Publications by authors named "Brooks G"

Schistosomiasis is a tropical infection endemic to developing nations that can result in chronic liver damage, renal failure, infertility, and bladder cancer. Genitourinary localization is marked by dysuria, visible hematuria, and urinary obstruction. We present the case of a 17-year-old male adolescent from a rural area of Central Africa, who arrived in Italy two years prior, exhibiting hematuria and urinary symptoms.

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The lactate shuttle concept has revolutionized our understanding and study of metabolism in physiology, biochemistry, intermediary metabolism, nutrition, and medicine. Seminal findings of the mitochondrial lactate oxidation complex (mLOC) elucidated the architectural structure of its components. Here, we report that the mitochondrial pyruvate carrier (mPC) is an additional member of the mLOC in mouse muscle and C2C12 myoblasts and myotubes.

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Guided by communication accommodation theory, we studied 27 physician reports of patient-physician advanced cancer communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Advanced cancer communication requires recognizing patients' psychosocial states and collaboratively engaging patients empathetically to develop the shared understanding necessary to guide decision-making. However, physicians found their communication underaccommodated, stemming from personal protection equipment, social distancing, and telemedicine.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study analyzed how travel burden for surgical cancer care is affected by rural living, geographic choices, cancer type, and patient mortality outcomes using Medicare data from 2016-2018.
  • It found that a significant percentage of cancer patients, particularly those in rural areas, chose to bypass their nearest surgical facility, leading to better survival outcomes post-surgery.
  • The research highlights that understanding why rural patients bypass facilities could help improve cancer treatment results and address disparities in cancer care access.
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Plasma glycerol and free fatty acid concentrations decrease following oral glucose consumption, but changes in the rate of lipolysis during an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) have not been documented in conjunction with changes in fatty acid (FA) oxidation or reesterification rates in healthy individuals. After a 12-h overnight fast, 15 young (21-35 yr; 7 men and 8 women) and 14 older (60-80 yr; 7 men and 7 women) participants had the forearm vein catheterized for primed continuous infusion of [1,1,2,3,3-H]glycerol. A contralateral hand vein was catheterized for arterialized blood sampling.

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Article Synopsis
  • * A pilot program was launched where pharmacists reviewed genetic test results, provided drug-dosing advice, and documented interactions in patient records, which were shared with oncologists.
  • * Results showed that out of 71 patients, 21 had actionable genetic variants, leading to dose changes in five patients, demonstrating the potential of pharmacist involvement in personalized medicine.
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Importance: Cancer treatment delay is a recognized marker of worse outcomes. Timely treatment may be associated with physician patient-sharing network characteristics, yet this remains understudied.

Objective: To examine the associations of surgeon and care team patient-sharing network measures with breast cancer treatment delay.

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Background And Aims: Type 1 long QT syndrome (LQT1) is caused by pathogenic variants in the KCNQ1-encoded Kv7.1 potassium channels, which pathologically prolong ventricular action potential duration (APD). Herein, the pathologic phenotype in transgenic LQT1 rabbits is rescued using a novel KCNQ1 suppression-replacement (SupRep) gene therapy.

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Lactate, a product of glycolysis, is formed under aerobic conditions. Extensive work has shown lactate flux in young and exercising humans; however, the effect of age is not known. We tested the hypothesis that postprandial lactate shuttling (PLS) would be diminished in older adults.

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Muscular efficiency during exercise has been used to interrogate aspects of human muscle energetics, including mitochondrial coupling and biomechanical efficiencies. Typically, assessments of muscular efficiency have involved graded exercises. Results of previous studies have been interpreted to indicate a decline in exercise efficiency with aging owing to decreased mitochondrial function.

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The objective was to assess the impact of environmental complexity on affective state (anxiety) in fast- and slow-growing broilers (Gallus gallus domesticus) as they gain weight. Six hundred fast-growing broilers (Ross 708; "fast-growers") and 600 slow-growing broilers (Hubbard Redbro Mini; "slow-growers") were raised in 24 pens with simple (standard; SE) or complex (permanent and temporary enrichments; CE) environments. Six birds/pen underwent the attention bias test on day 23 (fast-growers only), 28-29, 35-36, 42-43, and 56-57 (slow-growers only), with individuals only tested once (n = 576).

