Introduction: The value of using lifestyle medicine (LM) to prevent disease is well established, yet medical education about LM is inconsistent, for both physicians and physician assistants/associates (PAs). As medical providers, PAs are uniquely positioned, with careers in a variety of disciplines from primary care to intensive care, as well as an ability to move across disciplines throughout their career lifespan. Therefore, the addition of LM principles in PA education can affect patients across the lifespan and in a wide variety of clinical settings.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnterior column realignment via anterior, oblique, or lateral lumbar interbody fusion is increasingly recognized as a powerful mechanism for indirect decompression and sagittal realignment in flexible deformity. Single-position lateral surgery is a popular variation that places patients in the lateral decubitus position, allowing concomitant placement of lateral interbodies and posterior segmental instrumentation without the need for repositioning the patient. The addition of robotics to this technique can help to overcome ergonomic limitations of the placement of pedicle screws in the lateral decubitus position; however, its description in the literature is relatively lacking.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Effective communication is critical in patient care. Multilingual medical providers, including Physician Assistants (PAs) can contribute to improved health care among patients with limited English proficiency; however, this is contingent upon matriculating multilingual providers. In this study, the association between prospective applicants' self-reported English as second language (ESL) status and their likelihood of matriculation into a PA program was investigated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Physician Assist Educ
June 2024
Introduction: This study aims to determine whether veterans have differential access to physician associate/assistant (PA) education by examining likelihood of matriculation relative to nonveteran peers. We explore associations between veteran status and likelihood of matriculation for change over time and whether effects differ among active duty versus non-active-duty applicants.
Methods: Multivariate logistic regression was used to investigate associations between self-identified military status and likelihood of PA program matriculation in five Centralized Applicant Services for Physician Assistants admissions cycles (2012-2013, 2014-2015, 2016-2017, 2018-2019, 2020-2021).
Objectives: Single position lateral fusion with robotic assistance eliminates the need for surgical staging while harnessing the precision of robotic adjuncts. We expand on this technique by demonstrating the technical feasibility of placing bilateral pedicle screws with S2-alar-iliac (S2AI) fixation while in the lateral position.
Methods: A cadaveric study was performed using 12 human specimens.
Comprehensive data on transmission mitigation behaviors and both SARS-CoV-2 infection and serostatus are needed from large, community-based cohorts to identify COVID-19 risk factors and the impact of public health measures. We conducted a longitudinal, population-based study in the East Bay Area of Northern California. From July 2020-March 2021, approximately 5,500 adults were recruited and followed over three data collection rounds to investigate the association between geographic and demographic characteristics and transmission mitigation behavior with SARS-CoV-2 prevalence.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDisaster Med Public Health Prep
March 2023
Objective: This innovation in simulation evaluated the effectiveness of a time sensible, low-cost simulation on prelicensure nursing students' knowledge and confidence in responding to public health emergencies.
Method: One hundred eighty-two nursing students, in groups of 5, participated in a 75-min emergency preparedness disaster simulation. A mixed methods design was used to evaluate students' knowledge and confidence in disaster preparedness, and satisfaction with the simulation.
Exosomes comprise a subtype of extracellular vesicles involved in cell-to-cell communication, specifically by transporting biological molecules, such as proteins and nucleic acids, to either local or more distant recipient cells, thus triggering distinct biological behaviors. Included in the exosome cargo is frequently a wide range of proteolytic enzymes, such as the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs), the disintegrin and metalloproteinases (ADAMs), and the ADAM with thrombospondin-like motifs (ADAMTSs), whose functions contribute to the development and progression of cancer. In recent years, extensive research on the potential use of exosomes in diagnostic and therapeutic applications for personalized medicine has emerged, but the targeting of the proteolytic cargo of exosomes has not been fully exploited in this direction.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Learn the Signs. Act Early. program, funded the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) to convene an expert working group to revise its developmental surveillance checklists.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep
January 2021
CDC continually evaluates its Emergency Management Program (EMP) activities, including Incident Management System (IMS) activations, use of EMP functions (referred to as EMP utilizations), and exercises, to ensure that the agency is ready to respond to infectious disease outbreaks, disasters (human-made or natural), and security events. Such evaluation not only documents baseline preparedness and response activities during a selected analytical period, but also highlights significant EMP actions that can guide and inform future emergency operations. To characterize EMP activities that occurred during January 1, 2013-December 31, 2018, CDC conducted a retrospective analysis of operational activity logs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlobally, liver cancer is the sixth most common cause of cancer mortality, with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) being the most common type of primary liver cancer. Emerging evidence states that diet is recognised as a potential lifestyle-related risk factor for the development of HCC. The aim of this systematic review is to determine whether there is an association between diet and the development of HCC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWithin a medical home, primary care providers can identify needs, provide services, and coordinate care for children with heart conditions. Using parent-reported data from the 2016-2017 National Survey of Children's Health, we examined receipt of preventive care in the last 12 months and having a medical home (care that is accessible, continuous, comprehensive, family-centred, coordinated, compassionate, and culturally effective) among US children aged 0-17 years with and without heart conditions. Using the marginal predictions approach to multivariable logistic regression, we examined associations between presence of a heart condition and receipt of preventive care and having a medical home.