Application of Machine Learning Techniques to Examine Social Service Needs Among Hispanic Family Caregivers of Persons with Dementia.

We applied machine learning algorithms to examine the relationship between demographics and outcomes of the social work services used by Hispanic family caregivers of persons with dementia recruited for a clinical trial in New York City. The social work service needs were largely concentrated on instrumental support to gain access to the healthcare system rather than other concrete services (e.g.

Barbed reposition pharyngoplasty (BRP) in obstructive sleep apnea treatment: State of the art.

Purpose: In this paper, we perform a systematic review that discusses the state of the art and evolution on the barbed reposition pharyngoplasty (BRP) in the velo-pharyngeal surgery. Clinical evidence and published outcomes of this surgical technique are reported and discussed.

Materials And Methods: We performed a systematic review of the current literature through the analysis of the last 10 years of literature on barbed palate surgery.

Translating the REACH OUT dementia caregiver intervention into a primary care setting: a pilot study.

Objective: The current study translated the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health: Offering Useful Treatments (REACH OUT), a skills-building stress and burden intervention, for the primary care setting and pilot the resulting intervention.

Methods: The 16-week intervention consisted of a combination of clinic-based group and one-on-one sessions offered within a medical home, geriatrics clinic. A quasi-experimental pre- and post-test study design without a control group tested the resulting intervention.

Pre-operative imaging workup for surgical intervention in primary hyperparathyroidism: A tertiary referral center experience.

Purpose: Preoperative imaging in patients with primary hyperparathyroidism provides important localization information, allowing the surgeon to perform a focused surgery. However there are no evidence-based guidelines suggesting which preoperative imaging should be used, resulting in a risk of excessive prescription of exams and waste of economic resources. The main purpose of this study was to describe our experience on the performance of various imaging techniques for the preoperative localization of abnormal parathyroid gland/s, with a focus on the sensitivity and specificity of each technique.

Clinical features and management of Luc's abscess: Case report and systematic review of the literature.

Objectives: Luc's abscess is a rare complication of acute otitis media, with a challenging diagnosis and a controversial surgical treatment. The aim of the present study was to review the published literature in order to clarify the clinical features and the surgical management of those patients.

Methods: A systematic review of the literature was carried out for published reports or case series in English language, describing a temporo-zygomatic (or Luc's) abscess which complicated an acute or chronic otitis media and/or mastoiditis, confirmed through CT scan or MRI of the petrous bone.

Parathyroid Tissue Cryopreservation: Does the Storage Time Affect Viability and Functionality?

Parathyroidectomy is a standard practice to treat recurrent or persistent hyperparathyroidism. However, this can lead to the onset of hypoparathyroidism, treatable with the autotransplantation of parathyroid tissue (PT). Tissue can be transplanted immediately after parathyroidectomy or cryopreserved and transplanted only in case of necessity.

Real-world insights on the management of migraine patients: an Italian nationwide study.

Understanding migraine management using data from a sample of patients representative of the Italian general adult population. Retrospective analysis on IQVIA Italian Longitudinal Patient Database. Two cohorts were created.

Intraoperative intermittent neuromonitoring of inferior laryngeal nerve and staged thyroidectomy: our experience.

Purpose: To evaluate the reliability of intermittent intraoperative neuromonitoring (I-IONM) through recurrent laryngeal nerve (RLN) stimulation and laryngeal palpation in predicting postoperative vocal cord palsy and to examine the reliability of this technique in providing useful information in the decision to perform a staged surgery in initially planned total thyroidectomy.

Methods: This was a retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent thyroid surgery at the ENT Department of the University of Bologna from January 2014 to June 2017. In all cases, preoperative and postoperative laryngoscopy was performed.

Comparative Effectiveness of 2 Interventions for Hispanic Caregivers of Persons with Dementia.

Objectives: To compare the effectiveness of 2 caregiver interventions with known efficacy: the Resources for Enhancing Caregiver Health-Offering Useful Treatment (REACH-OUT) and the New York University Caregiver Intervention (NYUCI).

Design: 1:1 randomized pragmatic trial.

Setting: New York City.

Effect of early correction of nasal septal deformity in unilateral cleft lip and palate on inferior turbinate hypertrophy and nasal patency.

Objectives: A relatively neglected aspect of cleft lip nasal deformity is the effect of septal deviation and inferior turbinate hypertrophy (ITH) on the functional airway. In particular, ITH in the noncleft side can be especially problematic, because it reduces the healthy nasal area, creating bilateral nasal obstruction that might affect the growth of the maxillofacial skeleton. Although these anatomic and functional changes are documented, few recommendations have been developed regarding the proper approach to ITH.

Racial and ethnic differences in psychotropic medication use among community-dwelling persons with dementia in the United States.

Objectives: Little is known about the patterns of psychotropic medication use in community-dwelling minority persons with dementia (PWD). The purpose of this study was to investigate racial/ethnic differences in psychotropic medication use across a diverse population of community-dwelling PWD and to examine the extent to which caregiver characteristics influence this use.

Method: Data were drawn from the baseline assessment of the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Health II trial.

