Serial

INTRODUCTION: Patient satisfaction with clinical services can have an effect on retention in HIV care and adherence to antiretroviral therapy. This study assessed patient satisfaction and its association with retention and viral suppression in Zambézia Province, Mozambique. METHODS: Monthly exit interviews with persons living with HIV were completed from August 2017-January 2019 in 20 health facilities; clinical data were extracted from medical records. Regression analyses assessed the effect of satisfaction scores on retention and viral suppression, adjusting for age, sex, education, civil status, time on treatment, and site...

Bioactive, nanoporous TiO2 -coating has been shown to enhance cell attachment on titanium implant surface. The aim of this study was to evaluate, whether the saliva proteins affect the epithelial cell adhesion on TiO2 -coated and non-coated titanium. Grade V titanium discs were polished. Half of the discs were provided with TiO2 -coating produced in sol with polycondensation method. Half of the TiO2 -coated and non-coated discs were treated with pasteurized saliva for 30 min. After saliva treatment, the total protein amounts on surfaces were measured...

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OBJECTIVE: Hemorrhage is the leading cause of preventable death in civilian trauma centers and on the battlefield. One of the emerging treatment options for hemorrhage in austere environments is tranexamic acid (TXA). However, the landscape is not amenable to the current delivery standard. This study compared the pharmacokinetics of TXA via a standard 10-minute intravenous infusion (IV infusion), intravenous rapid push over 10 s (IV push), and intramuscular injection (IM) in a swine polytrauma and hemorrhagic shock model (trauma group) compared to uninjured controls (control group)...

OBJECTIVES: The primary objective was to describe the standardized body mass index (z-BMI) trajectory of children and adolescents admitted to a psychiatric reference center in Mexico City according to their diagnosis and medication use. The secondary objective was to compare z-BMI between antipsychotic users and non-users. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study. The psychiatric diagnosis, prescribed medications, serial heights, and weights were collected from the medical records...

Insomnia is common in college students and linked to poorer mental and physical health. There is growing evidence that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) may contribute to insomnia in adulthood. However, beyond the need for additional replication of these findings, there is a need to identify underlying mechanisms that plausibly connect the two experiences. Based on a serial mediation model, the current study examined the role of two theoretically informed mediators: recent stressful life events and perceived stress...

INTRODUCTION: Serial functional status assessments are critical to heart failure (HF) management but are often described narratively in documentation, limiting their use in quality improvement or patient selection for clinical trials. We developed and validated a deep learning-based natural language processing (NLP) strategy to extract functional status assessments from unstructured clinical notes. METHODS: We identified 26,577 HF patients across outpatient services at Yale New Haven Hospital (YNHH), Greenwich Hospital (GH), and Northeast Medical Group (NMG) (mean age 76...

UNLABELLED: Pioneering studies linking symptomatic disease and cough-mediated release of Mycobacterium tuberculosis ( Mtb ) established the infectious origin of tuberculosis (TB), simultaneously informing the pervasive notion that pathology is a prerequisite for Mtb transmission. Our prior work has challenged this assumption: by sampling TB clinic attendees, we detected equivalent release of Mtb -containing bioaerosols by confirmed TB patients and individuals not receiving a TB diagnosis, and we demonstrated a time-dependent reduction in Mtb bioaerosol positivity during six-months' follow-up, irrespective of anti-TB chemotherapy...

BACKGROUND: Mucormycosis is a rare, rapidly progressive and often fatal fungal infection. The rarity of the condition lends itself to unfamiliarity, delayed treatment, and poor outcomes. Diagnosis of fungal infections early enough to enable appropriate treatment occurs in less than half of affected patients. CASE SUMMARY: An 11-year-old girl with a history of 15% total body surface area scald burns involving both lower limbs progressed to develop angioinvasive mucormycosis...

INTRODUCTION: The use of the dorsal hamate as a free osteochondral bone graft or vascularized bone flap has become the mainstay for large, comminuted middle phalanx volar lip fractures. To date, few studies have been conducted in the assessment of donor site morbidity for the hemi-hamate graft or flap, and none have discussed modes of repair or reconstruction of this donor site. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 14 hemi-hamate arthroplasty (HHA) procedures, including 6 vascularized and 8 non-vascularized grafts, from two surgeons was performed...

OBJECTIVES: To identify age-related plasma extracellular vehicle (EVs) phenotypes in healthy adults. METHODS: EV proteomics by high-resolution mass spectrometry to evaluate EV protein stability and discover age-associated EV proteins (n=4 with 4 serial freeze-thaws each); validation by high-resolution flow cytometry and EV cytokine quantification by multiplex ELISA (n=28 healthy donors, aged 18-83 years); quantification of WI-38 fibroblast cell proliferation response to co-culture with PKH67-labeled young and old plasma EVs...

