Health Care Utilization Among Post-Stroke Women: Associations with Perceived Racism.

Post-stroke health care is crucial for recovery and preventing complications. This study explored the association between perceived racism and health care utilization among post-stroke women, highlighting the disparate utilization patterns of marginalized racial/ethnic women. The 2022 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey was used to characterize health care utilization among women with stroke diagnoses across different racial groups: White, Black, Hispanic, and Asian/Asian, Islander, Alaska Native/Other/Multiracial.

State of the Art in Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion.

Left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) has become an important therapeutic target for stroke prevention in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. Over the past 2 decades, several advancements in LAAO devices (percutaneous and surgical) have been made for stroke prevention and arrhythmia therapy. However, there are several unanswered questions regarding optimal patient selection, the preferred LAAO approach and device, the management of periprocedural and postprocedural complications, including pericardial effusion, device-related thrombus, and device leaks.

Determinants and progression of stigma in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/motor neuron disease.

: Stigma in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/motor neurone disease (ALS/MND) may be felt or enacted; felt stigma covers feeling devalued by the illness, whereas enacted stigma refers to being treated differently because of it. Stigma in ALS/MND has been shown to increase social withdrawal, worsen quality of life, and reduce use of assistive devices, so we explored prevalence and factors influencing stigma. : Participants in the Trajectories of Outcome in Neurological Conditions-ALS study completed scales measuring stigma, fatigue, spasticity, functioning, mood, worry, self-esteem, and perceived health, as well as demographic information and symptoms like head drop or emotional lability.

Assessing left main bifurcation anatomy and haemodynamics as a potential surrogate for disease risk in suspected coronary artery disease without stenosis.

Coronary anatomy governs local haemodynamics associated with atherosclerotic development, progression and ultimately adverse clinical outcomes. However, lack of large sample size studies and methods to link adverse haemodynamics to anatomical information has hindered meaningful insights to date. The Left Main coronary bifurcations of 127 patients with suspected coronary artery disease in the absence of significant stenosis were segmented from CTCA images before computing the local haemodynamics.

Factors that Influence Recovery From Concussion in Young Children and Preadolescents.

Objective: To examine differences in the presentation and management of concussion in younger children (aged 4-8 years) versus preadolescents (9-12 years) and identify factors that influence recovery time.

Design: Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data.

Setting: Pediatric sports medicine and orthopedics clinic.

Yoga in Virtual Reality Increases Experience of Presence but May Be Less Satisfying, More Difficult, and More Nausea-Unbalance Inducing.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, yoga classes have increasingly been delivered in virtual formats via online videoconferencing. Virtual reality (VR) guided meditations have been found to be a satisfactory means of teaching meditation, but satisfaction with practicing yoga in VR has not been researched. The present study evaluated whether participants experience a greater sense of presence and satisfaction with yoga instruction provided through 360-degree videos when the videos are viewed in three dimensions through a VR headset compared to a standard two-dimensional display.

Artificial Intelligence in the Diagnosis and Quantitative Phenotyping of Hyperkinetic Movement Disorders: A Systematic Review.

: Hyperkinetic movement disorders involve excessive, involuntary movements such as ataxia, chorea, dystonia, myoclonus, tics, and tremor. Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) allow investigators to integrate multimodal instrumented movement measurements and imaging techniques and to analyze these data together at scale. In this systematic review, we aim to characterize AI's performance in diagnosing and quantitatively phenotyping these disorders.

Anemia in Myelofibrosis: A Focus on Proactive Management and the Role of Momelotinib.

Anemia is a common and progressive clinical manifestation of myelofibrosis that may occur as part of the disease pathogenesis as well as due to the myelosuppressive effects of some treatments, with a substantial impact on quality of life, prognosis, and healthcare resource utilization. Despite these burdens, anemia management has traditionally been a secondary priority to spleen and symptom control, due in part to the limitations of available therapeutic approaches. With the initial regulatory approvals of momelotinib, a Janus kinase 1 (JAK1), JAK2, and activin A receptor type 1 inhibitor that provides anemia-related benefits in addition to addressing splenomegaly and symptoms, re-evaluation of anemia as an early and prominent treatment consideration is warranted.

Non-invasive point-of-care optical technique for continuous in vivo assessment of microcirculatory function: Application to a preclinical model of early sepsis.

Increased amplitude of peripheral vasomotion is a potential early marker of sepsis-related microcirculatory impairment; however, previous reports relied on clinically unsuitable invasive techniques. Hyperspectral near-infrared spectroscopy (hsNIRS) and diffuse correlation spectroscopy (DCS) are non-invasive, bedside techniques that can be paired to continuously monitor tissue hemoglobin content (HbT), oxygenation (StO), and perfusion (rBF) to detect vasomotion as low-frequency microhemodynamic oscillations. While previous studies have primarily focused on the peripheral microcirculation, cerebral injury is also a common occurrence in sepsis and hsNIRS-DCS could be used to assess cerebral microcirculatory function.

