Medical Specialties Commons^™

Characterization Of Multiphase Complex Coacervate Droplets, Lindsey Rush

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intracellular environment of eukaryotic cells has been found to have membrane-less organelles, which form through liquid-liquid phase separation.^1,2 The membrane-less organelles within the cell can be modeled with multiphase complex coacervates that are formed through the combination of two liquid polyelectrolyte complex coacervates, which are individually made up of a pair of one positively charged polymer and one negatively charged polymer.^3,4 Membrane-less organelles in a eukaryotic cell have been found to aggregate from liquid to solid in neurological disorders and during the aging process⁵, and investigation into the factors affecting aggregation of multiphase complex coacervates …

The Influence Of Genetics, Insulin Resistance, Oxidative Stress, And Energy Deficit On Migraine, Victoria Dm Maldonado Llinas

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The pathomechanism of migraine attacks is not understood well, however, is currently believed to be a brain disorder. Migraine is a multifactorial disorder that needs to be investigated in multiple research areas to shed light into its mechanism and find ways to treat it effectively. Migraine episodes come from one or many things at the same time, and such vary from person to person. However, sufficient evidence in recent studies show there is a strong relationship between genetics with patients having specific genes that may be responsible for the disease or a genetic sequence passed down through generations in families, …

The Kynurenine Pathway In Alzheimer’S Disease: A Meta-Analysis Of Central And Peripheral Levels, Brisa S Fernandes, Mehmet Enes Inam, Nitesh Enduru, Joao Quevedo, Zhongming Zhao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: Changes in the kynurenine pathway are recognized in psychiatric disorders, but their role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is less clear. We aimed to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to determine whether tryptophan and kynurenine pathway metabolites are altered in AD.

METHODS: We performed a systematic review and random-effects meta-analyses. Inclusion criteria were studies that compared AD and cognitively normal (CN) groups and assessed tryptophan or kynurenine pathway metabolites in cerebrospinal fluid or peripheral blood.

RESULTS: Twenty-two studies with a total of 1,356 participants (664 with AD and 692 CN individuals) were included. Tryptophan was decreased only in peripheral …

Upregulation Of The Escrt Pathway And Multivesicular Bodies Accelerates Degradation Of Proteins Associated With Neurodegeneration, Ron Benyair, Sai Srinivas Panapakkam Giridharan, Pilar Rivero-Ríos, Junya Hasegawa, Emily Bristow, Eeva-Liisa Eskelinen, Merav D Shmueli, Vered Fishbain-Yoskovitz, Yifat Merbl, Lisa M Sharkey, Henry L Paulson, Phyllis I Hanson, Samarjit Patnaik, Ismael Al-Ramahi, Juan Botas, Juan Marugan, Lois S Weisman

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Many neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington’s disease (HD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), occur due to an accumulation of aggregation-prone proteins, which results in neuronal death. Studies in animal and cell models show that reducing the levels of these proteins mitigates disease phenotypes. We previously reported a small molecule, NCT-504, which reduces cellular levels of mutant huntingtin (mHTT) in patient fibroblasts as well as mouse striatal and cortical neurons from an HdhQ111 mutant mouse. Here, we show that NCT-504 has a broader potential, and in addition reduces levels of Tau, a protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease, as well as other tauopathies. We …

Prediction Of Response To Disease-Modifying Therapy In Multiple Sclerosis, Abdelrahman M. Abdalla, Azza Abd El-Nasser, Mohamed Fouad, Mahmoud S. Swelam

Journal of Medicine in Scientific Research

Background Multiple sclerosis is an idiopathic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system and the second most common cause of disability in young adults. Choosing an effective treatment is crucial to preventing disability. Aim To identify predictors of disease-modifying therapy (DMT) after 1 year of treatment. Patients and methods In this retrospective study, 150 patients with confirmed diagnosis of relapsing-remittent multiple sclerosis were recruited from the MS Unit at the Neurology Departments from both Ain-Shams University and Cairo University Student Hospital. All of the study population received either interferons or fingolimod. Modified Rio score was used to classify patients to …

Interactive Association Of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Apolipoprotein Ε4 Genotype, And Age On Cognitive Functioning, Karen A. Lawrence, Colton Rippey, Bianca Welikson, Robert H. Pietrzak, Thomas G. Adams Jr.

