Tailoring African American Faith Community-Based Diabetes Self-Management Education.

African Americans (AA) experience a disparate effect of type II diabetes (T2D). For this nurse-led pilot study, a pre-validated 6-week diabetes self-management education (DSME) program was implemented in a faith community setting and tailored to the participants' faith and culture by using short scriptural lessons, prayers, and individual sharing. Participants demonstrated improvements in fasting blood glucose (p = .

Receipt of appropriate surgical care for Medicare beneficiaries with cancer.

Objective: To investigate receipt of appropriate surgical care in Medicare beneficiaries with cancer.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: National Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results registry linked to Medicare claims data.

Impact of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on breast reconstruction.

Background: With advances in oncologic treatment, cosmesis after mastectomy has assumed a pivotal role in patient and provider decision making. Multiple studies have confirmed the safety of both chemotherapy before breast surgery and immediate reconstruction. Little has been written about the effect of neoadjuvant chemotherapy on decisions about reconstruction.

Racial and ethnic disparities in the VA health care system: a systematic review.

Objectives: To better understand the causes of racial disparities in health care, we reviewed and synthesized existing evidence related to disparities in the "equal access" Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system.

Methods: We systematically reviewed and synthesized evidence from studies comparing health care utilization and quality by race within the VA.

Results: Racial disparities in the VA exist across a wide range of clinical areas and service types.

Decay-accelerating factor attenuates remote ischemia-reperfusion-initiated organ damage.

Complement activation contributes to the expression of local and remote organ injury in animal models of ischemia-reperfusion (IR). We demonstrate here that a soluble form of decay-accelerating factor (DAF) protects normal C57Bl/6 and autoimmunity-prone B6.MRL/lpr mice subjected to hindlimb IR from remote intestinal and lung injury without affecting the degree of local skeletal muscle injury.

Blunt trauma to the thyroid: a case report.

Thyroid injury is a rare phenomenon in cases of blunt neck trauma. Symptoms are often subtle or not present on initial exam and can be rapidly life-threatening when airway compromise ensues. We describe the case of a 50-year-old woman who developed neck pain and swelling, dysphagia, and hoarseness after a rear-end collision in which she was the restrained driver, hitting her anterior neck against the steering wheel.