Heart Failure Hospitalization and Guideline-Directed Prescribing Patterns Among Heart Failure With Reduced Ejection Fraction Patients.

Objectives: The authors sought to evaluate the association of heart failure hospitalization (HFH) with guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) prescribing patterns among patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

Background: HFH represents an important opportunity to titrate GDMT among patients with HFrEF.

Methods: The CHAMP-HF (Change the Management of Patients With Heart Failure) registry is a prospective registry of adults with HFrEF (ejection fraction ≤40%).

Building a Heart Failure Clinic: A Practical Guide from the Heart Failure Society of America.

Heart failure (HF) remains a leading cause of mortality and morbidity and a primary driver of health care resource use in the United States. As such, there continues to be much interest in the development and refinement of HF clinics that manage patients with HF in a guideline-directed, technology-enabled, and coordinated approach. Optimization of resource use and maintenance of collaboration with other providers are also important themes when considering implementation of HF clinics.

Associations between duration of untreated psychosis and domains of positive and negative symptoms persist after 10 years of follow-up: A secondary analysis from the OPUS trial.

Background: Long duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) has been linked with more severe psychotic and negative symptoms. However, it is uncertain which specific psychotic and negative domains that are affected over time and if these are stable over the course of illness.

Objective: To examine whether DUP is associated with psychotic and negative symptoms measured longitudinally up to 10 years after initial assessment.

In Vivo Assessment of Neuroinflammation in 4-Repeat Tauopathies.

Background: Neuroinflammation has received growing interest as a therapeutic target in neurodegenerative disorders, including 4-repeat tauopathies.

Objectives: The aim of this cross-sectional study was to investigate 18 kDa translocator protein positron emission tomography (PET) as a biomarker for microglial activation in the 4-repeat tauopathies corticobasal degeneration and progressive supranuclear palsy.

Methods: Specific binding of the 18 kDa translocator protein tracer F-GE-180 was determined by serial PET during pharmacological depletion of microglia in a 4-repeat tau mouse model.

F-FDG PET/CT for Response Assessment in Pediatric Sebaceous Carcinoma of the Parotid Gland.

A 16-year-old male patient underwent F-FDG PET/CT staging after multiple surgical resections and radiotherapy of an uncommon metastatic pediatric sebaceous carcinoma of the parotid gland. Initial PET/CT imaging exhibited a recurrent paravertebral metastasis (C4) as well as a metabolically active tumor tissue at the primary site. Follow-up PET/CT after radiotherapy of the cervical spine (C4) and four cycles of chemotherapy with cisplatin and palbociclib revealed complete functional remission in the cervical spine and partial remission at the primary site.

Heterogeneity of health status treatment response with sacubitril/valsartan: insights from the CHAMP-HF registry.

Aims: The aim of our study was to investigate heterogeneity of health status treatment response of sacubitril/valsartan in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).

Methods And Results: We leveraged data from CHAMP-HF, an observational registry of 140 US clinics and 5026 outpatients with chronic HFrEF, where health status was serially assessed using the Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire (KCCQ)-12 Overall Summary Scale (range from 0 to 100; ≥20-point improvement is a very large improvement). In 334 patients newly initiated on sacubitril/valsartan, we used hierarchical multivariable logistic regression (13 patient-level characteristics as well as baseline KCCQ-12 score) to calculate the odds ratio (OR) of any characteristic being associated with a very large health status improvement.

The Role of Translocator Protein TSPO in Hallmarks of Glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most fatal primary brain cancer in adults. Despite extensive treatment, tumors inevitably recur, leading to an average survival time shorter than 1.5 years.

Dual PET Imaging of an H3K27M-Mutant Glioma With 18F-GE-180 and 18F-FET PET.

A 25-year-old man presented with headache and intracranial pressure symptoms. On MRI, an intracranial lesion was detected in the right thalamus with exophytic growth into the third ventricle and inhomogeneous contrast enhancement without necrosis. Dual amino acid (F-FET) and TSPO (F-GE-180) PET imaging showed high tumor-to-background ratios in both scans and a short time-to-peak in F-FET uptake dynamics.

Live imaging and quantitative analysis of growth and morphology during inter-microbial interaction with .

(PA) and (AF) chronically colonize the airways of patients with cystic fibrosis or chronic immunosuppression and mutually affect each other's pathogenesis. Here, we evaluated IncuCyte time-lapse imaging and NeuroTrack (NT) analysis (Wurster et al., 2019, mBio) as a toolbox to study mycelial expansion and morphogenesis of AF during interaction with PA.

A Call Light Responsiveness Program.

Background: Purposeful hourly rounding and information on whiteboards in patients' rooms have been known to reduce use of call lights.

Problem: Call light activation was higher than desired.

Methods: This continuous improvement initiative used retrospective data collection (pre-, early- and maintenance postintervention) to assess call light responsiveness.

Pharmacologic heart failure treatment: A case-based review of current guidelines.

Heart failure (HF) is a growing health problem associated with high morbidity and mortality. Use of evidence-based therapies improves clinical outcomes in patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). However, in real-world research studies, adults with HFrEF were often medically undermanaged, including failure to use the right medications and failure to up titrate core HF therapies to doses similar to those used in randomized controlled trials.