BACKGROUND: Choosing a partner and job have long been regarded as important developmental milestones to reach in adulthood. In a collective cultural context with high familial and societal expectations to commit to a relationship and job by age 30, maximizing on such life decisions might potentially harm one's well-being. The literature on maximization-well-being association is complex, and recent research suggests that this relationship might differ by its dimensions and cultural context...

The progression of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is assessed through serial monitoring of forced vital capacity (FVC). Currently, data regarding the clinical significance of longitudinal changes in diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide (DLCO) is lacking. We investigated the prognostic implications of a 1-year decline in DLCO in 319 patients newly diagnosed with IPF at a tertiary hospital between January 2010 and December 2020. Changes in FVC and DLCO over the first year after the initial diagnosis were reviewed; a decline in FVC ≥ 5% and DLCO ≥ 10% predicted were considered significant changes...

PURPOSE: Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) allows for rapid bedside assessment and guidance of patient care. Recently, POCUS was included as a mandatory component of Canadian anesthesiology training; however, there is no national consensus regarding the competencies to guide curriculum development. We therefore aimed to define national residency competencies for basic perioperative POCUS proficiency. METHODS: We adopted a Delphi process to delineate relevant POCUS competencies whereby we circulated an online survey to academic anesthesiologists identified as POCUS leads/experts (n = 25) at all 17 Canadian anesthesiology residency programs...

Since the mechanotransduction by stromal stiffness stimulates the rupture and repair of the nuclear envelope in pancreatic progenitor cells, accumulated genomic aberrations are under selection in the tumor microenvironment. Analysis of cell growth, micronuclei, and γH2AX foci links to mechanotransduction pressure in vivo during serial orthotopic passages of mouse KrasLSL-G12D/+ ;Trp53flox/flox ;Pdx1-Cre (KPC) cancer cells in the tumor and in migrating through the size-restricted 3μm micropores. To search for pancreatic cancer cell-of-origin, analysis of single-cell datasets revealed that the ECM shapes an alternate route of acinar-ductal transdifferentiation of acinar cells into a central hub of elegantly restrained TOP2A-overexpressing cancer cells that spread out as unique cancer clusters with copy number amplifications in MYC-PTK2 locus and PIK3CA...

BACKGROUND: The prognostic relevance of fetal/early postnatal magnetic resonance (MR) imaging (MRI) isolated "minor" lesions in congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is still unclear, because of the heterogeneity of previously reported case series. The aim of this study was to report the imaging and long-term clinical follow-up data on a relatively large cohort of infected fetuses. METHODS: Among 140 CMV-infected fetuses from a single-center 12-year-long fetal MRI database, cases that showed isolated "minor" lesions at MRI, mainly represented by polar temporal lesions, were selected...

INTRODUCTION: The utility of serial liver stiffness measurements (LSM) to predict decompensation in compensated advanced chronic liver disease (cACLD) patients remains unclear. We aimed to validate whether comparing serial LSM is superior to using the current LSM to predict liver-related events (LRE) in cACLD patients. METHODS: In this retrospective analysis of an international registry, cACLD patients with serial LSM were followed up until index LRE. We compared the performance of both the dynamic LSM changes and the current LSM (LSMc ) in predicting LRE using Cox-regression analysis, considering time zero of follow-up as the date of LSMc...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Efficient abstract scoring for congress presentation is important. Given the emergence of new study methodologies, a scoring system that accommodates all study designs is warranted. We aimed to assess the equivalence of a simplified, 2-question abstract grading system with a more complex currently used system in assessing abstracts submitted for orthopedic scientific meetings in a serial randomized study. METHODS: Dutch Orthopedic Association Scientific Committee (DOASC) members were randomized to grade abstracts using either the current grading system, which includes up to 7 scoring categories, or the new grading system, which consists of only 2 questions...

Visual crowding, the phenomenon in which the ability to distinguish objects is hindered in cluttered environments, has critical implications for various ophthalmic and neurological disorders. Traditional methods for assessing crowding involve time-consuming and attention-demanding psychophysical tasks, making routine examination challenging. This study sought to compare trial-based Alternative Forced-Choice (AFC) paradigms using either manual or eye movement responses and a continuous serial search paradigm employing eye movement responses to evaluate their efficiency in rapidly assessing peripheral crowding...

BACKGROUND: Breast cancer requires evaluating treatment plans using dosimetric and biological parameters. Considering radiation dose distribution and tissue response, healthcare professionals can optimize treatment plans for better outcomes. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the different Dose Calculation Algorithms (DCAs) and Biologically Model-Related Parameters (BMRPs) on the prediction of cardiopulmonary complications due to left breast radiotherapy...