Community-driven partnerships with Community-Engaged Research teams bring resources and reliable information to Baltimore residents.

This case study presents an analysis of community-driven partnerships, focusing on the nonprofit Baltimore CONNECT (BC) network and its collaborative efforts with a Community-Engaged Research (CEnR) team of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR). BC has built a network of over 30 community-based organizations to provide health and social services in Baltimore City. The study emphasizes the role of CEnR in supporting community-led decision-making, specifically in the planning and implementation of community health resource fairs.

Antenatal care and adherence to intermittent preventive treatment for malaria during pregnancy with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine in Gambia: an examination of Demographic and Health Survey data 2019-2020.

Background: Malaria during pregnancy is a major contributor to maternal and infant morbidity and mortality in Gambia. The World Health Organization recommends that women adhere to intermittent preventive treatment with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP-IPTp) provided through antenatal care (ANC) to prevent adverse outcomes. The aim of this study was to examine predictors of SP-IPTp adherence among women in Gambia.

Relapse May Serve as a Mediator Variable in Longitudinal Outcomes in Multiple Sclerosis.

Background/purpose: Contrast-enhancing lesions (CEL) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are believed to represent inflammatory disease activity in multiple sclerosis (MS), but their relationship to subsequent long-term disability and progression is unclear, particularly at longer time periods such as 8-10 years.

Methods: Between 1989 and 1994, 111 MS patients were seen at the National Institutes of Health for clinical evaluations and 3 monthly contrast-enhanced MRI scans. Of these, 94 patients were re-evaluated a mean of 8 years later (range 6.

Relationship between inflammatory lesions and cerebral atrophy in multiple sclerosis.

Objective: To investigate the temporal relationship between inflammation and cerebral atrophy in a longitudinal study of 19 patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) using serial monthly contrast enhanced MRI examinations and monthly measurements of brain fractional volume (BFV) for an average of 4 (range 2.4 to 10) years.

Methods: In this retrospective study, all patients had an active MRI scan at entry with a minimum of two new contrast enhancing lesions (CEL) on baseline MRI examinations.

MRI as a marker for disease heterogeneity in multiple sclerosis.

Background: Whereas recent data from imaging studies challenge the prevailing notion that multiple sclerosis (MS) is purely an inflammatory disease, pathologic studies suggest differences in the disease processes between individual patients with MS. The ability to dissect the pathophysiologic disease heterogeneity, if it indeed exists, by methodologies that can be applied in vivo is important both for the development of new therapeutics and for the ability to identify the optimal therapy for an individual patient.

Objective: To design a stratification algorithm for patients with MS based on accepted MRI measurements reflective of inflammation and axonal damage/tissue loss and to assess if such MS subgroups retain their intergroup differences long term.