Publications by authors named "A Beaton"

Article Synopsis
  • Acute rheumatic fever (ARF) leads to serious long-term health issues, particularly chronic rheumatic heart disease, which affects heart valves.
  • The majority of ARF cases (over 80%) occur in low- and middle-income countries, indicating a strong link between this disease and socioeconomic factors.
  • Understanding the clinical, genetic, and sociodemographic risk factors of ARF can help healthcare providers identify those at high risk and implement better management and screening strategies to improve patient outcomes.
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Automated Deuterium Relaxation-Ordered SpectroscopY in solution (ADROSYS), an automated two-dimensional deuterium NMR methodology, discriminates between DO populations (as well as deuterium-labeled alcohol groups) whose properties differ as a result of being confined inside nanoscale volumes. In this contribution, a proof-of-principle demonstration on reverse micelles (RMs) yields the insight that as the length scale of the confinement decreases from several nanometers down to less than a nanometer, the position of the signal peak migrates through the two-dimensional (2D) spectrum, tracing out a distinctive path in the 2D space (of relaxation time vs chemical shift). The signals typically follow a relatively gentle linear path for water confined on the scale of several nanometers, before curving once the surfactants confine the water molecules to length scales smaller than 1-2 nm.

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Contemporary studies of rheumatic heart disease (RHD) within American Indian communities are lacking, despite recent work indicating high rates of group A streptococcus, the precursor to RHD. Utilizing retrospective chart review of the Indian Health Service, we sought to characterize the burden of acute rheumatic fever and RHD within an American Indian tribe in Eastern Arizona. Our study found that, in line with other high-income countries, RHD in the US continues to disproportionately impact native peoples, with rates 10 times that of the general population.

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Article Synopsis
  • Recent updates in rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) focus on improving prevention, diagnosis, and treatment strategies.
  • Revised Jones criteria enhance the accuracy of diagnosing rheumatic fever in high-risk groups, while management remains largely symptomatic due to a lack of definitive treatments.
  • New World Heart Federation guidelines advocate for broader RHD screening and management, along with promising advancements like automated intelligence tools and studies on secondary prophylaxis to improve patient adherence and access.
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