The Mexican drug war: Homicides and deaths of despair, 2000-2020.

Objectives: In 2006, the Mexican government deployed their army on Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs). The attempt to remove cartel leaders spurred further conflict between DTOs and led to substantial increases in Mexico's homicide rate. The public display of homicide victims and the media coverage of violence may have elicited feelings of fear and depression, increasing the risk of deaths of despair.

Workforce estimate to treat mental disorders in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Background: Mental, neurological, and substance abuse (MNS) disorders describe a range of conditions that affect the brain and cause distress or functional impairment. In the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), MNS disorders make up 10.88 percent of the burden of disease as measured in disability-adjusted life years.

Is it time to consider a "time-out" before primary prevention implantable cardioverter-defibrillator placement in currently or recently hospitalized older patients with heart failure?

Background: Trajectories of mortality after primary prevention implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) placement for older patients with heart failure during or soon after acute hospitalization have not been assessed.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to compare trajectories of mortality after primary prevention ICD placement during or soon after acute cardiac or non-cardiac hospitalization.

Methods: We identified older patients with heart failure undergoing primary prevention ICD placement using 20% Medicare data (2008-2018).

CRP Monitoring in Early Hospitalization: Implications for Predicting Outcomes in Patients with COVID-19.

Elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) levels have been associated with poorer COVID-19 outcomes. While baseline CRP levels are higher in women, obese individuals, and older adults, the relationship between CRP, sex, body mass index (BMI), age, and COVID-19 outcomes remains unknown. To investigate, we performed a retrospective analysis on 824 adult patients with COVID-19 admitted during the first pandemic wave, of whom 183 (22.

Predicting COVID-19 prognosis in hospitalized patients based on early status.

COVID-19 remains the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. Predicting COVID-19 patient prognosis is essential to help efficiently allocate resources, including ventilators and intensive care unit beds, particularly when hospital systems are strained. Our PLABAC and PRABLE models are unique because they accurately assess a COVID-19 patient's risk of death from only age and five commonly ordered laboratory tests.

National Trends in Anticoagulation Therapy for COVID-19 Hospitalized Adults in the United States: Analyses of the National COVID Cohort Collaborative.

Background: Anticoagulation (AC) utilization patterns and their predictors among hospitalized coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients have not been well described.

Methods: Using the National COVID Cohort Collaborative, we conducted a retrospective cohort study (2020-2022) to assess AC use patterns and identify factors associated with therapeutic AC employing modified Poisson regression.

Results: Among 162 842 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, 64% received AC and 24% received therapeutic AC.

Sensation Seeking in Children and Adults with Pediatric-Onset Bipolar Disorder.

Bipolar disorder (BD) is one of the most impairing psychiatric illnesses. Those with pediatric-onset BD tend to have worse outcomes; therefore, accurate conceptualization is important for aspects of care, such as tailored treatment interventions. Sensation seeking behaviors may be a window into the psychopathology of pediatric-onset BD.

Data quality considerations for evaluating COVID-19 treatments using real world data: learnings from the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C).

Background: Multi-institution electronic health records (EHR) are a rich source of real world data (RWD) for generating real world evidence (RWE) regarding the utilization, benefits and harms of medical interventions. They provide access to clinical data from large pooled patient populations in addition to laboratory measurements unavailable in insurance claims-based data. However, secondary use of these data for research requires specialized knowledge and careful evaluation of data quality and completeness.

Time to diagnosis of pulmonary hypertension and diagnostic burden: A retrospective analysis of nationwide US healthcare data.

The main aim of this analysis was to investigate time from symptom onset (chronic unexplained dyspnoea [CUD]) to diagnosis of Group 1 pulmonary hypertension (PH)-pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH)-and to characterize healthcare resource utilization leading up to diagnosis using a nationwide US claims and an electronic health record (EHR) database from Optum. Eligible patients were ≥18 years old at first CUD diagnosis (index event) and had a PAH diagnosis on or after index date. Based on administrative codes, PAH was defined as right heart catheterization (RHC), ≥ 2 PAH diagnoses (1 within a year of RHC), and ≥1 post-RHC prescription for PAH treatment.