Cellular Characteristics and Protein Signatures of Human Adipose Tissues from Donors With or Without Advanced Coronary Artery Disease.

: Perivascular adipose tissue (PVAT) exerts a paracrine effect on blood vessels and our objective was to understand PVAT molecular signatures related to cardiovascular disease. : We studied two groups: those undergoing mitral valve repair/replacement (VR, n = 16) and coronary artery bypass graft (CABG, n = 38). VR donors did not have coronary artery disease, whereas CABG donors had advanced coronary artery disease.

The structure of an amyloid precursor protein/talin complex indicates a mechanical basis of Alzheimer's disease.

Misprocessing of amyloid precursor protein (APP) is one of the major causes of Alzheimer's disease. APP comprises a large extracellular region, a single transmembrane helix and a short cytoplasmic tail containing an NPxY motif (normally referred to as the YENPTY motif). Talins are synaptic scaffold proteins that connect the cytoskeletal machinery to the plasma membrane via binding NPxY motifs in the cytoplasmic tail of integrins.

Myelofibrosis symptom assessment form total symptom score version 4.0: measurement properties from the MOMENTUM phase 3 study.

Purpose: The Myelofibrosis Symptom Assessment Form version 4.0 (MFSAF v4.0) comprises 7 common MF symptom items (fatigue, night sweats, pruritus, abdominal discomfort, pain under the left ribs, early satiety, bone pain) and is the first patient-reported outcome (PRO) instrument designed to assess MF symptom burden.

5-Year Results From the AMPLATZER Amulet Left Atrial Appendage Occluder Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: The Amulet IDE trial (AMPLATZER Amulet Left Atrial Appendage Occluder [LAAO] Investigational Device Exemption [IDE] Trial) evaluated the safety and effectiveness of the Amulet occluder (Abbott) in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. The Amulet IDE trial is the largest randomized LAAO trial, comparing the Amulet occluder with the Watchman 2.5 device (Boston Scientific).

A Hyperspectral Reflectance Database of Plastic Debris with Different Fractional Abundance in River Systems.

Plastic debris pollution transported by river systems to lakes and oceans has emerged as a significant environmental concern with adverse impacts on ecosystems, food webs, and human health. Remote sensing presents a cost-effective approach to bolster interception and removal efforts. However, unlike marine environments, the optical properties of plastic debris in fresh waters remain poorly understood.

Multi-Gb/s free-space laser communication at 4.6-μm wavelength using a high-speed, room-temperature, resonant-cavity infrared detector (RCID) and a quantum-cascade laser.

Research has shown that free-space laser communication systems may experience fewer outages due to atmospheric impairments such as haze, fog, clouds, and turbulence by operating at a longer wavelength in the mid-wave or long-wave infrared, if disadvantages such as lower-performance transceiver components may be overcome. Here we report a resonant cavity infrared detector (RCID) with 4.6-µm resonance wavelength that enables 20-dB larger link budget than has been reported previously for ∼ 5 Gb/s operation.

Longitudinal Assessment of Transfusion Intensity in Patients With JAK Inhibitor-Naive or -Experienced Myelofibrosis Treated With Momelotinib.

Purpose: Anemia is a cardinal feature of myelofibrosis often managed with red blood cell (RBC) transfusions, which may contribute to negative prognostic, quality-of-life, and healthcare-related economic impacts. The Janus kinase (JAK) 1/JAK2/activin A receptor type 1 inhibitor momelotinib was approved for the treatment of patients with myelofibrosis and anemia based on clinical trial evidence of anemia, spleen, and symptom benefits illustrated using binomial response/nonresponse endpoints. In the present post hoc, descriptive analyses, the impact of momelotinib on RBC transfusion burden over time was further characterized across JAK inhibitor-naive and -experienced patients.

Exploring reported population differences in Norway lobster () in the Pomo Pits region of the Adriatic Sea using genome-wide markers.

The Norway lobster () is one of the most important decapod crustacean seafood species in the Adriatic Sea. Previous research has identified significant differences in growth rates and maturation timing of in the Pomo/Jabuka Pits area compared to other subpopulations in Adriatic fishing grounds. Here, we use 1,623 genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to investigate whether the Pomo Pits subpopulation is genetically different from other sites in the Adriatic and neighbouring seas.

The role of losses in determining hyperbolic material figures of merit.

Uniaxial materials have achieved new prominence in photonics because they can have hyperbolic spectral regions with metallic (ε<0) and dielectric (ε>0) permittivities along different crystal axes. In the lossless case, this results in an open hyperboloid dispersion relation, allowing materials to support highly confined modes with extremely large wavevectors. However, even small losses change the character of the hyperbolic dispersion from open hyperboloids to closed surfaces with finite maximum k, significantly limiting the extent to which highly-confined modes can be achieved.