African-American patients with cancer Talking About Clinical Trials (TACT) with oncologists during consultations: evaluating the efficacy of tailored health messages in a randomised controlled trial-the TACT study protocol.

Introduction: Low rates of accrual of African-American (AA) patients with cancer to therapeutic clinical trials (CTs) represent a serious and modifiable racial disparity in healthcare that impedes the development of promising cancer therapies. Suboptimal physician-patient consultation communication is a barrier to the accrual of patients with cancer of any race, but communication difficulties are compounded with AA patients. Providing tailored health messages (THM) to AA patients and their physician about CTs has the potential to improve communication, lower barriers to accrual and ameliorate health disparities.

Association Between Stigma and Depression Outcomes Among Chinese Immigrants in a Primary Care Setting.

Objective: Stigma has been proposed to be a major underlying factor contributing to lower rates of mental health service utilization among racial/ethnic minorities in the United States. Yet, surprisingly little research has specifically explored associations between stigma, race/ethnicity, and psychiatric morbidity. This study aims to assess the impact of stigmatizing attitudes on depression outcomes among a psychiatrically underserved, immigrant Chinese population.

CT pulmonary angiography of adult pulmonary vascular diseases: Technical considerations and interpretive pitfalls.

Computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA) has become the primary imaging modality for evaluating the pulmonary arteries. Although pulmonary embolism is the primary indication for CTPA, various pulmonary vascular abnormalities can be detected in adults. Knowledge of these disease entities and understanding technical pitfalls that can occur when performing CTPA are essential to enable accurate diagnosis and allow timely management.

Cryptogenic Strokes and Patent Foramen Ovales: What's the Right Treatment?

More than 25% of all ischemic strokes per year are cryptogenic, that is, their cause is not determined after an appropriate evaluation. In 1988, it was reported that the incidence of a patent foramen ovale was 30 to 40% in young patients with a cryptogenic stroke compared with 25% in the general population. This led to the suspicion that cryptogenic strokes were due to paradoxical embolism, that is, a venous thrombus crossing a patent foramen ovale to enter the left atrium and then the arterial circulation.

Silent Atrial Fibrillation and Cryptogenic Strokes.

A new suspected cause of cryptic strokes is "silent atrial fibrillation." Pacemakers and other implanted devices allow continuous recording of cardiac rhythm for months or years. They have discovered that short periods of atrial fibrillation lasting minutes or hours are frequent and usually are asymptomatic.

Randomized, proof-of-concept trial of low dose naltrexone for patients with breakthrough symptoms of major depressive disorder on antidepressants.

Background: Given the proposed dopaminergic mechanism of low-dose naltrexone (LDN), we examined its efficacy as augmentation for depressive breakthrough on pro-dopaminergic antidepressant regimens.

Methods: 12 adults (67% female, mean age = 45±12) with recurrent DSM-IV major depressive disorder (MDD) on dopaminergic antidepressant regimens (stimulants, dopamine agonists, bupropion [≥300mg/day], aripiprazole [≤2.5mg/day], or sertraline [≥150mg/day]) were randomized to naltrexone 1mg b.

The Effects of Tai Chi on Sleep Quality in Chinese American Patients With Major Depressive Disorder: A Pilot Study.

Objective: This pilot study evaluated the effects of Tai Chi training on sleep quality (primary outcomes), and depression and social functioning levels (secondary outcomes) among patients with depression.

Participants: Sixteen depressed Chinese patients.

Methods: Participants received 1-hr Tai Chi training sessions 2 times per week for 10 weeks.

Pulmonary Embolism with Right Ventricular Dysfunction: Who Should Receive Thrombolytic Agents?

Background: Appropriate management of pulmonary embolism patients with right ventricular dysfunction is uncertain. Recent guidelines have stressed the need for more data on the use of thrombolytic agents in the stable pulmonary embolism patient with right ventricular dysfunction. The objective of this study is to investigate the hypothesis that thrombolytic therapy in hemodynamically stable pulmonary embolism patients with right ventricular dysfunction is not associated with improved mortality.

The Effectiveness of Telepsychiatry-Based Culturally Sensitive Collaborative Treatment for Depressed Chinese American Immigrants: A Randomized Controlled Trial.

Objective: This study evaluates the effectiveness of a telepsychiatry-based culturally sensitive collaborative treatment (T-CSCT) intervention to improve treatment outcomes for depressed Chinese American immigrants.

Methods: Participants were Chinese Americans recruited from primary care settings from February 1, 2009, to July 31, 2012, with DSM-IV major depressive disorder (MDD) identified by the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Eligible patients were randomized to receive either T-CSCT or treatment as usual (TAU) for 6 months.

Designing User-Centric Patient Portals: Clinician and Patients' Uses and Gratifications.

Background: Legislation mandates that clinicians make patients' medical information available digitally. This has resulted in hurriedly installing patient portals that do not fully meet the needs of patients or clinicians. This study examined a specific portal, MyPreventiveCare (MPC), a patient-centered portal designed to promote preventive care to consumers, to elicit recommendations from patients and clinicians about how it could be more beneficial by uncovering their uses and gratifications (U&G).

Inflammatory cytokines in major depressive disorder: A case-control study.

Introduction: There is mixed evidence in the literature on the role of inflammation in major depressive disorder. Contradictory findings are attributed to lack of rigorous characterization of study subjects, to the presence of concomitant medical illnesses, to the small sample sizes, and to the limited number of cytokines tested.

Methods: Subjects aged 18-70 years, diagnosed with major depressive disorder and presenting with chronic course of illness, as well as matched controls ( n = 236), were evaluated by trained raters and provided blood for cytokine measurements.

Applying Multiple Methods to Comprehensively Evaluate a Patient Portal's Effectiveness to Convey Information to Patients.

Background: Patient portals have yet to achieve their full potential for enhancing health communication and improving health outcomes. Although the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in the United States mandates the utilization of patient portals, and usage continues to rise, their impact has not been as profound as anticipated.

Objective: The objective of our case study was to evaluate how well portals convey information to patients.