Medical Sciences Commons^™

Connectivity Differences Between Gulf War Illness (Gwi) Phenotypes During A Test Of Attention, Tomas Clarke, Jessie Jamieson, Patrick Malone, Rakib U. Rayhan, Stuart Washington, John W. Vanmeter, James N. Baraniuk

Department of Mathematics: Faculty Publications

One quarter of veterans returning from the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War have developed Gulf War Illness (GWI) with chronic pain, fatigue, cognitive and gastrointestinal dysfunction. Exertion leads to characteristic, delayed onset exacerbations that are not relieved by sleep. We have modeled exertional exhaustion by comparing magnetic resonance images from before and after submaximal exercise. One third of the 27 GWI participants had brain stem atrophy and developed postural tachycardia after exercise (START: Stress Test Activated Reversible Tachycardia). The remainder activated basal ganglia and anterior insulae during a cognitive task (STOPP: Stress Test Originated Phantom Perception). Here, the role of attention …

Identification And Molecular Analysis Of Dna In Exosomes, Jena Tavormina

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Exosomes are heterogeneous nanoparticles 50-150nm in diameter. Exosomes contain many functional cargo components, such as protein, DNA, and RNA. While protein and RNA exosome content has been extensively studied, very little work has been done to characterize exosomal DNA. Here, we demonstrate that exosomal DNA is heterogeneous and its packaging into exosomes is dependent on the cell of origin. Furthermore, through a rigorous assessment of various isolation methods, we identify Size Exclusion Chromatography (SEC) as the best method for the isolation of exosomal DNA for downstream applications. Additionally, we evaluate the methylation status of exosomal DNA and demonstrate that exosomal …

Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome From Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor Use During Pregnancy, Elizabeth Kramer, Maria Patnella, Rachel Bulko, Allie Harrison, Hannah Lamb, Manoranjan D'Souza

Pharmacy and Wellness Review

Neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) is a concern for infants born to mothers receiving treatment with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) throughout the pregnancy. The risk of NAS associated with SSRI use during pregnancy varies with the specific SSRI that is used by the patient during pregnancy. Common symptoms of NAS include premature delivery, gastrointestinal disturbances, irritability, low birth weight, short length and lack of response to various stimuli. Neonates that present with these symptoms can be scored using either the Finnegan or Lipsitz scoring tools. Neonates experiencing NAS can be calmed or treated using nonpharmacologic methods such as swaddling, …

Effects Of Dabigatran In Mouse Models Of Aging And Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy, Neethu Michael, Mher Mahoney Grigoryan, Kelley Kilday, Rachita K. Sumbria, Vitaly Vasilevko, Joanne Van Ryn, David H. Cribbs, Annlia Paganini-Hill, Mark J. Fisher

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Oral anticoagulants are a critical component of stroke prevention, but carry a risk of brain hemorrhage. These hemorrhagic complications tend to occur in elderly individuals, especially those with predisposing conditions such as cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). Clinical evidence suggests that non-vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants are safer than traditional oral anticoagulants. We analyzed whether the anticoagulant dabigatran produces cerebral microhemorrhage (the pathological substrate of MRI-demonstrable cerebral microbleeds) or intracerebral hemorrhage in aged mice with and without hemorrhage-predisposing angiopathy. We studied aged (22 months old) Tg2576 (a model of CAA) and wild-type (WT) littermate mice. Mice received either dabigatran etexilate (DE) …

Cannabidiol Is Beneficial In Management Of Drug-Resistant Dravet Syndrome, Nikita Desai

Clinical Research in Practice: The Journal of Team Hippocrates

A critical appraisal and clinical application of Devinsky O, Cross H, Laux L, et al. Trial of Cannabidiol for Drug-Resistant Seizures in the Dravet Syndrome. N Engl J Med. 2017;376(21):2011-2020. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1611618.

Predicting Premature Birth Risk With Cfrna, Jason Lin, Jonathan Marin, John Santerre

SMU Data Science Review

Identifying which genes are early indicators for preterm births using cell-free ribonucleic acid (cfRNA) from non-invasive blood tests provided by pregnant women can improve prenatal care. Currently, there are no medical tests for early detection of preterm birth risk in routine checkups for pregnant women. Recent studies have shown potential genes that can predict preterm birth. Machine learning techniques are utilized to see if the Area Under the Curve (AUC) can be improved upon when evaluating the prediction accuracy for chosen genes sequences and concentrations. Using cell-free RNA data from non-invasive blood tests in conjunction with machine learning, we improve …

Evaluating The Therapeutic Efficacy Of Grb2 Inhibition In Ovarian Malignancies, Olivia Lara

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

Purpose: Adaptor proteins such as growth factor receptor-bound protein-2 (Grb2) play important roles in cancer cell signaling. In the present study, we examined the biological effects of liposomal antisense oligodeoxynucleotide that blocks Grb2 expression (L-Grb2) in ovarian cancer models.

