Improving Healthcare Professionals' Access to Addiction Medicine Education Through VHA Addiction Scholars Program.

Introduction: The seemingly inexorable rise of opioid-related overdose deaths despite the reduced number of COVID-19 pandemic deaths demands novel responses and partnerships in our public health system's response. Addiction medicine is practiced in a broad range of siloed clinical environments that need to be included in addiction medicine training beyond the traditional fellowship programs. Our objective in this project was to implement a knowledge-based, live virtual training program that would provide clinicians and other healthcare professionals with an overview of addiction, substance use disorders (SUD), and clinical diagnosis and management of opioid use disorder (OUD).

Barriers and facilitators to implementing medications for opioid use disorder and naloxone distribution in Veterans Affairs emergency departments.

Objectives: Safer opioid prescribing patterns, naloxone distribution, and medications for opioid use disorder (M-OUD) are an important part of decreasing opioid-related adverse events. Veterans are more likely to experience these adverse events compared to the general population. Despite treatment guidelines and ED-based opioid safety programs implemented throughout Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Centers, many Veterans with OUD do not receive these harm reduction interventions.

Provider Perceptions of Opioid Safety Measures in VHA Emergency Departments and Urgent Care Centers.

Background: A priority for Veterans Health Administration (VHA) leadership is increasing access to lifesaving treatment, particularly naloxone distribution and medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder (OUD) for veterans. To date, these practices are not widely done in the VHA emergency departments (ED) and urgent care centers (UCC).

Methods: The goal of this research was to understand advanced care provider perceptions of barriers and facilitators to naloxone distribution or MAT initiation in VHA ED/UCCs.

Retained gallstones: an elusive complication of laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

A young, healthy woman presented to the emergency department multiple times with right upper quadrant pain and subjective fevers for over a year after her laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The patient required multiple hospital visits and extensive work-ups before finally being diagnosed with retained gallstones in her abdomen. After surgical removal of the stones, her symptoms resolved completely.

Clinical effects from household insecticide: pyrethroid or organophosphate toxicity?

A 54-year-old man with a history of schizophrenia presented to the emergency room for weakness with associated lacrimosis, drooling, nausea, emesis, diarrhoea, diplopia and burning sensation on his skin that began 6 hours after spraying five cans of Raid on his carpet. He was noted to have miotic pupils and hyperactive bowel sounds. Given the clinical presentation, the patient was diagnosed with organophosphate (OP) toxicity.

Genetic diversity of Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus from cattle in Chile between 2003 and 2007.

Background: Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus causes significant economic losses in cattle. BVDV has high genomic diversity, with two species, BVDV-1 and BVDV-2, and at least twenty-one subgenotypes for BVDV-1 and four subgenotypes for BVDV-2. Vaccines are important tools to reduce the economic losses caused by this virus.

Genotypic characterization of Chilean llama (Lama glama) and alpaca (Vicugna pacos) pestivirus isolates.

Llamas and alpacas are domesticated South American camelids (SACs) important to ancestral population in the Altiplano region, and to different communities worldwide where they have been introduced. These ungulates have shown to be susceptible to several livestock viral pathogens such as members of the Pestivirus genus, in particular Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVDV), but there is little data available on Pestivirus infections in SACs. In this study we aimed to detect and identify Pestivirus genotypes and subgroups infecting SACs in both wild and confined environments.

Antigenic variability in bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) isolates from alpaca (Vicugna pacos), llama (Lama glama) and bovines in Chile.

Llamas and alpacas are domesticated South American camelids (SACs) important to ancestral population in the Altiplano region, and to different communities where they have been introduced worldwide. These ungulates have shown to be susceptible to several livestock viral pathogens such as members of the Pestivirus genus and mainly to bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV). Seventeen Chilean BVDV isolates were analyzed by serum cross neutralization with samples obtained from five llama, six alpacas, three bovines, plus three reference strains belonging to different subgroups and genotypes.

Heritability of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Background & Aims: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease in the United States. The etiology is believed to be multifactorial with a substantial genetic component; however, the heritability of NAFLD is undetermined. Therefore, a familial aggregation study was performed to test the hypothesis that NAFLD is highly heritable.

Isolation and characterization of the equine influenza virus causing the 2006 outbreak in Chile.

The equine influenza virus is the causal agent of influenza in horses. In July 2006, horses from various regions of Chile presented fever, serious nasal discharge, dry cough, anorexia and depression. Here we describe the isolation and characterization of the virus responsible for this outbreak.

Molecular characterization of pestiviruses isolated from bovines in Chile.

Thirty-three pestiviruses isolated from bovines on different farms in Chile were characterized at the molecular level. The 5'-untranslated region (5'UTR) of the isolates was amplified by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and subsequently digested with restriction enzymes (RE) Bgl I, Xho I and Pst I. Furthermore, the isolates were amplified by differential RT-PCR, which selectively amplified bovine viral diarrhea virus type 2 (BVDV-2) but not bovine viral diarrhea virus type 1 (BVDV-1).

A comparison of restrictive endonuclease sites of bovine herpesvirus type 1 isolates in Chile.

The Frutillar 82, F nasal 90, F vaginal 90, Puente Alto 77, VMLB 79, and Bio Bio 92 isolates of bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV-1) from Chile were analysed by Eco RI, Bam HI and Hind III restriction enzymes (RE). The Los Angeles (LA) strain was used as reference. The results indicated that the fingerprints of F nasal 90 and F vaginal 90 were identical to the three RE used, but they were different from the other isolates.