Publications by authors named "Calvin A"

BACKGROUND The bacterial organism Capnocytophaga canimorsus is an oral commensal of cats and dogs and can cause life-threatening infections like mycotic aneurysm, meningitis, and sepsis. Mycotic aneurysms occur when microbial infections cause arterial wall degeneration. Difficulty in diagnosing Capnocytophaga canimorsus infection can occur due to the bacteria's fastidious nature and laboratory testing limitations, contributing to the infection's high morbidity and mortality.

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Background: The long-term neuro-ophthalmic outcomes after carotid intervention in patients presenting with preoperative visual symptoms vary widely based on the underlying etiology of retinal ischemia and are not well understood.

Methods: We performed a retrospective review of consecutive patients presenting with retinal ischemia who subsequently underwent carotid intervention from January 2018 to December 2022. Patients were classified into three groups (group I: amaurosis fugax/vascular transient monocular vision loss, group II: ocular ischemic syndrome [OIS], and group III: central/branch retinal artery occlusion).

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Acute thrombosis of the aorta is an uncommon, but potentially devastating, vascular emergency. The absence of pathognomonic signs or symptoms makes the diagnosis challenging and, often, time consuming. No optimal treatment has been established, with greater challenge present when the thrombus involves the mesenteric-renal vessels.

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  • Rural community practices in the U.S. are increasingly involved in medical education and are encouraged to give academic appointments to non-academic physicians.
  • A formal education committee was established in a rural regional practice to facilitate the adoption of academic ranks through various administrative changes over three years.
  • As a result, the percentage of physicians with academic rank rose significantly from 41.1% to 92.8%, demonstrating that process changes can effectively enhance academic appointments, improve educational programs, and boost physician satisfaction and retention.
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  • Acoustic shadowing can interfere with Doppler assessments in prosthetic heart valves (PHVs), which might hide issues like mitral regurgitation (MR).
  • Spectral Doppler is a key technique for identifying prosthetic mitral regurgitation.
  • Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) can enhance the evaluation when transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is limited, helping to reduce interference from acoustic shadowing and reverberations.
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  • Ocular ischemic syndrome (OIS) is a rare but serious condition linked to carotid artery blockage, leading to potential permanent vision loss and requiring early multidisciplinary treatment for better outcomes.
  • A review of 33 studies involving 479 patients found that most patients experienced improved or stable vision after interventions like carotid endarterectomy (CEA) and carotid artery stenting (CAS), with very few complications reported.
  • The research emphasizes the need for increased awareness and early diagnosis of OIS to enhance treatment effectiveness, suggesting a collaborative approach between vascular and eye specialists to improve patient outcomes.
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Giant cell arteritis is an autoimmune disease that affects large and medium blood vessels of the head and neck. Its prompt treatment is mandatory to avoid severe and permanent complications, such as blindness. Temporal artery biopsy is an important part of the diagnostic work-up, especially in those patients with cranial symptoms or in the elderly with a fever of unknown origin.

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Background: Digital health studies using electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePROs) and wearables bring new challenges, including the need for participants to consistently provide trial data.

Objective: This study aims to characterize the engagement, protocol adherence, and data completeness among participants with rheumatoid arthritis enrolled in the Digital Tracking of Arthritis Longitudinally (DIGITAL) study.

Methods: Participants were invited to participate in this app-based study, which included a 14-day run-in and an 84-day main study.

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Background: Amiodarone is the most effective and commonly used antiarrhythmic medication. Given its risk of toxicity, routine monitoring is recommended but is challenging to ensure in clinical practice.

Methods: We created an intelligent application, built within our electronic health record, that identified every living patient with an active outpatient prescription by a clinician in our health system.

