Background: Newborns with critical congenital heart disease (CCHD) require specialized delivery room management, but varying experience and knowledge can reduce confidence and impact care.
Methods: A pre-delivery, structured huddle checklist was introduced, addressing team roles, expected physiology, and management plans. PDSA cycles incorporated guidelines and simulation-based education to improve confidence in specialized resuscitation strategies.
Coarctation of the aorta (CoA) is a ductus arteriosus (DA)-dependent form of congenital heart disease (CHD) characterized by narrowing in the region of the aortic isthmus. CoA is a challenging diagnosis to make prenatally and is the critical cardiac lesion most likely to go undetected on the pulse oximetry-based newborn critical CHD screen. When undetected CoA causes obstruction to blood flow, life-threatening cardiovascular collapse may result, with a high burden of morbidity and mortality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe 'immune risk profile' has been shown to predict mortality in the elderly, highlighting the need to better understand age-related immune dysfunction. While aging leads to many defects affecting all arms of the immune system, this review is focused on the accrual of immuno-suppressive CD4 + T cell populations, including FoxP3 + regulatory T cells, and subsets of IL-10-producing T follicular helper cells. New data suggest that such accumulations constitute feedback mechanisms to temper the ongoing progressive low-grade inflammation that develops with age, the so-called "inflammaging", and by doing so, how they have the potential to promote healthier aging.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Existing pulmonary embolism (PE) risk scores were developed to predict death within weeks, but not more proximate adverse events. We determined the ability of 3 PE risk stratification tools (simplified pulmonary embolism severity index [sPESI], 2019 European Society of Cardiology guidelines [ESC], and PE short-term clinical outcomes risk estimation [PE-SCORE]) to predict 5-day clinical deterioration after emergency department (ED) diagnosis of PE.
Methods: We analyzed data from six EDs on ED patients with confirmed PE.
Introduction: Infants born with critical congenital heart defects (CCHDs) have unique transitional pathophysiology that often requires special resuscitation and management considerations in the delivery room (DR). While much is known about neonatal resuscitation of infants with CCHDs, current neonatal resuscitation guidelines such as the neonatal resuscitation programme (NRP) do not include algorithm modifications or education specific to CCHDs. The implementation of CCHD specific neonatal resuscitation education is further hampered by the large number of healthcare providers (HCPs) that need to be reached.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAging profoundly affects immune-system function, promoting susceptibility to pathogens, cancers and chronic inflammation. We previously identified a population of IL-10-producing, T follicular helper-like cells (" "), linked to suppressed vaccine responses in aged mice. Here, we integrate single-cell ( )RNA-seq, scATAC-seq and genome-scale modeling to characterize Tfh10 - and the full CD4 memory T cell ( ) compartment - in young and old mice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn recent years, environmental stewardship has been emphasized as one solution to social-ecological sustainability concerns, especially at the local scale. The Stewardship Mapping and Assessment Project (STEW-MAP) is a national research program developed by the USDA Forest Service that has been implemented at numerous locations in the United States and internationally. This study compared the mission statements of environmental stewardship groups in the Los Angeles River Watershed to previously proposed definitions and frameworks of organizational environmental stewardship to see how well they were reflected.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The Pulmonary Embolism Quality-of-Life (PEmb-QoL) questionnaire assesses quality of life (QoL) after pulmonary embolism (PE). We aimed to determine whether any clinical or pathophysiologic features of PE were associated with worse PEmb-QoL scores 1 month after PE.
Methods: In this prospective multicenter registry, we conducted PEmb-QoL questionnaires.
The HIV-1 Nef protein plays a critical role in viral infectivity, high-titer replication in vivo, and immune escape of HIV-infected cells. Nef lacks intrinsic biochemical activity, functioning instead through interactions with diverse host cell signaling proteins and intracellular trafficking pathways. Previous studies have established an essential role for Nef homodimer formation at the plasma membrane for most if not all its functions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Simulation-based education has become standard within emergency medicine training. Toxicological clinical presentations are challenging to identify and treat in the emergency department. Recognizing that active teaching methods are superior to standard lecture for learner retention, we created an experiential simulation case for education on lithium toxicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAge-associated microglial dysfunction contributes to the accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques in Alzheimer's disease. Although several studies have shown age-related declines in the phagocytic capacity of myeloid cells, relatively few have examined phagocytosis of normally aged microglia. Furthermore, much of the existing data on aging microglial function have been generated in accelerated genetic models of Alzheimer's disease.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Womens Health (Larchmt)
November 2022
Larger and more severe wildfires are becoming more frequent and impacting different communities and human settlements. Much of the scientific literature and media on wildfires has focused on area of ecosystems burned and numbers of structures destroyed. Equally unprecedented, but often less reported, are the increasing socioeconomic impacts different people and communities face from wildfires.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF: A healthy physician performs better clinically and provides superior care to patients than a physician struggling with burnout. : The purpose of this study is to assess the physician perception of "health" and "burnout," to identify successful wellness-promoting behaviors, and to build a model characterizing the successful transition from poor health to wellness. : Utilizing a qualitative approach, the team conducted one-on-one, in-depth, semi-structured interviews with physicians from different specialties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: We sought to determine associations of early electrocardiogram (ECG) patterns with clinical deterioration (CD) within 5 days and with RV abnormality (abnlRV) by echocardiography in pulmonary embolism (PE).
Methods: In this prospective, multicenter study of newly confirmed PE patients, early echocardiography and initial ECG were examined. Initial ECG patterns included lead-specific ST-segment elevation (STE) or depression (STD), T-wave inversion (TWI), supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), sinus tachycardia, and right bundle branch block as complete (cRBBB) or incomplete (iRBBB).
Introduction: Given the importance of understanding methodical reporting and statistical terminology in ensuring evidence-based decision-making, physicians should possess statistical literacy. The purpose of this study was to distinguish statistical terminology commonly used in emergency medicine methods and describe changes in statistical methods from 2011 to 2021.
Methods: The research team chose four journals in emergency medicine widely read and clinically relevant: Academic Emergency Medicine, American Journal of Emergency Medicine, Annals of Emergency Medicine, and Journal of Emergency Medicine.
Congenital heart disease (CHD) and prematurity are the leading causes of infant mortality in the United States. Importantly, the combination of prematurity and CHD results in a further increased risk of mortality and significant morbidity. The key factors in these adverse outcomes are not well understood, but likely include maternal-fetal environment, perinatal and neonatal elements, and challenging postnatal care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: Identifying right ventricle (RV) abnormalities is important to stratifying pulmonary embolism (PE) severity. Disposition decisions are influenced by concerns about early deterioration. Triaging strategies, like the Simplified Pulmonary Embolism Severity Index (sPESI), do not include RV assessments as predictors or early deterioration as outcome(s).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFStudy Objectives: The objective of this study was to compare the combination of intramuscular (IM) droperidol/midazolam to haloperidol/lorazepam regarding time to sedation in patients with acute undifferentiated agitation in the emergency department (ED).
Methods: This was a prospective, unblinded observational study in the ED of a university teaching hospital. Subjects with acute undifferentiated agitation refractory to verbal de-escalation were assigned to receive a combination of either haloperidol 5 mg/lorazepam 2 mg or droperidol 5 mg/midazolam 5 mg IM.