Initial clinical experience with magnetic resonance-guided radiotherapy in pediatric patients: Lessons learned from a single institution with proton therapy.

Purpose/objectives: Magnetic resonance-guided radiotherapy (MRgRT) is increasingly used in a variety of adult cancers. To date, published experience regarding the use of MRgRT in pediatric patients is limited to two case reports. We report on the use of MRgRT for pediatric patients at our institution during a four-year period and describe important considerations in the selection and application of this technology in children.

Effects of a level-of-care tool on admission placement and rapid response use.

Nurses promote performance improvement efforts that advance the practice of nursing and enhance outcomes. This special section highlights three successful performance improvement initiatives that showcase the value of these efforts.

Impact of a focused review course in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery on test performance.

Background: The Core Curriculum Review Course in Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery is a 4-day educational program consisting of 77 didactic lectures that provide a comprehensive review of the material required for surgeons preparing for the American Board of Thoracic Surgery competency written examination. The lectures are supplemented with a written syllabus and interactive audience participation system. We sought to determine whether participation in this course could improve participants' performance on a cardiothoracic subject-based test.

Neuroinflammatory disease disrupts the blood-CNS barrier via crosstalk between proinflammatory and endothelial-to-mesenchymal-transition signaling.

Breakdown of the blood-central nervous system barrier (BCNSB) is a hallmark of many neuroinflammatory disorders, such as multiple sclerosis (MS). Using a mouse model of MS, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), we show that endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndoMT) occurs in the CNS before the onset of clinical symptoms and plays a major role in the breakdown of BCNSB function. EndoMT can be induced by an IL-1β-stimulated signaling pathway in which activation of the small GTPase ADP ribosylation factor 6 (ARF6) leads to crosstalk with the activin receptor-like kinase (ALK)-SMAD1/5 pathway.