Publications by authors named "Chacko K"

Article Synopsis
  • An immigrant woman in her 60s presented with abdominal pain, bloating, early satiety, and weight loss, leading to a complex series of medical evaluations.
  • Diagnostic tests revealed non-caseating granulomatous endometritis in her thickened endometrial tissue, but cultures were initially negative for TB.
  • After finding urine mycobacterial cultures positive for pansusceptible MTB, she was treated with a combination of antibiotics, resulting in significant improvement in her symptoms.
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Poor metabolic health and obesity have significant impacts on the outcomes of patients suffering from chronic liver disease, particularly those with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease. Patients with such comorbidities who require liver transplant evaluation for advancing liver disease or liver failure require special consideration due to increased risk of cardiovascular disease, renal dysfunction, sarcopenic obesity, and cancer. Those who have had a history of prior bariatric surgery pose specific anatomical constraints and may also be at increased risk of alcohol use disorder.

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Background: Although primary care is associated with population health benefits, the supply of primary care physicians continues to decline. Internal medicine (IM) primary care residency programs have produced graduates that pursue primary care; however, it is uncertain what characteristics and training factors most affect primary care career choice.

Objective: To assess factors that influenced IM primary care residents to pursue a career in primary care versus a non-primary care career.

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Purpose: To determine the incidence of newly diagnosed liver disorders (LD) up to 3.5-year post-acute COVID-19, and risk factors associated with new LD.

Methods: We analyzed 54,699 COVID-19 patients and 1,409,547 non-COVID-19 controls from March-11-2020 to Jan-03-2023.

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Article Synopsis
  • Cathepsin B (CtsB) is a protease linked to various health conditions and its absence in mice was examined to understand diabetic kidney disease induced by streptozotocin (STZ).
  • Analysis of urinary extracellular vesicles (uEVs) revealed specific bioactive lipids associated with oxidative stress and renal cell death in CtsB knockout mice treated with STZ.
  • Findings indicate that STZ treatment activates antioxidant responses in the kidneys but primarily leads to apoptosis (programmed cell death) rather than ferroptosis, highlighting key mechanisms in diabetic kidney disease development.
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Background And Aims: Alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH) poses significant short-term mortality. Existing prognostic models lack precision for 90-day mortality. Utilizing artificial intelligence in a global cohort, we sought to derive and validate an enhanced prognostic model.

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Importance: Burnout is a work-related syndrome of depersonalization (DP), emotional exhaustion (EE), and low personal achievement (PA) that is prevalent among internal medicine resident trainees. Prior interventions have had modest effects on resident burnout. The association of a new 4 + 4 block schedule (4 inpatient weeks plus 4 outpatient weeks) with resident burnout has not previously been evaluated.

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Objective: Hypertension exacerbates the progression and severity of diabetic kidney disease. In this study, we addressed the hypothesis that tempol acts at multiple segments of the nephron to normalize the abundance of sodium coupled epithelial transport proteins in the luminal plasma membrane to mitigate high blood pressure in salt-loaded hypertensive diabetic db/db mice.

Methods: Soluble and membrane fractions from freshly homogenized kidney cortex tissue samples were resolved by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) and probed for specific proteins by Western blotting.

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Background & Aims: Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) score better predicts mortality in alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH) but could underestimate severity in women and malnourished patients. Using a global cohort, we assessed the ability of the MELD 3.0 score to predict short-term mortality in AH.

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Background and objective Temporal processing abilities help perceive signal changes over time. Efficient temporal processing is necessary for pitch perception, voice identification, and speech perception. It plays a significant role in language development.

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This case-control study of 25 cases with methicillin-resistant (MRSA) bacteremia with vancomycin minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) ≥ 2 µg/mL and 391 controls (MIC < 2 µg/mL) characterized the clinical characteristics, treatments, and outcomes associated with elevated vancomycin MIC. Elevated vancomycin MIC was associated with baseline hemodialysis, prior MRSA colonization, and metastatic infection.

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Aim: To assess the role of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (GCSF) in the patients with severe alcoholic hepatitis (SAH) using real world experience in the United States.

Background: There are few effective treatments for severe alcoholic hepatitis, which has a significant fatality rate. GCSF has been associated with improved survival in a small number of Indian studies, while there is a dearth of information from other parts of the globe.

