Anne R Bass, Eliza Chakravarty, Elie A Akl, Clifton O Bingham, Leonard Calabrese, Laura C Cappelli, Sindhu R Johnson, Lisa F Imundo, Kevin L Winthrop, Reuben J Arasaratnam, Lindsey R Baden, Roberta Berard, S Louis Bridges, Jonathan T L Cheah, Jeffrey R Curtis, Polly J Ferguson, Ida Hakkarinen, Karen B Onel, Grayson Schultz, Vidya Sivaraman, Benjamin J Smith, Jeffrey A Sparks, Tiphanie P Vogel, Eleanor Anderson Williams, Cassandra Calabrese, Joanne S Cunha, Joann Fontanarosa, Miriah C Gillispie-Taylor, Elena Gkrouzman, Priyanka Iyer, Kimberly S Lakin, Alexandra Legge, Mindy S Lo, Megan M Lockwood, Rebecca E Sadun, Namrata Singh, Nancy Sullivan, Herman Tam, Marat Turgunbaev, Amy S Turner, James Reston

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: To provide evidence-based recommendations on the use of vaccinations in children and adults with rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMDs).

METHODS: This guideline follows American College of Rheumatology (ACR) policy guiding management of conflicts of interest and disclosures and the ACR guideline development process, which includes the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) methodology. It also adheres to the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (AGREE) criteria. A core leadership team consisting of adult and pediatric rheumatologists and a guideline methodologist drafted clinical population, intervention, comparator, outcomes (PICO) questions. A review team performed a systematic literature review …

Trends In Up-To-Date Colorectal Cancer Screening Among Us Adults Aged 50-75 Years And Variations By Race/Ethnicity And Us Census Bureau Divisions, Itunu O Sokale, Omar Rosales, Jane R Montealegre, Abiodun O Oluyomi, Aaron P Thrift

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

INTRODUCTION: Mortality rates from colorectal cancer have declined over the past decades owing to population-based life-saving screening interventions. However, screening inequalities continue among racial and ethnic minorities despite having a higher disease burden. In this study, we assessed the patterns of up-to-date colorectal cancer screening rates among racial/ethnic groups across the U.S. Census Bureau Divisions.

METHODS: This population-based cross-sectional study used weighted data from 4 cycles of the Behavioral Risk Factors Surveillance System (2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020) of adults aged 50‒75 years without a previous diagnosis of colorectal cancer. The primary outcome was guideline-recommended up-to-date colorectal cancer screening. We …

Bacteremia Due To Non-Staphylococcus Aureus Gram-Positive Cocci And Risk Of Cardiovascular Implantable Electronic Device Infection, Supavit Chesdachai, Larry M Baddour, M Rizwan Sohail, Bharath Raj Palraj, Malini Madhavan, Hussam Tabaja, Madiha Fida, Brian D Lahr, Daniel C Desimone

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular implantable electronic device (CIED) infection carries significant morbidity and mortality with bacteremia being a possible marker of device infection. A clinical profile of non-Staphylococcus aureus gram-positive cocci (non-SA GPC) bacteremia in patients with CIED has been limited.

OBJECTIVE: To examine characteristics of patients with CIED who developed non-SA GPC bacteremia and risk of CIED infection.

METHODS: We reviewed all patients with CIED who developed non-SA GPC bacteremia at the Mayo Clinic between 2012 and 2019. The 2019 European Heart Rhythm Association Consensus Document was used to define CIED infection.

RESULTS: A total of 160 patients with CIED …

Tubular-Specific Expression Of Hiv Protein Vpr Leads To Severe Tubulointerstitial Damage Accompanied By Progressive Fibrosis And Cystic Development, Yuqiang Chen, Ya Chen, Jia Fu, Zeguo Sun, Huilin Li, Wenzhen Xiao, Jing E, Benjamin Y Lo, Niansong Wang, Weijia Zhang, Mary E Klotman, Paul E Klotman, Jeffrey B Kopp, Vivette D D'Agati, John Cijiang He, Kyung Lee

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common cause of morbidity in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive individuals. HIV infection leads to a wide spectrum of kidney cell damage, including tubular epithelial cell (TEC) injury. Among the HIV-1 proteins, the pathologic effects of viral protein R (Vpr) are well established and include DNA damage response, cell cycle arrest, and cell death. Several in vitro studies have unraveled the molecular pathways driving the cytopathic effects of Vpr in tubular epithelial cells. However, the in vivo effects of Vpr on tubular injury and CKD pathogenesis have not been thoroughly investigated. Here, we use a …