Experimental Design: Murine orthotopic models of ovarian cancer (OVCAR5 and SKOV3ip1) were used to study the biological effects of L-Grb2 on tumor growth. In vitro experiments (cell viability assay, Western blot analysis, siRNA transfection, and reverse phase protein array) were carried out to elucidate the mechanism and potential predictors of tumor response to L-Grb2.

Results: Treatment with L-Grb2 decreased tumor growth …

Towards Stable Electrochemical Sensing For Wearable Wound Monitoring, Sohini Roychoudhury

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wearable biosensing has the tremendous advantage of providing point-of-care diagnosis and convenient therapy. In this research, methods to stabilize the electrochemical sensing response from detection of target biomolecules, Uric Acid (UA) and Xanthine, closely linked to wound healing, have been investigated. Different kinds of materials have been explored to address such detection from a wearable, healing platform. Electrochemical sensing modalities have been implemented in the detection of purine metabolites, UA and Xanthine, in the physiologically relevant ranges of the respective biomarkers. A correlation can be drawn between the concentrations of these bio-analytes and wound severity, thus offering probable quantitative insights …

Cell-Free Dna Release During Programmed Cell Death In Ischemia Reperfusion Injury, Alexander Dionne, Anthony M. Jevnikar, Zhu-Xu Zhang

Western Research Forum

Transplantation is invariably associated with acute allograft injury caused by ischemia reperfusion injury (IRI). This injury causes cells of the allograft to undergo various forms of programmed cell death including apoptosis and necroptosis. During programmed cell death, immunogenic molecules are released from cells, one of which is cell-free DNA (cfDNA). We hypothesize that cfDNA is released by microvascular endothelial cells (MVECs) during programmed cell death of IRI and that cfDNA acts as both a biomarker for cellular injury as well as a biologically active molecule capable of amplifying inflammation and organ injury.

Our results indicate that cfDNA is released by …

A Rapid Viability And Drug‑Susceptibility Assay Utilizing Mycobacteriophage As An Indicator Of Drug Susceptibilities Of Anti‑Tb Drugs Against Mycobacterium Smegmatis Mc2 155, Gillian Catherine Crowley, Jim O'Mahony, Aidan Coffey, Riona G. Sayers, Paul D. Cotter

Department of Biological Sciences Publications

Background: A rapid in-house TM4 mycobacteriophage-based assay, to identify multidrug resistance against various anti-tuberculosis drugs, using the fast-growing Mycobacterium smegmatis mc² 155 in a microtiter plate format was evaluated, based on phage viability assays. Methods: A variety of parameters were optimized before the study including the minimum incubation time for the drugs, phage and M. smegmatis mc² 155 to be in contact. An increase in phage numbers over 2 h was indicative that M. smegmatis mc² 155 is resistant to the drugs under investigation, however when phage numbers remained static, M. smegmatis mc² 155 found to …

Scintillation Event Localization In Novel Hemi-Ellipsoid Detector For Spect, Hanif R. Soysal

LSU Master's Theses

A high sensitivity Cardiac SPECT system using hemi-ellipsoid crystals with pinhole collimation was previously proposed by Dey et al. To investigate detector resolution for this design, the scintillation light spread on a monolithic hemi-ellipsoidal CsI crystal was simulated using Geant4 Monte Carlo. The expected distribution of scintillation light on the outer surface of the crystal from photoelectric absorption events was obtained from the simulations for selected points inside the crystal. Two sets of simulations were performed. For the first set, a look-up table (LUT) of 12 points was created and each point mapped to its expected light distribution—four points at …

The Effect Of Antihypertensive Medications Dosing On Blood Pressure Control And Left Ventricular Hypertrophy In Children With Chronic Kidney Disease, Benjamin A. Matta

Research Days

No abstract provided.