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  • A 37-year-old woman with undiagnosed Marfan syndrome presented with acute aortic dissection at 39 weeks of pregnancy, highlighting the risks associated with the condition during pregnancy.
  • Initial tests didn’t reveal the problem, but deterioration led to an emergency cesarean section and aortic repair, followed by complications that required further surgery.
  • Genetic testing confirmed the diagnosis of Marfan syndrome, emphasizing the need for multidisciplinary management in similar high-risk cases during pregnancy.
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We report on an ion trapping system for performing a novel form of cryogenic messenger spectroscopy with single molecule sensitivity. The system features a cryogenic radio-frequency ion trap loaded with single analyte molecules via a quadrupole mass filter. We demonstrate the ability to controllably attach inert gas particles to buffer gas cooled, trapped molecular ions.

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Spectroscopy is a key analytical tool that provides valuable insight into molecular structure and is widely used to identify chemical samples. Tagging spectroscopy is a form of action spectroscopy in which the absorption of a single photon by a molecular ion is detected via the loss of a weakly attached, inert 'tag' particle (for example, He, Ne, N). The absorption spectrum is derived from the tag loss rate as a function of incident radiation frequency.

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Lyme carditis is a serious complication of Lyme disease, the most common vector-borne infection in both the United States and Northern Europe. It is a rare manifestation of Lyme disease that primarily affects young adults with a marked 3:1 male-to-female predominance. The presentation of Lyme carditis is heterogenous and often non-specific, although the most common clinical manifestation is AV block, which can be acute in onset and can rapidly progress to complete heart block.

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Myopericarditis is a rare complication of influenza infection. The presentation may range from mild and frequently unrecognized, to fulminant and potentially complicated by cardiogenic and/or obstructive shock (tamponade), which is associated with high mortality. We performed a review of literature on all influenza pericarditis and myopericarditis cases according to PRISMA guidelines using the PubMed search engine of the Medline database.

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In the expanding era of antibiotic resistance, new strains of have emerged which possess resistance to traditionally used antibiotics (MRSA). Our review aimed to systematically synthesize information on previously described MRSA pericarditis cases. The only criterion for inclusion was the isolation of MRSA from the pericardial space.

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Background: Although the consequences of sleep deficiency for obesity risk are increasingly apparent, experimental evidence is limited and there are no studies on body fat distribution.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of experimentally-induced sleep curtailment in the setting of free access to food on energy intake, energy expenditure, and regional body composition.

Methods: Twelve healthy, nonobese individuals (9 males, age range 19 to 39 years) completed a randomized, controlled, crossover, 21-day inpatient study comprising 4 days of acclimation, 14 days of experimental sleep restriction (4 hour sleep opportunity) or control sleep (9 hour sleep opportunity), and a 3-day recovery segment.

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Cardiac involvement in drug reaction with eosinophilia and systemic symptoms (DS) is rare but associated with high mortality. The aim of this research was to systematically review case reports by PRISMA guidelines in order to synthetize the knowledge of cardiac manifestations of DS. We identified 42 cases from 36 case reports.

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Ambulatory overnight oximetry (OXI) has emerged as a cost-effective initial test for sleep disordered breathing. Obesity is closely associated with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA); however, whether body mass index (BMI) or waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) predicts abnormal overnight OXI remains unknown. We performed a retrospective cross-sectional study of 393 men seen in the Executive Health Program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota who underwent ambulatory overnight OXI ordered by preventive medicine physicians between January 1, 2004 through December 31, 2010.

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A pioneering surgeon at the University of Minnesota, Dr C. Walton Lillehei, is still considered the "father of open-heart surgery". Dr Lillehei and his surgical team performed the first open-heart operations utilizing cross-circulation, including the first successful ventricular septal defect closure on a 3-year-old boy.

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Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a condition with symptoms that vary over time. The typical 3- to 6-month interval between physician visits may lead to patients failing to recall or underreporting symptoms experienced during the interim. Wearable digital technology enables the regular passive collection of patients' biometric and activity data.

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In this Perspective, we examine the use of laser-cooled atomic ions and sympathetically cooled molecular ions in Coulomb crystals for molecular spectroscopy. Coulomb crystals are well-isolated environments that provide localization and long storage times for sensitive measurements of weak signals and cold temperatures for precise spectroscopy. Coulomb crystals of molecular and atomic ions enable the detection of single-photon molecular ion transitions at a range of wavelengths by a change in atomic ion fluorescence at visible wavelengths.

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