Improving Completion Rates of Transcranial Doppler Ultrasounds in Children With Sickle Cell Disease Using Quality Improvement Efforts: In-Clinic versus Population-Based Assessments.

Transcranial Doppler (TCD) screening is essential for stroke prevention in children with sickle cell disease (SCD), but screening rates are low nationally. We use Medicaid administrative claims to assess TCD completion rates before and after a 12-month QI initiative to improve rates in the Pacific Sickle Cell Regional Collaborative (PSCRC). We found an increase in TCD screening rates for QI participant sites (52.

Association of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome with Endothelial Health, Cardiovascular Risk, and Cellular Aging.

Objective: To study measures of endothelial health, cardiovascular risk, and cellular aging between PCOS patients and a reproductive age normative cohort.

Design: Cross-sectional study.

Subjects: Community-based PCOS patients and a normative ovarian aging cohort as controls, aged 45 or younger at the time of evaluation.

Multilevel intervention for follow-up of abnormal FIT in the safety-net: IMProving Adherence to Colonoscopy through Teams and Technology (IMPACTT).

Background: Fecal immunochemical testing (FIT) is a widely used first step for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. Abnormal FIT results require a colonoscopy for screening completion and CRC diagnosis, but the rate of timely colonoscopy is low, especially among patients in safety-net settings. Multi-level factors at the clinic- and patient-levels influence colonoscopy completion after an abnormal FIT.

Extracellular vimentin amplifies inflammation: Perspectives for immune injury and therapeutics for periodontitis.

Periodontitis is an inflammatory disease triggered by microbial biofilms that promote immune dysfunction and tissue destruction of tooth-supporting tissues. The search for soluble mediators that amplify inflammatory responses and matrix degradation in periodontal tissues has implicated extracellular vimentin (ECV) as a signaling ligand and damage-associated molecular pattern in the pathogenesis of periodontitis. Intracellular vimentin filaments are essential for the structural integrity of cells and the preservation of matrix homeostasis.