Longitudinal Changes In Fibrosis Markers Are Associated With Risk Of Cirrhosis And Hepatocellular Carcinoma In Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, George Cholankeril, Jennifer R Kramer, Jinna Chu, Xian Yu, Maya Balakrishnan, Liang Li, Hashem B El-Serag, Fasiha Kanwal

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Currently, there is no consistent information on the course of fibrosis-4 (FIB-4) score changes in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) or their association with subsequent risk of cirrhosis and/or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Thus, we aimed to evaluate the association between longitudinal changes in FIB-4 and subsequent risk of HCC and a composite endpoint of cirrhosis and HCC in patients with NAFLD.

METHODS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients with NAFLD seen in 130 Veterans Administration hospitals between 1/1/2004-12/31/2008, with follow-up through to 12/31/2018. We calculated FIB-4 longitudinally and categorized patients based on risk of advanced …

Bayesian Non-Homogeneous Hidden Markov Model With Variable Selection For Investigating Drivers Of Seizure Risk Cycling, Emily T Wang, Sharon Chiang, Zulfi Haneef, Vikram R Rao, Robert Moss, Marina Vannucci

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

A major issue in the clinical management of epilepsy is the unpredictability of seizures. Yet, traditional approaches to seizure forecasting and risk assessment in epilepsy rely heavily on raw seizure frequencies, which are a stochastic measurement of seizure risk. We consider a Bayesian non-homogeneous hidden Markov model for unsupervised clustering of zero-inflated seizure count data. The proposed model allows for a probabilistic estimate of the sequence of seizure risk states at the individual level. It also offers significant improvement over prior approaches by incorporating a variable selection prior for the identification of clinical covariates that drive seizure risk changes and …

Affinity Purification Of Serum-Derived Anti-Ia-2 Autoantibodies In Type 1 Diabetes Using A Novel Mbp-Ia-2 Fusion Protein, Thilini Mendis, Barbora Filipova, Jing Jing Wang, Massimo Pietropaolo, Michael W Jackson

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Autoantibodies targeting epitopes contained within the intracellular domain (IC) of the protein phosphatase-like islet antigen 2 (IA-2) are a common marker of autoimmune type 1 diabetes (T1D), however the isolation of genuine, serum derived anti-IA-2 autoantibodies has proven challenging due to a lack of suitable bioassays. In the current study, an ELISA format was developed for affinity purification of human anti-IA-2ic autoantibodies utilizing a fusion protein (FP) incorporating maltose binding protein and the full-length IA-2IC domain. Using a T1D patient cohort validated for anti-IA-2ic autoantibodies by commercial ELISA, we demonstrate the MBP-IA-2ic FP ELISA detects serum anti-IA-2IC autoantibodies from 3 …

Fibroblast Growth Factor 19 Secretion And Function In Perinatal Development, Caitlin Vonderohe, Gregory Guthrie, Douglas G Burrin

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Limited work has focused on fibroblast growth factor-19 (FGF19) secretion and function in the perinatal period. FGF19 is a potent growth factor that coordinates development of the brain, eye, inner ear, and skeletal system in the embryo, but after birth, FGF19 transitions to be an endocrine regulator of the classic pathway of hepatic bile acid synthesis. FGF19 has emerged as a mediator of metabolism and bile acid synthesis in aged animals and adults in the context of liver disease and metabolic dysfunction. FGF19 has also been shown to have systemic insulin-sensitizing and skeletal muscle hypertrophic effects when induced or supplemented …

Clinical Course And Outcomes Of Patients With Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease-Related Hepatocellular Cancer (Nafld-Hcc), Jinna Chu, George Cholankeril, Xian Yu, Abbas Rana, Yamini Natarajan, Hashem B El-Serag, Jennifer Kramer, Fasiha Kanwal

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Among etiologies for hepatocellular (HCC), nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) carries a high risk of competing non-cancer mortality. The effect of cancer and non-cancer factors on risk of death after NAFLD-HCC diagnosis remains unclear. We aimed to evaluate the role of non-cancer mortality with NAFLD-HCC.

METHODS: Using a retrospective cohort of patients with NAFLD diagnosed at 130 facilities in the Veterans Administration, we identified patients with incident HCC diagnosed between January 1, 2005 and June 30, 2018. We determined cause of death as HCC-related, non-HCC liver-related, and non-liver-related after HCC diagnosis. We used Cox proportional hazards regression …