Psychology Faculty Publications

Background: The ε4 allele of the apolipoprotein (APOE) gene and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are associated with cognitive deficits. Both associations may vary depending on age. No previous study has examined a possible three‐way interaction between APOE ε4, PTSD, and age on cognitive functioning.

Methods: Data were analyzed from 1244 European‐American U.S. military veterans who participated in the 2011 National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study (NHRVS). Analyses of covariance were used to examine the main effects and in- teractions of APOE ε4, PTSD, and age on learning/working memory (LWM) and attention/psychomotor (APM) performance.

Results: A significant three‐way interaction between …

Prevalence Of Gastrointestinal Symptoms Among Autistic Individuals, With And Without Co-Occurring Intellectual Disability, Calliope Holingue, Danika Pfeiffer, Natasha N. Ludwig, Rachel Reetzke, Ji Su Hong, Luther G. Kalb, Rebecca Landa

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

Gastrointestinal symptoms (GI) are very common among individuals on the autism spectrum. Prior research reports mixed findings regarding whether individuals with autism and co-occurring intellectual disability (ID) have elevated risk of gastrointestinal symptoms relative to individuals with autism alone. GI symptoms can be challenging to assess in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or ID given challenges with language, communication, and interoception. Prior research has tended to only include individuals with documented presence or absence of GI symptoms or conditions, that is, to exclude observations in which there is uncertainty regarding presence of GI symptoms. Therefore, none of the prior …

Atlas-Based Shared-Boundary Deformable Multi-Surface Models Through Multi-Material And Two-Manifold Dual Contouring, Tanweer Rashid, Sharmin Sultana, Mallar Chakravarty, Michel Albert Audette

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents a multi-material dual “contouring” method used to convert a digital 3D voxel-based atlas of basal ganglia to a deformable discrete multi-surface model that supports surgical navigation for an intraoperative MRI-compatible surgical robot, featuring fast intraoperative deformation computation. It is vital that the final surface model maintain shared boundaries where appropriate so that even as the deep-brain model deforms to reflect intraoperative changes encoded in ioMRI, the subthalamic nucleus stays in contact with the substantia nigra, for example, while still providing a significantly sparser representation than the original volumetric atlas consisting of hundreds of millions of voxels. The …

A Rare Case Of Covid Encephalitis In A Vaccinated Patient, Christian Pena, Hari Movva, Hector Arredondo, Alberto Pena, Erik Hinojosa, Michael Rotko, Jorge Nadal, Michelle Lopez

MEDI 9331 Scholarly Activities Clinical Years

Background and Purpose: SARS-CoV-2 infection is known to cause primarily respiratory symptoms, however, neurological disorders such as anosmia and stroke have been seen. Encephalitis is a rare complication of COVID-19 with a reported incidence of less than 1%¹. Most patients develop both COVID-19 symptoms and encephalitis symptoms during the same period¹. In addition, the majority of reports are from patients with no prior vaccination. Here, we present a case of encephalitis 2 weeks after mild COVID-19 in a fully vaccinated male.

Case Presentation: A 68-year-old Hispanic male was brought to the ED due to new onset gaze deviation, generalized tonic …

Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury In The Middle East And North Africa Region: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis To Assess Characteristics, Mechanisms, And Risk Factors, Samar Al-Hajj, Sarah H Farran, Batoul Dekmak, Layal Hneiny, Hussein Abou Abbas, Aya Hassoun, Nadine Youness, Sarah Ghalayini, Nour Abou Khalil, Fiona Lecky, Shima Shahjouieh, Layal Ghamlouche, Zainab Nasrallah, Firas Kobeissy

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Pediatric traumatic brain injury (pTBI) represents a major cause of child injuries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This review aims to assess pTBIs in the MENA region and reports their clinical severity and outcomes. A search was conducted using major electronic databases, including Medline/Ovid, PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and SCOPUS. Abstracts were screened independently and in duplicate to detect original research. The objective and study findings for each article were recorded, along with the mechanism of pTBI, patient age and sex, injury assessment tool(s) used, and outcome. A total of 1345 articles were retrieved, of …

Segmentation Of Acute Stroke Infarct Core Using Image-Level Labels On Ct-Angiography, Luca Giancardo, Arash Niktabe, Laura Ocasio, Rania Abdelkhaleq, Sergio Salazar-Marioni, Sunil A Sheth

