Racial and Educational Isolation are Associated with Worse Outcomes in Congenital Heart Disease.

Sociodemographic factors influence outcomes in children with congenital heart disease (CHD). We predict an association between measures of social isolation and outcomes in infants with complex CHD. These measures, racial (RI) and educational (EI) isolation range from 0 to 1, with 0 being no isolation and 1 being fully isolated within a specific population.

Racial and Educational Isolation are Associated with Worse Outcomes in Congenital Heart Disease.

Background: Sociodemographic factors influence outcomes in children with congenital heart disease (CHD). We predict an association between measures of social isolation and outcomes in infants with complex CHD. These measures, racial (RI) and educational (EI) isolation range from 0 to 1, with 0 being no isolation and 1 being fully isolated within a specific population.

Cardiovascular disease risk factors in congenital heart disease survivors are associated with heart failure.

Background: Despite advances in treatment and survival, individuals with congenital heart defects (CHD) have a higher risk of heart failure (HF) compared to the general population.

Objective: To evaluate comorbidities associated with HF in patients with CHD with a goal of identifying potentially modifiable risk factors that may reduce HF-associated morbidity and mortality.

Methods: Five surveillance sites in the United States linked population-based healthcare data and vital records.

Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care Usage and Death by Neighborhood Poverty Among Individuals With Congenital Heart Defects, 4 US Surveillance Sites, 2011 to 2013.

Background: Socioeconomic factors may lead to a disproportionate impact on health care usage and death among individuals with congenital heart defects (CHD) by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic factors. How neighborhood poverty affects racial and ethnic disparities in health care usage and death among individuals with CHD across the life span is not well described.

Methods And Results: Individuals aged 1 to 64 years, with at least 1 CHD-related () code were identified from health care encounters between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2013, from 4 US sites.

Risk Factors and Outcomes Associated with Gaps in Care in Children with Congenital Heart Disease.

Adults with congenital heart disease (CHD) benefit from cardiology follow-up at recommended intervals of ≤ 2 years. However, benefit for children is less clear given limited studies and unclear current guidelines. We hypothesize there are identifiable risks for gaps in cardiology follow-up in children with CHD and that gaps in follow-up are associated with differences in healthcare utilization.

Impact of Prenatal Diagnosis of Critical Congenital Heart Disease on Preoperative and Postoperative Outcomes.

The objective of this study was to assess the relationship of prenatal diagnosis of critical congenital heart disease (CHD) to preoperative and postoperative patient findings. Retrospective analysis of neonates with critical CHD who underwent cardiothoracic surgery at one of four centers in North Carolina between 2008 and 2013. Surgical data collected by sites for submission to the Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database (STS-CHSD) and the North Carolina CHD Lifespan Database were queried.

Third-Grade Academic Performance and Episodes of Cardiac Care Among Children with Congenital Heart Defects.

Children with congenital heart defects (CHDs) are at risk for poor academic performance. The degree to which receipt of health care services is associated with adverse academic outcomes is not known. We examined the association between episodes of cardiac care and third-grade performance in children with CHD.

How Well Do Codes Predict True Congenital Heart Defects? A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-Based Multisite Validation Project.

Background The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Surveillance of Congenital Heart Defects Across the Lifespan project uses large clinical and administrative databases at sites throughout the United States to understand population-based congenital heart defect (CHD) epidemiology and outcomes. These individual databases are also relied upon for accurate coding of CHD to estimate population prevalence. Methods and Results This validation project assessed a sample of 774 cases from 4 surveillance sites to determine the positive predictive value (PPV) for identifying a true CHD case and classifying CHD anatomic group accurately based on 57 codes.

Risk Factors for Sudden Infant Death in North Carolina.

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden, unexplained death of infants <1 year old. SIDS remains a leading cause of death in US infants. We aim to identify associations between SIDS and race/ethnicity, birth weight/gestational age, and socioeconomic/environmental factors in North Carolina (NC) to help identify infants at risk for SIDS.

Individuals aged 1-64 years with documented congenital heart defects at healthcare encounters, five U.S. surveillance sites, 2011-2013.

Background: Many individuals born with congenital heart defects (CHD) survive to adulthood. However, population estimates of CHD beyond early childhood are limited in the U.S.

Causes of Death in Infants and Children with Congenital Heart Disease.

With improved surgical outcomes, infants and children with congenital heart disease (CHD) may die from other causes of death (COD) other than CHD. We sought to describe the COD in youth with CHD in North Carolina (NC). Patients from birth to 20 years of age with a healthcare encounter between 2008 and 2013 in NC were identified by ICD-9 code.

Efficacy and safety of T-DM1 in the 'common-practice' of HER2+ advanced breast cancer setting: a multicenter study.

Ado-trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) is an antibody-drug conjugate approved for the treatment of patients with human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-positive, metastatic breast cancer (mBC). The aim of this 'field-practice' study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of T-DM1, focusing on treatment line, previous lapatinib treatment and patterns of metastasis. Three hundred and three patients with HER2-positive mBC who received T-DM1 were identified by reviewing the medical records of 24 Italian Institutions.

Theoretical and behavioral features to be considered when planning and implementing a pbl curriculum.

This work complements former articles about an Argentinean PBL curriculum after twelve years of development. In this context, it points out determined inflexible features linked to its theoretical-pedagogical basis and certain counter-productive behaviors detected in some planners, teachers and students during its design and/or enduring implementation. Hence, reflections are made on learning and adult learning (andragogy) theories.

[Disciplinar thematic integration in medicine: a proposal from histology and embryology].

This paper intends to clarify a concept with multiple meanings and a complex reality. It starts providing varied histological and embryological examples apt to contribute the stimulation of teacher and student imaginations in favor of a crucial skill, as thematic integration is, into the present and changing curricula in Medicine in particular and Health Sciences in general. In this sense, it offers linear and branched sequences as well as consolidation graphics which focusing in both disciplines may also include other basic ones, key for clinic diagnosis, among the competences to be developed.

Hemorheologic changes in type 2 diabetic patients with microangiopathic skin lesions. A linear discriminant categorizing analysis.

The development of diabetic microangiopathy may produce lesions in distinct organic territories (the skin, among others). With an intention of identifying hemorheologic variables for a better characterization of diabetic patients, we studied plasmatic and blood viscosities (P Visc at 2.30 s(-1) and B Visc at 4.

Weekly epirubicin plus docetaxel as first-line treatment in metastatic breast cancer.

This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy and tolerability of a weekly schedule of epirubicin in combination with docetaxel in the first-line treatment of patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). A total of 43 women with MBC not previously treated with chemotherapy for metastatic disease received weekly epirubicin 25 mg m(-2) and docetaxel 25 mg m(-2) for a maximum of five cycles (total cumulative epirubicin dose of < or =900 mg m(-2)). Dose reduction was not permitted.