Antibiotic utilization trends in Veterans Affairs patients with bloodstream infections.

Objective: is a multidrug-resistant gram-negative bacillus that can cause serious infections but has limited treatment options. This study aims to establish trends in the treatment of bloodstream infections (BSI) across the United States in Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities.

Methods: Data was evaluated over a 10-year timeframe (2012 to 2021) in this retrospective cohort study.

Clinical Radiographic Predictors of Response to Hypoglossal Nerve Stimulation for Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Objective: To determine if clinically acquired cephalometric measurements, specifically soft palate size, can predict hypoglossal nerve stimulation outcomes.

Study Design: Combined prospective cohort study and retrospective review.

Setting: US sleep otolaryngology training program.

Risk Factors for Rhinosinusitis After Endoscopic Transsphenoidal Adenomectomy.

Objective: Patients undergoing endoscopic transsphenoidal adenomectomy (eTSA) for pituitary tumors are at risk for postoperative complications, including rhinosinusitis. We aimed to determine if preoperative sinonasal disease is a risk factor for postoperative rhinosinusitis (PRS).

Study Design: Retrospective review.

Intraoperative identification of mixed activation profiles during hypoglossal nerve stimulation.

Study Objectives: The effectiveness of hypoglossal nerve stimulation (HGNS) in the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) depends on the selective stimulation of nerve fibers that innervate the tongue muscles that produce tongue protrusion (genioglossus) and stiffening (transverse/vertical) while avoiding fibers that innervate muscles that produce tongue retraction (styloglossus/hyoglossus). Postoperative treatment failures can be related to mixed activation of retractor and protrusor muscles, despite intraoperative efforts to identify and avoid nerve fibers that innervate the retractor muscles. This study describes a novel intraoperative protocol that more optimally identifies mixed activation by utilizing an expanded set of stimulation/recording parameters.

Transoral Versus Endoscopic Examination in Predicting Outcomes of Hypoglossal Nerve Stimulation for Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Objectives/hypothesis: To examine the correlation between transoral and awake endoscopic examination and investigate their respective ability to predict outcomes of hypoglossal nerve stimulation (HGNS).

Study Design: Retrospective cohort study at a US medical center.

Methods: Subjects were adults with apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) >15 events/hr who underwent HGNS according to standard indications.

Therapeutic Positive Airway Pressure Level Predicts Response to Hypoglossal Nerve Stimulation for Obstructive Sleep Apnea.

Study Objectives: To determine whether therapeutic positive airway pressure (PAP) level predicts response to hypoglossal nerve stimulation (HGNS) for obstructive sleep apnea using the coprimary outcomes of apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and 4% oxygen desaturation index.

Methods: Combined cohort study from two US sleep otolaryngology training programs. Subjects were adults with AHI > 15 events/h who underwent HGNS.

Bone microenvironment signaling of cancer stem cells as a therapeutic target in metastatic prostate cancer.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the most prevalent cancers and the second leading cause of cancer death among US males. When diagnosed in an early disease stage, primary tumors of PCa may be treated with surgical resection or radiation, sometimes combined with androgen deprivation therapy, with favorable outcomes. Unfortunately, the treatment efficacy of each approach decreases significantly in later stages of PCa that involve metastasis to soft tissues and bone.

IMAGES: Drug-Induced Sleep Endoscopy: An Investigative Tool for Mechanisms of PAP Failure.

This is a case report of a 60-year-old female with mild obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) who presented to CPAP Alternatives clinic following multiple failed attempts at positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy. She underwent drug-induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) with the concurrent application of PAP via two different mask types. Application of the oronasal mask at low pressures demonstrated soft palate collapse, while high pressures resulted in posterior tongue collapse.

Dormant breast cancer micrometastases reside in specific bone marrow niches that regulate their transit to and from bone.

Breast cancer metastatic relapse can occur years after therapy, indicating that disseminated breast cancer cells (BCCs) have a prolonged dormant phase before becoming proliferative. A major site of disease dissemination and relapse is bone, although the critical signals that allow circulating BCCs to identify bone microvasculature, enter tissue, and tether to the microenvironment are poorly understood. Using real-time in vivo microscopy of bone marrow (BM) in a breast cancer xenograft model, we show that dormant and proliferating BCCs occupy distinct areas, with dormant BCCs predominantly found in E-selectin- and stromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF-1)-rich perisinusoidal vascular regions.

Suppression of epileptogenesis-associated changes in response to seizures in FGF22-deficient mice.

In the developing hippocampus, fibroblast growth factor (FGF) 22 promotes the formation of excitatory presynaptic terminals. Remarkably, FGF22 knockout (KO) mice show resistance to generalized seizures in adults as assessed by chemical kindling, a model that is widely used to study epileptogenesis (Terauchi et al., 2010).

Neurogenesis is enhanced and mossy fiber sprouting arises in FGF7-deficient mice during development.

One of the most common types of epilepsy in adults is temporal lobe epilepsy. Temporal lobe epilepsy is often resistant to pharmacological treatment, requiring urgent understanding of its molecular and cellular mechanisms. It is generally accepted that an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory inputs is related to epileptogenesis.

Erythropoietin couples hematopoiesis with bone formation.

Background: It is well established that bleeding activates the hematopoietic system to regenerate the loss of mature blood elements. We have shown that hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) isolated from animals challenged with an acute bleed regulate osteoblast differentiation from marrow stromal cells. This suggests that HSCs participate in bone formation where the molecular basis for this activity is the production of BMP2 and BMP6 by HSCs.

Expression of PGK1 by prostate cancer cells induces bone formation.

Prostate cancer (PCa) is one of the solid tumors that metastasize to the bone. Once there, the phenotype of the bone lesions is dependent upon the balance between osteoblastogenesis and osteoclastogenesis. We previously reported that overexpression of phosphoglycerate kinase 1 (PGK1) in PCa cell lines enhanced bone formation at the metastatic site in vivo.