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Acute ischemic stroke is a leading cause of death and disability in the world. Treatment decisions, especially around emergent revascularization procedures, rely heavily on size and location of the infarct core. Currently, accurate assessment of this measure is challenging. While MRI-DWI is considered the gold standard, its availability is limited for most patients suffering from stroke. Another well-studied imaging modality is CT-Perfusion (CTP) which is much more common than MRI-DWI in acute stroke care, but not as precise as MRI-DWI, and it is still unavailable in many stroke hospitals. A method to determine infarct core using CT-Angiography (CTA), a much …

Interlink Between The Gut Microbiota And Inflammation In The Context Of Oxidative Stress In Alzheimer’S Disease Progression, Tushar K Das, Bhanu P Ganesh

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The microbiota-gut-brain axis is an important pathway of communication and may dynamically contribute to Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis. Pathological commensal gut microbiota alterations, termed as dysbiosis, can influence intestinal permeability and break the blood-brain barrier which may trigger AD pathogenesis via redox signaling, neuronal, immune, and metabolic pathways. Dysbiosis increases the oxidative stress. Oxidants affect the innate immune system through recognizing microbial-derived pathogens by Toll-like receptors and initiating the inflammatory process. Most of the gut microbiome research work highlights the relationship between the gut microbiota and AD, but the contributory connection between precise bacteria and brain dysfunction in AD pathology …

Dual-Task Upper Extremity Motor Performance Measured By Video Processing As Cognitive-Motor Markers For Older Adults, Changhong Wang, Mohsen Zahiri, Ashkan Vaziri, Bijan Najafi

Center on Aging Staff Publications

Introduction: The use of dual-task model such as dual-task gait has been extensively studied to assess cognitive-motor performance among older adults. However, space restriction and safety factor limit its applications in remote assessment. To address the gap, we propose a video processing-based approach to remotely quantify cognitive-motor performance using a 20-s repetitive elbow flexion-extension test with dual-task condition, called video-based motoric-cognitive meter (MCM).

Methods: Eighteen older participants (age: 78.6 ± 6.5 years) who were clinically diagnosed as having either mild cognitive impairment or dementia were included in this study. Participants were asked to perform 20-s repetitive elbow flexion-extension exercise with …

Functional And Technical Outcomes In Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients With Hyperdense Middle Cerebral Artery Sign Treated With Endovascular Thrombectomy, Yimin Chen, Francesco Diana, Mohammad Mofatteh, Sijie Zhou, Juanmei Chen, Zhou Huang, Weijuan Wu, Yajie Yang, Zhiyi Zeng, Weijian Zhang, Ziqi Ouyang, Thanh N Nguyen, Shuiquan Yang, José Fidel Baizabal-Carvallo, Xuxing Liao

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Background and objective: The hyperdense middle cerebral artery sign (HMCAS) is observed in a proportion of patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS). This sign reflects the presence of an intravascular thrombus rich in red blood cells. Several studies have demonstrated that HMCAS increases the risk of poor outcomes in AIS patients treated with IV thrombolysis or no reperfusion therapy; however, whether HMCAS predicts a poor outcome in patients treated with endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) is less clear. We aimed to evaluate the functional outcome by the modified Rankin scale (mRS) at 90 days and technical challenges in patients with HMCAS undergoing …

Evaluating The Impact Of Using A Wound-Specific Oral Nutritional Supplement To Support Wound Healing In A Rehabilitation Setting, Rya K Clark, Argyrios Stampas, Kirk W Kerr, Jeffrey L Nelson, Suela Sulo, Luis Leon-Novelo, Esther Ngan, Dehuti Pandya

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Chronic wounds adversely affect patient quality of life, increase the risk of mortality, and impose high costs on healthcare systems. Since protein-energy malnutrition or specific nutrient deficiencies can delay wound healing, nutritionally focused care is a key strategy to help prevent or treat the occurrence of non-healing wounds. The objective of our study of inpatients in a rehabilitation hospital was to quantify the effect of daily wound-specific oral nutritional supplementation (WS-ONS) on healing chronic wounds. Using electronic medical records, we conducted a retrospective analysis of patients with chronic wounds. We identified records for (a) a treatment group who received standard …

A Umls-Based Investigation Of Laterality In Biomedical Terminologies, Rashmie Abeysinghe, Xubing Hao, Licong Cui, Guo-Qiang Zhang

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Laterality is an important anatomic directional property indicating the sidedness of body structures, diseases, and procedures. Errors in laterality could have catastrophic consequences in patient care. In this paper, we investigate how different biomedical terminologies organize terms indicating laterality. We leverage the Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) to identify lateral terms in different terminologies. For each lateral term, we attempt to obtain other matched lateral terms and further analyze how they are interrelated. Our results indicated that only 1.68% of the matched lateral term-pairs are hierarchically related. It was also seen that 44.24% of matched-pairs were siblings. We found that …