Early Identification And Intervention In Patients With Atrial Fibrillation Using An Implantable Cardiac Monitor To Significantly Improve Guideline-Based Anticoagulation Therapy In An Outpatient Cardiology Clinic, Lisa Alvarez

Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to (a) examine the demographics of patients receiving care in an outpatient cardiology clinic, (b) describe the relationship between the atrial fibrillation (AF) and other variables (e.g., BMI), (c) examine the frequency and the length of time to AF diagnosis in patients implanted with an implantable cardiac monitoring (ICM) device, (d) observe provider patterns of treatment with oral anticoagulants (OACs), and (e) investigate documented considerations to either diagnose or rule out OSA in a group of outpatient AF patients in a cardiology clinic.

Background: AF is largely undiagnosed but can cause major morbidity and …

Evaluation Of The Role Of Microvascular Pathology On Peripheral Artery Disease, Constance Mietus

Theses & Dissertations

Background: Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) begins with atherosclerotic narrowing of arteries, including those that supply the legs. Individuals with PAD experience pain during walking, which becomes increasingly limiting. Studies from our group and others have shown that a myopathy is present in the skeletal muscle of PAD patients, and is characterized by myofiber degeneration, fibrosis, and remodeling of vessels ranging from 50 – 150 mm in diameter. However, microvascular pathology, particularly of the smallest microvessels (5 – 15 mm in diameter) remains poorly characterized. Furthermore, little is known about the relationships between microvascular architecture, microperfusion, and patient walking performance. We …

A Rare Manifestation Of A Bleeding Tubulovillous Duodenal Polyp Presenting As An Upper Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage, Neethi Dasu, Yaser Khalid, Herman Suga, Michael Itidiare, Richard Walters

Rowan-Virtua Research Day

• Duodenal polyps are a group of polyps that are fairly uncommon to find on endoscopic evaluation (1).

• They are histologically classified according to mucin phenotype into intestinal and gastric subtypes; the intestinal-type polyps are morphologically subdivided into tubular and tubulovillous adenomas (2)

• We present a case of a 76-year-old male with recurrent hematemesis who was found to have an intestinal-type pedunculated tubulovillous adenoma (TVA) in the descending duodenum • An isolated occurrence of non-ampullary sporadic duodenal adenomas (SDA)’s are a rare finding and presentation as an upper GI hemorrhage is extremely uncommon (3)

• Furthermore, our patient’s …

Seeing Eye To Eye: A Machine Learning Approach To Automated Saccade Analysis, Maigh Attre

Honors Scholar Theses

Abnormal ocular motility is a common manifestation of many underlying pathologies particularly those that are neurological. Dynamics of saccades, when the eye rapidly changes its point of fixation, have been characterized for many neurological disorders including concussions, traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and Parkinson’s disease. However, widespread saccade analysis for diagnostic and research purposes requires the recognition of certain eye movement parameters. Key information such as velocity and duration must be determined from data based on a wide set of patients’ characteristics that may range in eye shapes and iris, hair and skin pigmentation [36]. Previous work on saccade analysis has …

Novel Mechanisms And Biomarkers In Alcohol-Induced Organ Injury., Christine E. Dolin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background. Ethanol (EtOH) consumption is known to affect multiple organs; this is unsurprising, as the concentration of EtOH in the blood at relevant doses reaches the millimolar range. The overarching goal of this dissertation was to elucidate mechanisms of alcohol-induced organ injury, specifically the effects of alcohol on the hepatic extracellular matrix (ECM) proteome, the alcoholic hepatitis (AH) plasma peptidome, and the effects of alcohol on the renal cortex proteome and transcriptome. Methods. Mice were pair-fed ethanol-containing liquid diet chronically, and then some mice were administered lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Liver sections from these mice were processed in a series of increasingly …

The Effect Of Antihypertensive Dosing On Hypertension In Children With Chronic Kidney Disease, Benjamin A. Matta, Uri S. Alon, Bradley Warady Md, Tarak Srivastava, Darcy Weidemann

Posters

Background

Hypertension (HTN) is a highly prevalent and major risk factor for poor cardiovascular and renal outcomes in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Previous research suggests that HTN is underdiagnosed and undertreated in children with CKD. To our knowledge no studies have investigated the effect of antihypertensive (antiHTN) dose on blood pressure (BP) control in this population.

Objective

To determine the effect of antiHTN dose on HTN status in children with CKD.

Methods

Study population: 255 participants studied in the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children (CKiD) study at their 3rd visit, taking at least 1 antiHTN drug.

