Equitable health care delivery for adult Nova Scotians: a scoping review protocol.

Objective: The objective of this review is to identify international and Nova Scotian standards of care, CPGs, and policies informing equitable health care.

Introduction: The lack of attention given to intersectional health care needs of diverse populations perpetuates health inequities among under-served groups, creating an urgent need for health care reform globally.

Inclusion Criteria: This scoping review will include standards of care, CPGs, and policies focusing on equity-related health indicators.

Safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and antimalarial activity of MMV533: a phase 1a first-in-human, randomised, ascending dose and food effect study, and a phase 1b Plasmodium falciparum volunteer infection study.

Background: Novel antimalarials are needed to address emerging resistance to artemisinin and partner drugs. We did two trials to evaluate safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics, and activity against blood stage Plasmodium falciparum for the drug candidate MMV533.

Methods: A phase 1a first-in-human (FIH) trial was conducted at Nucleus Network (Melbourne, VIC, Australia).

An unusual case of primary pituitary abscess due to Corynebacterium pseudodiphtheriticum.

Pituitary abscesses are an uncommon cause of pituitary lesions. A 77-year-old woman presented for elective resection of a presumed non-functioning pituitary macroadenoma in the context of a progressive left-sided visual field deficit. She proceeded to trans-sphenoidal resection of the pituitary lesion, with purulent fluid found upon opening the pituitary capsule.

Characterizing the pharmacological interaction of the antimalarial combination artefenomel-piperaquine in healthy volunteers with induced blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum to predict efficacy in patients with malaria.

Background: The combination antimalarial artefenomel-piperaquine failed to achieve target efficacy in a phase 2b study in Africa and Vietnam. We retrospectively evaluated whether characterizing the pharmacological interaction of this antimalarial combination in a volunteer infection study (VIS) would have enabled prediction of the phase 2b study results.

Methods: Twenty-four healthy adults enrolled over three consecutive cohorts were inoculated with Plasmodium falciparum-infected erythrocytes on day 0.

Development of a prognostic signature for overall survival using peripheral blood biomarkers in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Background: We previously reported in recurrent/metastatic head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (R/M HNSCC) treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), pretreatment higher lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and absolute (abx) neutrophils as well as lower percent (%) lymphocytes correlated with worse overall survival (OS). In this study we aimed to develop a prognostic signature for HNSCC treated with ICIs using these peripheral blood biomarkers (PBBMs).

Methods: Adults with R/M HNSCC treated with ICIs at our institution from 08/2012 to 03/2021 with pretreatment PBBMs were included.