A machine learning approach to identifying patients with pulmonary hypertension using real-world electronic health records.

Background: This study aimed to develop a machine learning (ML) model to identify patients who are likely to have pulmonary hypertension (PH), using a large patient-level US-based electronic health record (EHR) database.

Methods: A gradient boosting model, XGBoost, was developed using data from Optum's US-based de-identified EHR dataset (2007-2019). PH and disease control adult patients were identified using diagnostic, treatment and procedure codes and were randomly split into the training (90%) or test set (10%).

An anti-PD-1-GITR-L bispecific agonist induces GITR clustering-mediated T cell activation for cancer immunotherapy.

Costimulatory receptors such as glucocorticoid-induced tumor necrosis factor receptor-related protein (GITR) play key roles in regulating the effector functions of T cells. In human clinical trials, however, GITR agonist antibodies have shown limited therapeutic effect, which may be due to suboptimal receptor clustering-mediated signaling. To overcome this potential limitation, a rational protein engineering approach is needed to optimize GITR agonist-based immunotherapies.

Outcomes of COVID-19 in Patients With Cancer: Report From the National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C).

Purpose: Variation in risk of adverse clinical outcomes in patients with cancer and COVID-19 has been reported from relatively small cohorts. The NCATS' National COVID Cohort Collaborative (N3C) is a centralized data resource representing the largest multicenter cohort of COVID-19 cases and controls nationwide. We aimed to construct and characterize the cancer cohort within N3C and identify risk factors for all-cause mortality from COVID-19.

Cytokine profiling in active and quiescent SLE reveals distinct patient subpopulations.

Background: Patients with SLE display marked clinical and immunlogical heterogeneity. The purpose of the study was to investigate patterns of serum cytokines in patients with active and stable systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and to determine how they relate to clinical phenotype.

Methods: Serum levels of 10 cytokines were measured retrospectively in a cohort of patients with SLE and in healthy controls using a high-sensitivity multiplex bead array.

Threats to security and ischaemic heart disease deaths: the case of homicides in Mexico.

Background: Ischaemic heart disease (IHD) ranks as the leading cause of death worldwide. Whereas much attention focuses on behavioural and lifestyle factors, less research examines the role of acute, ambient stressors. An unprecedented rise in homicides in Mexico over the past decade and the attendant media coverage and publicity have raised international concern regarding its potential health sequelae.

RON receptor tyrosine kinase, a negative regulator of inflammation, inhibits HIV-1 transcription in monocytes/macrophages and is decreased in brain tissue from patients with AIDS.

Activation of macrophages and microglia cells after HIV-1 infection and their production of inflammatory mediators contribute to HIV-associated CNS diseases. The mechanisms that initiate and maintain inflammation after HIV-1 infection in the brain have not been well studied. Furthermore, it is not understood why in HIV-associated CNS disease, macrophages and microglia are biased toward inflammation rather than production of mediators that control inflammation.

CCAAT/enhancer binding proteins are not required for HIV-1 entry but regulate proviral transcription by recruiting coactivators to the long-terminal repeat in monocytic cells.

CCAAT/enhancer binding proteins (C/EBP) have been shown to be required for HIV-1 transcription and replication in macrophages. However, whether these transcription factors influence the ability of virus to establish infection by altering cytokine or receptor expression or primarily regulate HIV-1 transcription has not been determined. By inhibiting endogenous C/EBP activity with a dominant-negative protein, we demonstrate that functional C/EBPs are not required for HIV-1 infection and that these factors influence replication by a transcriptional mechanism.

Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli Production of a Cytotonic Toxin Immunologically Similar to Cholera Toxin.

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) based on binding to cholera toxin (CT) antibody was used to screen cell-free supernatant fluids from 11 strains of Campylobacter jejuni and one strain of Campylobacter coli . Positive results for seven of the eight clinical isolates as well as for one animal and one food isolate suggested that these strains produced an extracellular factor immunologically similar to CT. An affinity column (packed with Sepharose 4B conjugated to purified anti-CT IgG via cyanogen bromide) was used to separate the extracellular factor from cell-free supernatant fluids.