Cumulative Drug Dose Index …

Serum Markers Of Bone Fragility In Type-2 Diabetes Mellitus, Rucsandra Dănciulescu Miulescu, Loreta Guja, Lavinia Claudia Ochiana, Anca Ungurianu, Oana Cristina Șeremet, Emil Ștefănescu

Journal of Mind and Medical Sciences

Patients with type-2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) have normal or increased bone mineral density (BMD) but despite that, they are characterized by an increased hip and vertebral fracture risk that involves the alteration of bone quality and not the reduction in bone mass. BMD is utilized for the diagnosis and evaluation of osteoporosis, but BMD itself cannot provide an accurate diagnosis of the individuals at increased risk of fracture and, therefore, studies have focused on identifying other risk factors that are partially or fully independent of BMD.

The fracture risk score tool-FRAX® models provide information about a 10-year probability of osteoporotic …

Role Of Serum Biomarkers In Early Detection Of Diabetic Cardiomyopathy In The West Virginian Population, Adam Shaver, Alexandra Nichols, Ellen A. Thompson, Amrita Mallick, Nandini Manne, Shanmuga Sundaram, Joseph I. Shapiro Md, Komal Sodhi

Joseph I Shapiro MD

Objectives: Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is an established complication of diabetes mellitus. In West Virginia, the especially high incidence of diabetes and heart failure validate the necessity of developing new strategies for earlier detection of DCM. Since most DCM patients remain asymptomatic until the later stages of the disease when the fibrotic complications become irreversible, we aimed to explore biomarkers that can identify early-stage DCM.

Methods: The patients were grouped into 4 categories based on clinical diabetic and cardiac parameters: Control, Diabetes (DM), Diastolic dysfunction (DD), and Diabetes with diastolic dysfunction (DM+DD), the last group being the preclinical DCM group.

Results: …

Role Of Serum Biomarkers In Early Detection Of Diabetic Cardiomyopathy In The West Virginian Population, Adam Shaver, Alexandra Nichols, Ellen A. Thompson, Amrita Mallick, Nandini Manne, Shanmuga Sundaram, Joseph I. Shapiro Md, Komal Sodhi

Komal Sodhi

Objectives: Diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) is an established complication of diabetes mellitus. In West Virginia, the especially high incidence of diabetes and heart failure validate the necessity of developing new strategies for earlier detection of DCM. Since most DCM patients remain asymptomatic until the later stages of the disease when the fibrotic complications become irreversible, we aimed to explore biomarkers that can identify early-stage DCM.

Methods: The patients were grouped into 4 categories based on clinical diabetic and cardiac parameters: Control, Diabetes (DM), Diastolic dysfunction (DD), and Diabetes with diastolic dysfunction (DM+DD), the last group being the preclinical DCM group.

Results: …

Case Presentation On Congestive Heart Failure And Pulmonary Edema, Tetiana Soloviova, Denise Aris

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Sepsis On Cerebral Microvascular Blood Flow, Laura Mawdsley, Mamadou Diop, Chris G. Ellis

Western Research Forum

Background: Sepsis is a dysregulated host response to infection that affects 18 000 000 people worldwide, and over 325 000 000 dollars are spent treating sepsis in Canada every year. One of the symptoms of severe sepsis is an altered mental state, which is accompanied with a measured decrease in oxygen levels in the skeletal muscle microvasculature. It is hypothesized that his altered mental state is due to a lack of oxygenated blood reaching the brain.

Hypothesis: After the onset of sepsis, microvascular cerebral blood flow and oxygen levels in the blood will decrease. Onset of decreased blood flow in …

Aortoduodenal Fistula Forms From Primary Aortic Stump Graft In A Two-Time Multi-Visceral Transplant Patient With Presentation Of Gastrointestinal Bleed And Bowel Perforation: A Case Report, Brielle Corrente

Graduate Student Research Symposium

Usually not diagnosed until open laparotomy, aortoduodenalfistulas (ADF) are one of the rarest complications of intestinal transplant surgery. With an incidence rate of only 0.04% at autopsy and only 250 documented cases since the early 1800’s, aortoduodenal fistulas are the most deadly complications of intestinal transplantation with a mortality rate of 100% without surgical intervention. A 39 year old, two-time multi-visceral transplant African American female patient suffered from a primary aortoduodenal fistula formation in a primary modified multi-visceral transplant aortic stump graft site. With emergency open laparotomy repair, revascularization of the secondary multi-visceral transplant was performed, saving the life of …