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Our purpose was to determine how age affects metabolic flexibility and underlying glucose kinetics in healthy young and older adults. Therefore, glucose and lactate tracers along with pulmonary gas exchange data were used to determine glucose kinetics and respiratory exchange ratios [RER = carbon dioxide production (V̇co)/oxygen consumption (V̇o)] during a 2-h 75-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT). After an 12-h overnight fast, 28 participants, 15 young (21-35 yr; 7 men and 8 women) and 13 older (60-80 yr; 7 men and 6 women), received venous primed-continuous infusions of [6,6-H]glucose and [3-C]lactate with a [Formula: see text] bolus.

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Introduction: While research into adolescent mental health has developed a considerable understanding of environmental and psychosocial risk factors, equivalent biological evidence is lacking and is not representative of economic, social and ethnic diversity in the adolescent population. It is important to understand the possible barriers and facilitators to conduct this research. This will then allow us to improve our understanding of how biology interacts with environmental and psychosocial risk factors during adolescence.

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Background: The LBP-related attitudes and beliefs of clinicians may impact the experience of patients by influencing clinician decision-making and by shaping the attitudes, beliefs, and actions of patients. The purpose of this study was to identify the specific LBP-related attitudes and beliefs of US-based physical therapists and determine if those beliefs correlate with clinical decision-making.

Methods: An electronic survey was sent to US-based physical therapists.

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The interviewing of victims, witnesses and suspects is important in helping resolve criminal investigations. In Japan, developments have recently occurred in the training of the police and their public prosecutors in these key tasks. Whilst literature exists on autism in Japan, studies examining police/public prosecutor interviews with autistic adults conducted in that country (and indeed, any other) remain scant.

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Background: Oncology outreach is a common strategy for increasing rural access to cancer care, where traveling oncologists commute across healthcare settings to extend specialized care. Examining the extent to which physician outreach is associated with timely treatment for rural patients is critical for informing outreach strategies.

Methods: We identified a 100% fee-for-service sample of incident breast cancer patients from 2015 to 2020 Medicare claims and apportioned them into surgery and adjuvant therapy cohorts based on treatment history.

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Background: Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a multifaceted, X-linked, neurodegenerative disorder that comprises several clinical phenotypes. ALD affects patients through a variety of physical, emotional, social, and other disease-specific factors that collectively contribute to disease burden. To facilitate clinical care and research, it is important to identify which symptoms are most common and relevant to individuals with any subtype of ALD.

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Mandated measures to reduce the risk of spreading the coronavirus (e.g., social distancing and travel restrictions) led to isolation and reshaped the dying process as well as grief rituals for loved ones of deceased individuals due to COVID-19 and other causes of death.

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Purpose: Health care consolidation has significantly affected cancer care delivery, with oncology practices undergoing substantial consolidation over the past two decades. This study investigates practice consolidation trends among medical oncologists (MOs), factors associated with consolidation, and changes in MO geographic distribution.

Methods: Medicare data from 2015 to 2022 were used to assess MO practice consolidation in hospital referral regions (HRRs), linked with regional health care market data and physician demographics.

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Dietary glucose in excess is stored in the liver in the form of glycogen. As opposed to direct conversion of glucose into glycogen, the hypothesis of the postprandial lactate shuttle (PLS) proposes that dietary glucose uptake is metabolized to lactate in the gut, thereby being transferred to the liver for glycogen storage. In the present study, we provide evidence of a PLS in young healthy men and women.

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Purpose: Oncology outreach is a common strategy for extending cancer care to rural patients. However, a nationwide characterization of the traveling workforce that enables this outreach is lacking, and the extent to which outreach reduces travel burden for rural patients is unknown.

Methods: This cross-sectional study analyzed a rural (nonurban) subset of a 100% fee-for-service sample of 355,139 Medicare beneficiaries with incident breast, colorectal, and lung cancers.

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