Extracting Temporal Expressions Of First Seizure Onset From Epilepsy Patient Discharge Summaries, Shiqiang Tao, Rashmie Abeysinghe, Blanca Talavera De La Esperanza, Samden Lhatoo, Guo-Qiang Zhang, Licong Cui

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Early onset of seizure is a potential risk factor for Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy (SUDEP). However, the first seizure onset information is often documented as clinical narratives in epilepsy monitoring unit (EMU) discharge summaries. Manually extracting first seizure onset time from discharge summaries is time consuming and labor-intensive. In this work, we developed a rule-based natural language processing pipeline for automatically extracting the temporal information of patients’ first seizure onset from EMU discharge summaries. We use the Epilepsy and Seizure Ontology (EpSO) as the core knowledge resource and construct 4 extraction rules based on 300 randomly selected EMU discharge …

A Novel Pulsed Stimulation Pattern In Spinal Cord Stimulation: Clinical Results And Postulated Mechanisms Of Action In The Treatment Of Chronic Low Back And Leg Pain., Mehul J Desai, John Salmon, Paul Verrills, Bruce Mitchell, Neels Du Toit, Dan Bates, Girish Vajramani, Adam Williams, Sarah Love-Jones, Nikunj Patel, Serge Nikolic, Vivek Mehta, Alia Ahmad, James Yu, Nick Christellis, Sam Harkin, Ganesan Baranidharan, Robert Levy, Peter Staats, Mark N Malinowski, James Makous, Nicholas Sullivan, Shilpa Kottalgi, Melissa Hartley, Lakshmi Narayan Mishra

Neuroscience Articles

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this article is to discuss the possible mechanisms of action (MOAs) and results of a pilot study of a novel, anatomically placed, and paresthesia-independent, neurostimulation waveform for the management of chronic intractable pain.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: A novel, multilayered pulsed stimulation pattern (PSP) that comprises three temporal layers, a Pulse Pattern layer, Train layer, and Dosage layer, was developed for the treatment of chronic intractable pain. During preliminary development, the utility was evaluated of anatomical PSP (aPSP) in human subjects with chronic intractable pain of the leg(s) and/or low back, compared with that of traditional spinal …

Associations Of Snfl With Clinico-Radiological Measures In A Large Ms Population., Elias S Sotirchos, Kathryn C Fitzgerald, Carol M Singh, Matthew D Smith, Maria Reyes-Mantilla, Carrie M Hersh, Megan H Hyland, Ryan Canissario, Sarah B Simmons, Georgina Arrambide, Xavier Montalban, Manuel Comabella, Robert T Naismith, Min Qiao, Lauren B Krupp, Jacqueline A Nicholas, Katja Akgün, Tjalf Ziemssen, Richard Rudick, Elizabeth Fisher, Robert A Bermel, Ellen M Mowry, Peter A Calabresi

Neuroscience Articles

OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of serum neurofilament light chain (sNfL), measured using high-throughput assays on widely accessible platforms in large, real-world MS populations, is a critical step for sNfL to be utilized in clinical practice.

METHODS: Multiple Sclerosis Partners Advancing Technology and Health Solutions (MS PATHS) is a network of healthcare institutions in the United States and Europe collecting standardized clinical/imaging data and biospecimens during routine clinic visits. sNfL was measured in 6974 MS and 201 healthy control (HC) participants, using a high-throughput, scalable immunoassay.

RESULTS: Elevated sNfL levels for age (sNfL-E) were found in 1238 MS participants (17.8%). Factors associated with …

Organization Of Sensorimotor Activity In Anterior Cruciate Ligament Reconstructed Individuals: An Fmri Conjunction Analysis., Amber J Schnittjer, Howon Kim, Adam S Lepley, James A Onate, Cody R Criss, Janet E Simon, Dustin R Grooms

Neuroscience Articles

INTRODUCTION: Anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction (ACLR) is characterized by persistent involved limb functional deficits that persist for years despite rehabilitation. Previous research provides evidence of both peripheral and central nervous system adaptations following ACLR. However, no study has compared functional organization of the brain for involved limb motor control relative to the uninvolved limb and healthy controls. The purpose of this study was to examine sensorimotor cortex and cerebellar functional activity overlap and non-overlap during a knee motor control task between groups (ACLR and control), and to determine cortical organization of involved and uninvolved limb movement between groups.

