Establishing a Health Information Technology for the Vaccination of National Institutes of Health Staff.

Introduction: Healthcare organizations faced unique operational challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Assuring the safety of both patients and healthcare workers in hospitals has been the primary focus during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: The NIH Vaccine Program (VP) with the Vaccine Management System (VMS) was created based on the commitment of NIH leadership, program leadership, the development team, and the program team; defining Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the VP and the VMS; and the NIH Clinical Center's (NIH CC) interdisciplinary approach to deploying the VMS.

Borrowing Benefits: Group Treatment With Clinical Emotional Freedom Techniques Is Associated With Simultaneous Reductions in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Anxiety, and Depression Symptoms.

Clinical Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is an evidence-based treatment for depression and anxiety. The current study sought to elucidate the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety in a nonclinical population. The sample (N = 81) comprised participants at five 2-day EFT workshops.

Structural brain abnormalities in patients with inflammatory illness acquired following exposure to water-damaged buildings: a volumetric MRI study using NeuroQuant®.

Executive cognitive and neurologic abnormalities are commonly seen in patients with a chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS) acquired following exposure to the interior environment of water-damaged buildings (WDB), but a clear delineation of the physiologic or structural basis for these abnormalities has not been defined. Symptoms of affected patients routinely include headache, difficulty with recent memory, concentration, word finding, numbness, tingling, metallic taste and vertigo. Additionally, persistent proteomic abnormalities in inflammatory parameters that can alter permeability of the blood-brain barrier, such as C4a, TGFB1, MMP9 and VEGF, are notably present in cases of CIRS-WDB compared to controls, suggesting a consequent inflammatory injury to the central nervous system.

Defining the neurotoxin derived illness chronic ciguatera using markers of chronic systemic inflammatory disturbances: a case/control study.

Background: Ciguatoxins are extremely potent neurotoxins, produced by tropical marine dinoflagellates, that persistently enter into our food web. Over 100,000 people annually experience acute ciguatera poisoning from consuming toxic fish. Roughly 5% of these victims will develop chronic ciguatera (CC), a widespread, multisymptom, multisystem, chronic illness that can last tens of years.

Complement split products C3a and C4a are early markers of acute lyme disease in tick bite patients in the United States.

Background: Current laboratory markers do not readily detect acute Lyme disease. We assessed the utility of complement and its split products as markers of Lyme disease in patients shortly after a tick bite.

Methods: Thirty-one consecutive acute Lyme disease patients, 14 with and 17 without erythema migrans (EM) skin rash, seen by a physician within 96 h of a tick bite were matched with 24 consecutive tick bite patients without Lyme disease symptoms and 46 healthy control subjects.

Sick building syndrome (SBS) and exposure to water-damaged buildings: time series study, clinical trial and mechanisms.

Occupants of water-damaged buildings (WDBs) with evidence of microbial amplification often describe a syndrome involving multiple organ systems, commonly referred to as "sick building syndrome" (SBS), following chronic exposure to the indoor air. Studies have demonstrated that the indoor air of WDBs often contains a complex mixture of fungi, mycotoxins, bacteria, endotoxins, antigens, lipopolysaccharides, and biologically produced volatile compounds. A case-series study with medical assessments at five time points was conducted to characterize the syndrome after a double-blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial conducted among a group of study participants investigated the efficacy of cholestyramine (CSM) therapy.

Atovaquone plus cholestyramine in patients coinfected with Babesia microti and Borrelia burgdorferi refractory to other treatment.

Ten percent of US patients with Lyme disease are coinfected with Babesia microti. A double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover trial enrolled 25 patients with confirmed Borrelia burgdorferi/B microti coinfection, abnormal visual contrast sensitivity (VCS), and persistent symptoms despite prior treatment with atovaquone and azithromycin. Patients were randomly assigned to atovaquone suspension or placebo plus cholestyramine for 3 weeks, were crossed over for 3 weeks, and then received open-label atovaquone and cholestyramine for 6 weeks.

Respiration in Sprague-Dawley rats during pregnancy.

Minute ventilation and tidal volume increase in humans during pregnancy. Little data exists, however, on the respiration in pregnant rats, despite their widespread use as an animal model. Since respiration will affect the pharmacokinetics of volatile compounds and ultimately the dose to the fetus, we conducted a study to evaluate respiration in rats during pregnancy.

A time-series study of sick building syndrome: chronic, biotoxin-associated illness from exposure to water-damaged buildings.

The human health risk for chronic illnesses involving multiple body systems following inhalation exposure to the indoor environments of water-damaged buildings (WDBs) has remained poorly characterized and the subject of intense controversy. The current study assessed the hypothesis that exposure to the indoor environments of WDBs with visible microbial colonization was associated with illness. The study used a cross-sectional design with assessments at five time points, and the interventions of cholestyramine (CSM) therapy, exposure avoidance following therapy, and reexposure to the buildings after illness resolution.

Single or group housing altered hormonal physiology and affected pituitary and interstitial cell kinetics.

A significant negative correlation between testicular interstitial cell tumors and pituitary tumors in control male F344 rats has been reported associated with the number of animals per cage. Change in numbers of animals per cage may cause stress and increased serum corticosteroids that can impair testosterone synthesis by interstitial cells. Eventual atrophy of interstitial cells may result in pituitary hyperfunction and tumor development.

Apartment residents' and day care workers' exposures to tetrachloroethylene and deficits in visual contrast sensitivity.

Tetrachloroethylene (also called perchloroethylene, or perc), a volatile organic compound, has been the predominant solvent used by the dry-cleaning industry for many years. The U.S.