CRISPR-Cas9 enrichment and long read sequencing for fine mapping in plants.

Background: Genomic methods for identifying causative variants for trait loci applicable to a wide range of germplasm are required for plant biologists and breeders to understand the genetic control of trait variation.

Results: We implemented Cas9-targeted sequencing for fine-mapping in apple, a method combining CRISPR-Cas9 targeted cleavage of a region of interest, followed by enrichment and long-read sequencing using the Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT). We demonstrated the capability of this methodology to specifically cleave and enrich a plant genomic locus spanning 8 kb.

Simpson Grade Revisited - Intraoperative Estimation of the Extent of Resection in Meningiomas Versus Postoperative Somatostatin Receptor Positron Emission Tomography/Computed Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Imaging.

Background: Surgeon's intraoperative estimation of meningioma extent of resection (Simpson Grade, SG) is widely used as a prognostic factor for recurrence. However, the validity of SG is still a matter of debate. In preoperative imaging, 68Ga-DOTATATE/PET-CT has been shown to detect meningioma tissue even more sensitively than magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Photopenic Defects in Gliomas With Amino-Acid PET and Relative Prognostic Value: A Multicentric 11C-Methionine and 18F-FDOPA PET Experience.

The aim is to explore the concept of photopenic defects in newly diagnosed glioma patients with the 2 widely used C-MET and F-FDOPA PET amino acid tracers. Thirty-two C-MET and 26 F-FDOPA PET scans with amino acid PET-negative gliomas were selected in this European multicentric study. Of these gliomas, 16 C-MET and 10 F-FDOPA PET scans with photopenic defects were identified, exhibiting lower mean tumor-to-background ratio as compared with isometabolic gliomas (P < 0.

Home Health Care Use and Post-Discharge Outcomes After Heart Failure Hospitalizations.

Objectives: This study compared the characteristics of Medicare beneficiaries who were hospitalized for heart failure (HF) and then discharged home who received home health care (HHC) to the characteristics of those who did not, and examined associations among HHC and readmission and mortality rates.

Background: After hospitalization for HF, some patients receive HHC. However, the use of HHC over time, the factors associated with its use, and the post-discharge outcomes after receiving it are not well studied.

TSPO PET With 18F-GE-180 to Differentiate Variants of Multiple Sclerosis: Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis, Tumefactive Demyelination, and Baló's Concentric Sclerosis.

PET targeting the translocator protein (TSPO) expression is an interesting approach to detect neuroinflammation, as TSPO is upregulated in activated macrophages and microglia. Considering the variable pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis (MS) variants, we compare TSPO PET using F-GE-180 in 3 different demyelinating diseases of the central nervous system: relapsing-remitting MS, tumefactive MS, and Baló's concentric sclerosis. Visualization of neuroinflammation and its PET patterns in addition to MRI may contribute to accurate distinction and monitoring of central nervous system demyelination.

Clinical impact of follicular oncocytic (Hürthle cell) carcinoma in comparison with corresponding classical follicular thyroid carcinoma.

Purpose: There are controversial debates if patients with Hürthle cell carcinoma, also known as oxyphilic or oncocytic cell follicular thyroid carcinoma, have a poorer outcome. In this study, we systematically evaluated the clinical outcome in a large patient cohort following thyroidectomy and initial I-131 radioactive iodine therapy (RIT).

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated a total of 378 patients with diagnosed oncocytic follicular Hürthle cell carcinoma (OFTC) (N = 126) or with classical follicular thyroid carcinoma (FTC) (N = 252).

Pharmacological serum concentrations of epinephrine and norepinephrine do not affect growth rate, morphogenesis, stress tolerance, and virulence of Candida albicans.

Vasopressors are frequently given in hemodynamically unstable patients with severe Candida sepsis. While catecholamines can aggravate sepsis-induced immune dysfunction and modulate bacterial virulence traits, their impact on fungal pathogenicity is poorly understood. Using IncuCyte time-lapse microscopy and a fruit fly candidiasis model, we studied growth rates, morphogenesis, stress tolerance, and virulence of C.

Longitudinal TSPO expression in tau transgenic P301S mice predicts increased tau accumulation and deteriorated spatial learning.

Background: P301S tau transgenic mice show age-dependent accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles in the brainstem, hippocampus, and neocortex, leading to neuronal loss and cognitive deterioration. However, there is hitherto only sparse documentation of the role of neuroinflammation in tau mouse models. Thus, we analyzed longitudinal microglial activation by small animal 18 kDa translocator protein positron-emission-tomography (TSPO μPET) imaging in vivo, in conjunction with terminal assessment of tau pathology, spatial learning, and cerebral glucose metabolism.

Tornadic Shear Stress Induces a Transient, Calcineurin-Dependent Hypervirulent Phenotype in Mucorales Molds.

Trauma-related necrotizing myocutaneous mucormycosis (NMM) has a high morbidity and mortality in victims of combat-related injuries, geometeorological disasters, and severe burns. Inspired by the observation that several recent clusters of NMM have been associated with extreme mechanical forces (e.g.