METHODS: Eighteen …

Investigating The Quality Of Life For Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder Scale Using Rasch Methodology, Laura C. Chezan, Jin Liu, Ruiqin Gao, Erik Drasgow

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

Our purpose in this study was to provide additional psychometric evidence of the Quality of Life for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (QOLASD-C) scale. We used Rasch modeling to investigate the QOLASD-C functioning, the characteristics of the items comprising the scale, and the item functioning across subgroups of children with ASD based on gender and race/ethnicity. Results showed that QOLASD-C was unidimensional, met the local independence assumption, and measured quality of life (QOL). The items showed excellent fit to the model and good discriminating ability between low and high QOL. Most items showed a moderate difficulty level. No differential item …

A Novel Bayesian Spatial-Temporal Approach To Quantify Sars-Cov-2 Testing Disparities For Small Area Estimation, Cici Bauer, Xiaona Li, Kehe Zhang, Miryoung Lee, Esmeralda Guajardo, Susan Fisher-Hoch, Joseph Mccormick, Maria E Fernandez, Belinda Reininger

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objectives. To propose a novel Bayesian spatial–temporal approach to identify and quantify severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) testing disparities for small area estimation.

Methods. In step 1, we used a Bayesian inseparable space–time model framework to estimate the testing positivity rate (TPR) at geographically granular areas of the census block groups (CBGs). In step 2, we adopted a rank-based approach to compare the estimated TPR and the testing rate to identify areas with testing deficiency and quantify the number of needed tests. We used weekly SARS-CoV-2 infection and testing surveillance data from Cameron County, Texas, between March 2020 …

Cerebellar Dysfunction In Rodent Models With Dystonia, Tremor, And Ataxia, Meike E Van Der Heijden, Roy V Sillitoe

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Dystonia is a movement disorder characterized by involuntary co- or over-contractions of the muscles, which results in abnormal postures and movements. These symptoms arise from the pathophysiology of a brain-wide dystonia network. There is mounting evidence suggesting that the cerebellum is a central node in this network. For example, manipulations that target the cerebellum cause dystonic symptoms in mice, and cerebellar neuromodulation reduces these symptoms. Although numerous findings provide insight into dystonia pathophysiology, they also raise further questions. Namely, how does cerebellar pathophysiology cause the diverse motor abnormalities in dystonia, tremor, and ataxia? Here, we describe recent work in rodents …

Function And Dysfunction Of The Dystonia Network: An Exploration Of Neural Circuits That Underlie The Acquired And Isolated Dystonias, Jason S Gill, Megan X Nguyen, Mariam Hull, Meike E Van Der Heijden, Ken Nguyen, Sruthi P Thomas, Roy V Sillitoe

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Dystonia is a highly prevalent movement disorder that can manifest at any time across the lifespan. An increasing number of investigations have tied this disorder to dysfunction of a broad "dystonia network" encompassing the cerebellum, thalamus, basal ganglia, and cortex. However, pinpointing how dysfunction of the various anatomic components of the network produces the wide variety of dystonia presentations across etiologies remains a difficult problem. In this review, a discussion of functional network findings in non-mendelian etiologies of dystonia is undertaken. Initially acquired etiologies of dystonia and how lesion location leads to alterations in network function are explored, first through …

Social Behavioral Impairments In Syngap1-Related Intellectual Disability, Hajer Naveed, Maria Mccormack, J Lloyd Holder

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Introduction: Developmental synaptopathies are neurodevelopmental disorders caused by genetic mutations disrupting the development and function of neuronal synapses.

Methods: We administered the validated Social Responsiveness Scale, Second Edition (SRS-2) to investigate the phenotypic presentation of social-behavioral impairments for the developmental synaptopathy-SYNGAP1-related Intellectual Disability (SYNGAP1-ID) (n = 32) compared with a phenotypically similar disorder Phelan-McDermid syndrome (PMD) (n = 27) and healthy controls (n = 43). A short form SRS-2 analysis (n = 85) was also conducted.

