When the Fight Becomes Personal: Physicians Share Their Stories of Contracting COVID-19.

It's no surprise that many physicians were among the more than 1.3 million confirmed COVID-19 cases in Texas last year. Texas Medicine spoke with three Texas physicians who contracted COVID-19 to learn how the disease affected them physically and impacted their outlook as caregivers.

Q&A: Stethoscopes and Telescopes.

Ever since he was a boy, Temple family physician John Manning, MD, has been fascinated by space. Now, Dr. Manning is also an amateur photographer.

Q&A: Physician Podcaster Jeffrey Jarvis, MD.

A love of teaching is what propelled Jeffrey Jarvis, MD, into his latest undertaking: hosting a nationally distributed podcast.

Therapeutic Holding.

Relationships of care for those facing illness are inherent to the practice of medicine. Palliative care provides interpersonal space to patients and families that helps them face serious illness and dying. We consider therapeutic holding uniquely critical in palliative care but see it as applying in varied forms throughout medicine.

Q&A: Food Allergies in Children a Public Health Problem.

Ask Austin allergist Allen Lieberman, MD, which public health issue hasn't received the attention it deserves, and his answer shouldn't be a surprise. "Eight percent of kids have a food allergy," Dr. Lieberman, who founded Austin Family Allergy and Asthma in 2016, told Texas Medicine.

Q&A: El Paso Surgeon On-Call During Mass Shooting Response.

Just as Alan Tyroch, MD, sat down to breakfast in Las Vegas on the morning of Aug. 3, celebrating his mother in-law's 90th birthday, a gunman walked into a Walmart hundreds of miles away in his hometown of El Paso and opened fire, ultimately killing 22 people and injuring 24 more. Over the following minutes, as shooting victims were rushed to hospitals throughout El Paso, Dr.

This Surgeon Puts Broken Spurs Back in the NBA Saddle.

David R. Schmidt, MD, team physician for the San Antonio Spurs.

Q&A: Hard Hats for Little Heads Advocates Alan Howell, MD, and Martha Howell.

Promoting public health initiatives in local communities can help physicians build relationships with the people they care for every day. Martha Howell and her husband, infectious disease specialist Alan Howell, MD, have taken that idea a few steps further with Hard Hats for Little Heads.

Q&A: Lubbock Radiologist Finds Creative Ways to Introduce Science to Children.

For the past few years, Eman Attaya, MD, has channeled her pragmatic and artistic sides in a variety of ways. She is a member of the 2019 class of the Texas Medical Association's Leadership College, which helps train young physicians, or those early in their medical careers, for leadership positions at the county and state levels. Dr.

Q&A.

Medical director, Department of State Health Services Office of Science and Population Health.

Texas Cardiologist Recalls Boston Marathon Bombing.

When two pressure-cooker bombs filled with nails, ball bearings, and black powder exploded at the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon, killing three people and wounding hundreds more, Jorge Alvarez, MD, did what he believes anybody would do: Run toward the danger.

A Conversation With Travis County Chief Medical Examiner J. Keith Pinckard, MD.

Texas Medicine recently caught up with Dr. Pinckard, who has been the chief medical examiner at the Travis County Medical Examiner's Office since 2015.

Q&A: Thomas Kim, MD, Internist, Psychiatrist, Telehealth Advocate.

Thomas Kim, MD, is an avid user and advocate of telehealth, and the Austinite regularly shares his expertise and experience with fellow physicians and state lawmakers. "If you recognize telehealth as a skill to be mastered, you can apply it to most any population you want," he said.

Q&A: Austin Family Physician Quenches Her Patients' Thirst for Improved Health.

Austin primary care physician Georgeanne Freeman, DO, aims to improve her patients' overall well-being while increasing and diversifying the clinic's revenue.

Upper airways sensory irritation responses of mice exposed to mainstream smoke from four cigarette types.

Relative sensory irritation responses for Swiss-Webster mice exposed nose-only to mainstream tobacco smoke were evaluated for several cigarette types using a smoking regimen consisting of a 35-ml puff, 2 s in duration, taken once per minute. The degree of sensory irritation for each cigarette type was evaluated as the smoke concentration inducing a 50% reduction in breathing frequency. The smoke concentration inducing 50% respiratory depression is called the RD(50) value.