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Diabetic nephropathy is the primary cause of morbidity in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) patients. New data indicate that hypertension, a common comorbidity in T2DM, can worsen outcomes of diabetic nephropathy. While metformin is a commonly prescribed drug for treating type 2 diabetes, its blood pressure regulating ability is not well documented.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The research investigated the lipid profiles of urinary EVs from aged mice in both inactive and active phases and found differences, particularly an increase in specific lipids in active phase EVs.
  • * An ENaC inhibitor reduced blood pressure in aged male mice, and active-phase uEVs enhanced specific cellular responses indicating a relationship between lipid raft organization and blood pressure regulation in aging.
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Synucleinopathies represent a diverse set of pathologies with significant morbidity and mortality. In this review, we highlight the surgical management of three synucleinopathies: Parkinson's disease (PD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), and multiple system atrophy (MSA). After examining underlying molecular mechanisms and the medical management of these diseases, we explore the role of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the treatment of synuclein pathophysiology.

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This study investigated whether acute liver injury (ALI) persisted and identified predictors of ALI recovery [as indicated by alanine aminotransferase (ALT) level] at hospital discharge and 2 months post-discharge for 7595 hospitalized COVID-19 patients from the Montefiore Health System (03/11/2020-06/03/2021). Mild liver injury (mLI) was defined as ALT = 1.5-5 ULN, and severe livery injury (sLI) was ALT ≥ 5 ULN.

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Posterior Reversible Encephalopathy Syndrome (PRES) is a clinico-radiological diagnosis characterized by acute or subacute neurological symptoms. A 27-year-old woman at 35 weeks of pregnancy, who presented with generalized tonic-clonic seizures had persistently low Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score after delivery of the baby. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the brain showed T-2 Fluid Attenuated Inversion Recovery (FLAIR) hyperintensities in the brainstem, bilateral medial cerebellar hemispheres, bilateral medial temporal lobes, bilateral thalami, lentiform and caudate nuclei, and bilateral fronto-parieto-occipital lobes.

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Background: Healthcare-associated infections pose a potentially fatal threat to patients worldwide and Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most common causes of healthcare-associated infections. S. aureus is a common commensal pathogen and a frequent cause of bacteremia, with studies demonstrating that nasal and blood isolates from single patients match more than 80% of the time.

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Background  is a rapidly emerging nosocomial pathogen with intrinsic or acquired resistance mechanisms to several antibiotic classes. It can cause life-threatening opportunistic pneumonia, particularly among hospitalized patients. Incidence of infections by  has been reported as 0.

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Article Synopsis
  • Salt-sensitive hypertension linked to high salt diets raises blood pressure and is associated with increased reactive oxygen species (ROS), which enhance sodium retention via the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC).
  • The study examined the impact of the antioxidant Tempol on blood pressure, urinary electrolytes, and ENaC expression in hypertensive mice, revealing that Tempol reduces systolic blood pressure and ENaC protein levels.
  • Lipid analysis of extracellular vesicles (EVs) showed notable changes in lipid composition following Tempol treatment, suggesting potential strategies to combat salt-sensitive hypertension by inhibiting ROS.
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Article Synopsis
  • Extracellular vesicles (EVs) secreted by human aortic endothelial cells (hAoECs) were studied for their role in regulating the endothelial sodium channel (EnNaC), which influences cell stiffness.
  • The research found that EVs from hAoECs enhance EnNaC activity in these cells, particularly those enriched with MARCKS-like protein 1 (MLP1), as opposed to EVs from human fibroblast cells lacking MLP1.
  • A detailed lipid analysis revealed that the lipids in hAoEC-derived EVs were more diverse and included higher concentrations of specific bioactive lipids, suggesting a novel mechanism for EnNaC regulation involving MLP1 and certain lipids. *
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Background & Aims: Corticosteroids are the only effective therapy for severe alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH), defined by a model for end-stage liver disease (MELD) score >20. However, there are patients who may be too sick to benefit from therapy. Herein, we aimed to identify the range of MELD scores within which steroids are effective for AH.

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Problem: There are significant barriers for resident physicians seeking mental health care, including lack of time, cost, and concerns about confidentiality. The authors sought to improve access to mental health resources by addressing these barriers through the development of a confidential opt-out mental health pilot program for interns and to assess the feasibility, acceptability, and resident satisfaction with the program.

Approach: All internal medicine and internal medicine-pediatrics interns in the 2017-2018 residency class at the University of Colorado were enrolled in the confidential opt-out mental health program.

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