Estimating Variations In Metabolic Cost Within The Stride Cycle During Level And Uphill Walking, Arash Mohammadzadeh Gonabadi

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Indirect calorimetry provides the average cost of a stride cycle and prevents from identifying which part of the gait cycle causes increased metabolic cost in patients, however, recent simulation methods allow estimating the time profile of metabolic cost within the stride cycle. In this study, we compare the estimations of the time profile of the metabolic cost of two simulation methods for level and uphill walking. We used kinematic, kinetic and electromyography data from level and uphill walking (one participant) to estimate the time profiles of metabolic cost using the muscle-level metabolic model of Umberger using electromyography and kinematic data …

Improving The Genetic Diagnosis Of Familial Hypercholesterolemia, Michael Iacocca

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) is a genetic disorder of severely elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol that is widely underdiagnosed and undertreated. To improve the identification of FH and initiate timely and appropriate treatment strategies, genetic testing is becoming increasingly offered worldwide as a central part of diagnosis. I describe three main ways providing a genetic diagnosis in FH can be improved. First, next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based approaches can be used to reliably identify large-scale variant types known as copy number variations (CNVs) in the LDL receptor gene (LDLR); second, NGS methodology can be further applied to extend CNV screening to …

Detection Of Hfe Haemochromatosis In The Clinic And Community Using Standard Erythrocyte Tests, Niwansa Adris, Simon Hazeldine, Peter Bentley, Debbie Trinder, Anita C.G. Chua, Lawrie W. Powell, Louise E. Ramm, Grant A. Ramm, John K. Olynyk

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Detection of HFE Haemochromatosis (HH) is challenging in the absence of clinical features. HH subjects have elevated erythrocyte parameters compared to those without HH, but it remains unclear how this could be applied in clinical practice. Thus, we determined the sensitivity, specificity and clinical utility of erythrocyte parameters in 144 HH subjects with (n = 122) or without (n = 22) clinical and/or biochemical expression of iron overload, 1844 general population controls, and 700 chronic disease subjects. For both expressing and non-expressing HH subjects, the mean pre- and post-phlebotomy values of mean cell volume (MCV) and mean cell haemoglobin (MCH) …

The Promises And Challenges Of Erythropoietin For Treatment Of Alzheimer's Disease, Jiahong Sun, Jan Michelle Martin, Victoria Vanderpoel, Rachita K. Sumbria

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder in the world, and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles and extracellular amyloid-beta protein deposits represent the major pathological hallmarks of the disease. Currently available treatments provide some symptomatic relief but fail to modify primary pathological processes that underlie the disease. Erythropoietin (EPO), a hematopoietic growth factor, acts primarily to stimulate erythroid cell production, and is clinically used to treat anemia. EPO has evolved as a therapeutic agent for neurodegeneration and has improved neurological outcomes and AD pathology in rodents. However, penetration of the blood–brain barrier (BBB) and negative hematopoietic effects are the two …

The Risk Of New-Onset Epilepsy And Refractory Epilepsy In Older Adult Stroke Survivors, Jorge G. Burneo, Tresah C. Antaya, Britney N. Allen, Andrea Belisle, Salimah Z. Shariff, Gustavo Saposnik

Neuroepidemiology Research Unit Project Summaries

Research Summary: Key Findings

• Stroke is a common cause of epilepsy in older adults, but little is known about stroke-related epilepsy or its outcomes in this population.
• 1.1% of older adult stroke survivors developed epilepsy in this study, of whom 12.9% developed refractory epilepsy, indicating that this population is particularly responsive to treatment.
• Over 85% of deaths in this population are not due to stroke or epilepsy.

Measurement Precision And Reliability Of Supraspinatus Tendon Strain Using Speckle Track Analysis Of Ultrasound Images, Gregory Alan Mcclanahan

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Introduction: Ultrasound speckle tracking is an emergent method in studying musculoskeletal physiology and disease. For a method to be effective and useful, it needs to be precise and reliable. The precision and reliability of supraspinatus tendon strain measurements have not been explored. The purpose of this study was to examine the precision and reliability of speckle tracking to measure supraspinatus tendon strain.

Methods: Forty-two (42) participants participated in this study. Five (5) ultrasound images of the participant’s right shoulder supraspinatus tendon were collected during a maximal voluntary isometric abduction contraction. Cine loop video files of the 5 imaging trials …