Results: Both SYNGAP1-ID and PMD had significantly elevated total and subcategory T-scores, with no significant score differences between SYNGAP1 …

Prediction Of Rapid Early Progression And Survival Risk With Pre-Radiation Mri In Who Grade 4 Glioma Patients, Walia Farzana, Mustafa M. Basree, Norou Diawara, Zeina Shboul, Sagel Dubey, Marie M. Lockheart, Mohamed Hamza, Joshua D. Palmer, Khan Iftekharuddin

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Rapid early progression (REP) has been defined as increased nodular enhancement at the border of the resection cavity, the appearance of new lesions outside the resection cavity, or increased enhancement of the residual disease after surgery and before radiation. Patients with REP have worse survival compared to patients without REP (non-REP). Therefore, a reliable method for differentiating REP from non-REP is hypothesized to assist in personlized treatment planning. A potential approach is to use the radiomics and fractal texture features extracted from brain tumors to characterize morphological and physiological properties. We propose a random sampling-based ensemble classification model. The proposed …

Comparison Of Machine Learning Methods For Classification Of Alexithymia In Individuals With And Without Autism From Eye-Tracking Data, Furkan Iigin, Megan A. Witherow, Khan M. Iftekharuddin

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Alexithymia describes a psychological state where individuals struggle with feeling and expressing their emotions. Individuals with alexithymia may also have a more difficult time understanding the emotions of others and may express atypical attention to the eyes when recognizing emotions. This is known to affect individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) differently than neurotypical (NT) individuals. Using a public data set of eye-tracking data from seventy individuals with and without autism who have been assessed for alexithymia, we train multiple traditional machine learning models for alexithymia classification including support vector machines, logistic regression, decision trees, random forest, and multilayer perceptron. …

Preexisting Depression And Ambulatory Status After Stroke: Florida-Puerto Rico Collaboration To Reduce Stroke Disparities, Amy K Starosciak, Kefeng Wang, Hao Ying, Kaushik Ravipati, Samantha Spring, Carolina M Gutierrez, Hannah Gardener, David Z Rose, Dianne Foster, Chuanhui Dong, Angus Jameson, Ayham Alkhachroum, Jose G Romano, Ralph L Sacco, Tatjana Rundek, Negar Asdaghi

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: Stroke is a global public health burden, and therefore it is critical to identify modifiable risk factors to reduce stroke incidence and improve outcomes. Depression is such a risk factor; however, the association between preexisting depression and stroke outcomes, such as independent ambulation, is not well studied, especially among racial-ethnic minority groups. To address this gap in the literature, effects of preexisting depression on ambulatory status at hospital discharge after stroke were evaluated among individuals participating in the racially and ethnically diverse Florida-Puerto Rico Collaboration to Reduce Stroke Disparities project.

METHODS: Data were analyzed from a total of 42,031 …

A Comparison Of One Year Outcomes Between Standardized Locomotor Training And Usual Care After Motor Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury: Community Participation, Quality Of Life And Re-Hospitalization, Candace Tefertiller, Meghan Rozwod, Sandra Wojciehowski, Mitch Sevigny, Susan Charlifue, Jessica M Ketchum, Jeffrey Berliner, Heather B Taylor, Andrea L Behrman, Susan Harkema, Gail Forrest, Mary Schmidt Read, Michelle Basso

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

CONTEXT/OBJECTIVE: Spinal cord injury (SCI) often results in a significant loss of mobility and independence coinciding with reports of decreased quality of life (QOL), community participation, and medical complications often requiring re-hospitalization. Locomotor training (LT), the repetition of stepping-like patterning has shown beneficial effects for improving walking ability after motor incomplete SCI, but the potential impact of LT on psychosocial outcomes has not been well-established. The purpose of this study was to evaluate one year QOL, community participation and re-hospitalization outcomes between individuals who participated in a standardized LT program and those who received usual care (UC).

DESIGN/SETTING/PARTICIPANTS: A retrospective …

Interpersonal Violence Against Women With Spinal Cord Injury: Adding Insult To Injury, Susan Robinson-Whelen, Rosemary B Hughes, Kimberley Aguillard, Diana Gonzalez, Heather B Taylor

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Mounting empirical evidence suggests that, compared to women without disabilities, women with disabilities are more likely to experience interpersonal violence (IPV). However, there is extremely limited research attention on IPV against women with spinal cord injury (SCI), a particularly understudied and underserved population.

OBJECTIVES: To conduct the first known examination of lifetime IPV experience in women with SCI, to explore demographic and disability-related correlates of IPV, and to examine the health impacts of IPV.

METHODS: The sample included 175 women with traumatic SCI from across the United States who enrolled in a randomized controlled trial of an online psychological …