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs interest increases in harnessing the potential power of tissue-resident cells for human health and disease, γδ T cells have been thrust into the limelight due to their prevalence in peripheral tissues, their sentinel-like phenotypes, and their unique antigen recognition capabilities. This review focuses primarily on human γδ T cells, highlighting their distinctive characteristics including antigen recognition, function, and development, with an emphasis on where they differ from their αβ T cell comparators, as well as from γδ T cell populations in the mouse. We review the antigens that have been identified thus far to regulate members of the human Vδ1 population and discuss what players are involved in transducing phosphoantigen-mediated signals to human Vγ9Vδ2 T cells.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo report our experience of angioplasty with Lutonix (Bard Peripheral Vascular, Inc., Tempe, AZ) drug-coated balloon (DCB) for the treatment of failing arteriovenous fistulas (AVF). Retrospective, single-center analysis consisting of 14 patients treated with Lutonix paclitaxel DCBs in the period from July 2015 through April 2017.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PPCI) is the preferred therapy for patients presenting with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). We reviewed patients undergoing PCI for STEMI over a 6-year period to evaluate changes in procedural characteristics and clinical outcomes given recent changes to STEMI guidelines.
Methods: All patients presenting to the Alfred Hospital, a tertiary referral hospital, between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2015 undergoing PCI for STEMI were identified.
We describe a technique that uses both posterior-anterior and caudal fluoroscopy to achieve venous access for pacemaker device implantation. A significant advantage of this technique is the ability to clearly demarcate both the anatomy of venous drainage and the lung border. We would encourage all centres to adopt this technique as a safe approach to venous access.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGlucocorticoids promote lipolysis in white adipose tissue (WAT) to adapt to energy demands under stress, whereas superfluous lipolysis causes metabolic disorders, including dyslipidemia and hepatic steatosis. Glucocorticoid-induced lipolysis requires the phosphorylation of cytosolic hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL) and perilipin 1 (Plin1) in the lipid droplet by protein kinase A (PKA). We previously identified Pik3r1 (also called ) as a glucocorticoid receptor target gene.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: High-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (hs-cTnI) assays show sex-dependent differences in the 99th percentile of healthy populations, with concentrations in women approximately 50% lower. The adoption of sex-specific cutoffs seems appropriate, although it is not yet clear what effect these will have on acute myocardial infarction (AMI) diagnosis and management.
Methods: We conducted a retrospective pre- and postchangeover analysis of troponin I testing in the 6 months before and after moving from the contemporary Abbott Architect TnI assay (cTnI) to hs-cTnI at 2 tertiary centers in Australia and New Zealand.
The association between sex hormones and sex hormone binding globin (SHBG) with vertebral fractures in men is not well studied. In these analyses, we determined whether sex hormones and SHBG were associated with greater likelihood of vertebral fractures in a prospective cohort study of community dwelling older men. We included data from participants in MrOS who had been randomly selected for hormone measurement (N=1463, including 1054 with follow-up data 4.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNearly 50 years ago, the Surgeon General of the US Public Health Service released the first report of the Surgeon General's Advisory Committee on Smoking and Health. The report concluded that cigarette smoking caused lung and laryngeal cancer as well as bronchitis. Today, smoking is one of the leading preventable causes of deaths in the United States.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnviron Technol
March 2014
Biogas production from municipal anaerobic digesters could potentially be boosted via co-digestion with organic wastes such as whey. The challenge is that whey production is seasonal. This research examined the effect of storing whey at ambient temperature on: (1) whey composition; (2) biogas production from co-digestion of the stored whey with municipal primary sludge.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIncreasing biogas production from municipal anaerobic digesters via additional loading with industrial/agricultural wastes offers a low-cost, sustainable energy generation option of significant untapped potential. In this work, bench-top reactors were used to mimic a full-scale primary sludge digester operating at an organic loading rate (OLR) of 2.4 kg COD/m3 d and a 20 d hydraulic retention time (HRT).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe city of Palmerston North, New Zealand, has two aerated lagoons as its secondary treatment facility. Interest about treatment efficiency led to an investigation into the hydraulics in the second lagoon to determine if further optimisation was viable. A tracer study using rhodamine WT was undertaken to ascertain the stimulus response output.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The purpose of this study was to compare electrically induced contraction levels produced by three patterns of alternating current in fatigued and nonfatigued skeletal muscles.
Design: Eighteen male volunteers without health conditions, with a mean (SD) age of 24.9 (3.