18F-FDG PET/CT scan confirmed by pathology findings in a singular case of squamous cell carcinoma of the epiglottis.

Background: Only about 1% of all head and neck lateral or paramedian cancers described in the scientific literature shows, in staging, contralateral cervical adenopathy without ipsilateral pathological involvement of lymph nodes.

Case Presentation: This case is one of them, in which 18F-FDG PET/CT scan is confirmed by pathology findings, and has correctly identified all metastatic disease foci.

Conclusions: To date, PET/CT is not recommended in head and neck cancer staging.

Northern Manhattan Hispanic Caregiver Intervention Effectiveness Study: protocol of a pragmatic randomised trial comparing the effectiveness of two established interventions for informal caregivers of persons with dementia.

Introduction: The prevalence of dementia is increasing without a known cure, resulting in an increasing number of informal caregivers. Caring for a person with dementia results in increased stress and depressive symptoms. There are several behavioural interventions designed to alleviate stress and depressive symptoms in caregivers of persons with dementia with evidence of efficacy.

Caregiver and care recipient characteristics as predictors of psychotropic medication use in community-dwelling dementia patients.

Objectives: The current practice of prescribing psychotropic medication for the management of dementia-related behavioral disturbances is under substantial debate. Using Pearlin's stress process model as theoretical underpinning, the aim of this investigation is to identify caregiver and care recipient characteristics as predictors of anxiolytic, antipsychotic, and antidepressant use among community-dwelling dementia patients. We hypothesized that caregiving burden and patient characteristics, particularly behavior disturbances and pain, would be positively associated with psychotropic medication use.

Report on milestones for care and support under the U.S. National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease.

Introduction: Under the U.S. national Alzheimer's plan, the National Institutes of Health identified milestones required to meet the plan's biomedical research goal (Goal 1).

Clinical outcomes in octogenarians treated with docetaxel as first-line chemotherapy for castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Aim: To assess clinical outcomes in octogenarians treated with docetaxel (DOC) for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer.

Patients & Methods: The multicenter retrospective study was based on a review of the pre- and post-DOC clinical history, DOC treatment and outcomes.

Results: We reviewed the records of 123 patients (median age: 82 years) who received DOC every 3 weeks or weekly, without significant grade 3-4 toxicities.

"It Was Very Rewarding for Me …": Senior Volunteers' Experiences With Implementing a Reminiscence and Creative Activity Intervention.

Purpose Of The Study: To describe the experience of recruiting, training, and retaining retired senior volunteers (RSVs) as interventionists delivering a successful reminiscence and creative activity intervention to community-dwelling palliative care patients and their caregivers.

Design And Methods: A community-based participatory research framework involved Senior Corps RSV programs. Recruitment meetings and feedback groups yielded interested volunteers, who were trained in a 4-hr session using role plays and real-time feedback.

Can senior volunteers deliver reminiscence and creative activity interventions? Results of the legacy intervention family enactment randomized controlled trial.

Context: Palliative care patients and their family caregivers may have a foreshortened perspective of the time left to live, or the expectation of the patient's death in the near future. Patients and caregivers may report distress in physical, psychological, or existential/spiritual realms.

Objectives: To conduct a randomized controlled trial examining the effectiveness of retired senior volunteers (RSVs) in delivering a reminiscence and creative activity intervention aimed at alleviating palliative care patient and caregiver distress.

Preserving Identity and Planning for Advance Care (PIPAC): preliminary outcomes from a patient-centered intervention for individuals with mild dementia.

Objectives: The purpose of this pilot study was to conduct limited-efficacy testing of the newly developed Preserving Identity and Planning for Advance Care (PIPAC) intervention on self-reported and proxy-reported emotional and health-related outcomes of individuals in the early stages of dementia.

Method: A two-group comparison design was implemented. Blocked randomization was used to assign individuals with mild dementia and a family contact to either (1) the four-session, multi-component intervention group focused on reminiscence and future planning or (2) the minimal support phone contact comparison group.

Predicting desire for institutional placement among racially diverse dementia family caregivers: the role of quality of care.

Purpose: Literature on institutionalization of patients with dementia has not considered the role of caregivers' quality of care, which encompasses caregivers' exemplary care (EC) behaviors and caregivers' potentially harmful behaviors (PHBs) toward care recipients. This study sought to understand the role of quality of care in mediating between caregiving stressors and caregiver desire to institutionalize (DTI) a patient with dementia.

Design And Methods: A sample of 612 family caregivers from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds was drawn from the baseline data of the Resources for Enhancing Alzheimer's Caregiver Heath (REACH II) project.

Raman spectroscopy analysis of pigments on 16-17th c. Persian manuscripts.

The palette of four Persian manuscripts of the 16th and 17th centuries were established by Raman microscopy to include lazurite, red lead, vermilion, orpiment, a carbon-based black, lead white, malachite, haematite, indigo, carmine and pararealgar. The first five pigments were identified on all four manuscripts, as previously found for other Islamic manuscripts of this period. The findings were compared with information available in treatises on Persian painting techniques.