Distinct regulatory profiles of interleukins and chemokines in response to cigarette smoke condensate in normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells.

Bronchial epithelium is frequently exposed to air pollutants, and it is hypothesized that these cells elicit inflammatory responses as early elements in pulmonary defense. Our purpose was to evaluate changes in messenger RNA levels of 84 genes representing cytokines and receptors over a repetitive-exposure time course to further define the inflammatory responses associated with mainstream cigarette smoke (MSS) exposure in an in vitro lung model. Normal human bronchial epithelial cells were treated with mainstream cigarette smoke condensate (CSC) prepared from Kentucky 2R4F cigarettes (60 microg total particulate matter/mL media, 0.

The time course of expression of genes involved in specific pathways in normal human bronchial epithelial cells following exposure to cigarette smoke.

This study was conducted to determine the time course of gene expression associated with specific signaling pathways in normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells after exposure to 2 concentrations of 2R4F tobacco mainstream smoke (MSS). Expression of 84 genes representing 18 signal transduction pathways was quantitated in MSS- and air-exposed cultures using real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) arrays at 1, 4, and 24 hours following exposure. A confidence score, calculated based on statistical analysis of the degree and reproducibility of expression changes, was used to identify potential biologically significant changes in gene expression.

Comparative 13-week inhalation study of cigarette smoke from cigarettes containing cast sheet tobacco.

A subchronic, nose-only inhalation study was conducted to compare the effects of mainstream smoke from a reference cigarette containing conventional reconstituted tobacco sheet at 30% of the finished blend to mainstream smoke from cigarettes containing 10% or 15% cast sheet (a specific type of reconstituted tobacco sheet) substituted for part of the conventional reconstituted tobacco. Male and female Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed for 1 h/day, 5 d/wk, for 13 wk to mainstream smoke at 0, 0.06, 0.

Altered methylation in gene-specific and GC-rich regions of DNA is progressive and nonrandom during promotion of skin tumorigenesis.

Altered DNA methylation, an epigenetic mechanism, likely contributes to tumorigenesis, with an inverse relationship existing between methylation in a promoter region and transcription. Using the SENCAR two-stage mouse skin tumorigenesis model, altered methylation was characterized in precancerous tissue and in tumor tissue. Mouse skin was initiated with 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene and promoted three times a week with 3, 9, 18, or 27 mg cigarette smoke condensate (CSC) for 4, 8, or 29 weeks; tumors were collected at 29 weeks.

Gene expression in normal human bronchial epithelial (NHBE) cells following in vitro exposure to cigarette smoke condensate.

Cigarettes that burn tobacco produce a complex mixture of chemicals, including mutagens and carcinogens. Cigarettes that primarily heat tobacco produce smoke with marked reductions in the amount of mutagens and carcinogens and demonstrate reduced mutagenicity and carcinogenicity in a battery of toxicological assays. Chemically induced oxidative stress, DNA damage, and inflammation may alter cell cycle regulation and are important biological events in the carcinogenic process.

Increased DNA methylation in the HoxA5 promoter region correlates with decreased expression of the gene during tumor promotion.

Promoter-region DNA methylation inhibits transcription. A two-stage SENCAR (sensitive to mouse carcinogenesis) mouse skin carcinogenicity model was used to examine gene-specific changes in methylation during skin tumor promotion. Analysis was performed on 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA)-initiated skin promoted with 9, 18, 27, or 36 mg cigarette smoke condensate (CSC) for 9 wk, or 27 mg CSC for 9 wk and sacrificed 6 wk afterwards (recovery group).

Differential c-myc expression profiles in normal human bronchial epithelial cells following treatment with benzo[a]pyrene, benzo[a]pyrene-4,5 epoxide, and benzo[a]pyrene-7,8-9,10 diol epoxide.

Bronchial epithelial cells are often exposed to airborne mutagens that have the potential to induce genetic changes involved in the development of lung cancer. Although lung tumors often display alterations in the expression of oncogenes and/or tumor suppressor genes, the role of specific chemicals and/or metabolites in causing these alterations is not well defined. The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P), a by-product of combustion, is a prevalent airborne environmental mutagen and a constituent of cigarette smoke.