Point-of-Care Kidney and Genitourinary Ultrasound in Adults: Image Acquisition.

A range of conditions involving the kidneys and urinary bladder can cause organ-threatening complications that are preventable if diagnosed promptly with diagnostic imaging. Common imaging modalities include either computed tomography or diagnostic ultrasound. Traditionally, ultrasound of the kidney-genitourinary system has required consultative teams consisting of a sonographer performing image acquisition and a radiologist performing image interpretation.

A pilot study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of treprostinil in the treatment of calcinosis in systemic sclerosis.

Objectives: We evaluated the safety and efficacy of oral treprostinil in preventing progression of SSc-associated calcinosis.

Methods: This prospective open-label study enrolled 12 SSc patients meeting 2013 ACR/EULAR classification criteria with confirmed clinical and radiographic evidence of one or more calcinosis deposit in the hands. Patients received oral treprostinil for 1 year.

Concurrent use of capecitabine with radiation therapy and survival in breast cancer (BC) after neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Purpose: Capecitabine has been studied as a radiosensitizer, and our study seeks to examine the association of concurrent capecitabine/radiation therapy (RT) on event-free- (EFS) and overall survival (OS) in women with breast cancer (BC) with residual disease after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC).

Methods/patients: In a retrospective study of women with BC who received adriamycin/taxane-based NAC from 2004-2016, we identified 21 women administered concurrent capecitabine/RT. To assess differences in survival, we selected a clinical control cohort (n = 57) based on criteria used to select patients for capecitabine/RT.

Obesity and survival in the neoadjuvant breast cancer setting: role of tumor subtype in an ethnically diverse population.

Background: Obesity may negatively affect survival in breast cancer (BC), but studies are conflicting, and associations may vary by tumor subtypes and race/ethnicity groups.

Methods: In a retrospective review, we identified 273 women with invasive BC administered Adriamycin/Taxane-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy from 2004 to 2016 with body mass index (BMI) data at diagnosis. Obesity was defined as BMI ≥30.

Religious slaughter in Italy.

This research aims to understand the prevalence of religious slaughter practices in Italy. Two different ways of slaughtering animals are identified. Conventional slaughter is performed with prior stunning; kosher slaughter is practiced without stunning.