Publications by authors named "Elkin B"

Purpose: Gastrointestinal motility disorders are common in diabetes, though their prevalence and distribution have not been evaluated. The Wireless Motility Capsule (WMC) assesses transit times and pressures of the entire gastrointestinal (GI) tract in a single study. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and patterns of GI transit abnormalities using WMC in patients with diabetes.

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At the Canadian Concussion Centre, we treated 136 patients from 2000 to 2020 who sustained concussion plus persisting concussion symptoms (C+PCS) as motor vehicle occupants involved in motor vehicle crashes (MVCs). This center specializes in the treatment of patients with C+PCS. The objective of the present study was to identify strategies for preventing concussion among vehicle occupants involved in MVC.

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Article Synopsis
  • Parasites have a negative impact on the health and reproductive success of muskoxen in the Arctic, particularly when combined with other stressors like limited food availability.
  • A study of 141 muskoxen revealed that higher parasite loads correlated with poorer body condition and lower female reproductive rates, indicating that energy may be diverted from fighting parasites to reproduction.
  • Severe weather events, like icing, intensified the effects of parasitism by restricting food access, leading to high mortality rates in the muskoxen population and highlighting the importance of understanding these ecological interactions.
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Background And Aims: Studies show variability in gastroenterologists' management of gastric intestinal metaplasia (GIM) in the United States. In 2020, the American Gastroenterological Association published GIM guidelines, recommending physician-patient shared decision-making on GIM surveillance based on risk factors. We compared gastroenterologists' communication trends of a GIM finding and surveillance recommendations before and after 2020 and evaluated patient and provider factors associated with a surveillance recommendation.

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This study aims to facilitate intracranial simulation of traumatic events by determining the mechanical properties of different anatomical structures of the brain. Our experimental indentation paradigm used fresh, post-operative human tissue, which is highly advantageous in determining mechanical properties without being affected by postmortem time. This study employed an inverse finite element approach coupled with experimental indentation data to characterize mechanical properties of the human hippocampus (CA1, CA3, dentate gyrus), cortex white matter, and cortex grey matter.

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Liver transplant is a rare phenomenon for pyruvate kinase deficiency (PKD)-related liver disease and can be mediated by multiple mechanisms. In this report, we present a 55-year-old man with PKD who had acute-on-chronic liver failure with kidney failure and marked hyperbilirubinemia. His liver disease was from recurrent cholangitis, cholestasis from hemolysis, and iron deposition (likely from both repeated transfusions in youth and chronic hemolysis), all consequences of his PKD.

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Background: Foreign-born kidney transplant recipients (FBKTRs) are at increased risk for reactivation of latent infections that may impact outcomes. We aimed to compare the etiology of infections and outcomes between FBKTR and United States KTRs (USKTR).

Methods: We performed a retrospective study of patients who underwent kidney transplantation between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2018 at two transplant centers in Minnesota.

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Walkway tribometers are used to measure available friction for evaluating walkway safety and pedestrian slip risk. Numerous variables can affect tribometer measurements, including the type and distribution of contaminants on the surface. Here, we quantified the effect of application method on contaminant film thickness, and the effect of film thickness on tribometer measurements on the four reference walkway surfaces used in ASTM F2508-16e.

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Several caribou (Rangifer tarandus) populations have been declining concurrently with increases in infectious diseases in the Arctic. Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, a zoonotic bacterium, was first described in 2015 as a notable cause of illness and death among several Arctic wildlife species. We investigated epidemiologic and environmental factors associated with the seroprevalence of E.

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Background: Hydrogen sulfide (HS) is a toxic end-product of microbial fermentation produced in the colon that may play a role in the pathogenesis of several diseases, including ulcerative colitis and colon cancer. However, the effect of diet interventions on intestinal burden of HS gas exposure remains poorly understood.

Objective: Determine the effect of short-term (1-week) plant- and animal-based eating patterns on ex vivo fecal HS production in healthy human volunteers.

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This study characterizes the mechanical properties of human brain tissue resected during the course of surgery under multistep indentation loading up to 30% strain. The experimental characterization using fresh, post-operative, human brain tissue is highly advantageous since postmortem times can affect its biomechanical behavior. Although the quasilinear theory of viscoelasticity (QLV) approach has been widely used to model brain tissue mechanical properties, our analysis concluded that the linear viscoelastic approach provided a better fit to the experimental data overall.

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Phenomenon: Empathy is central to the physician-patient relationship, and affects clinical outcomes. There is uncertainty about the stability of empathy in medical students over the course of medical school, as well as differences in empathy between men and women.

Approach: A panel study design was used to follow first year through fourth year medical students (MS1-4) during the 2018-2019 school year.

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Background And Objectives: Multilevel factors drive health disparities experienced by sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations. We developed a 3-hour symposium focusing on care for SGM youth to address this. The symposium was a free, extracurricular event open to the public, with an emphasis on health professional students and providers from all disciplines and involved interprofessional didactic and interactive components.

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Properly estimating and reporting the uncertainty of walkway surface friction is key to ensuring pedestrian safety. Here we quantified the amount and sources of uncertainty in friction measurements by having four users of four units of each of two walkway tribometer models (Slip-Test Mark IIIB, English XL) perform 12 measurements on four samples of four different surfaces that ranged from slippery to slip-resistant. We found that 51-82% of the total variance in the measurements was explained by the user, unit, sample and a user-unit interaction, which means that the variance a single user calculates from their own data does not capture most of the uncertainty in their measurements.

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