Background: From 2002 to 2023, palivizumab was the only intervention to reduce RSV-associated hospitalizations in high-risk infants in Canada, but advances in RSV prevention are drastically changing this landscape. Eligibility criteria for this monoclonal antibody for preterm infants varied over time across each of 10 Canadian provinces and 3 territories. The national professional pediatric association (Canadian Paediatric Society) revised its eligibility recommendations in 2015, removing access for preterm infants 30 to 32 weeks gestation (WG).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIsothiocyanates (ITCs), found in edible plants such as cruciferous vegetables, are a group of reactive organo-sulfur phytochemicals produced by the hydrolysis of precursors known as glucosinolates. ITCs have been studied extensively both in vivo and in vitro to define their therapeutic potential for the treatment of chronic health conditions. Therapeutically, they have shown an intrinsic ability to inhibit oxidative and inflammatory phenotypes to support enhanced health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Obstet Gynecol MFM
January 2025
Background: Obstetric hemorrhage is the leading cause of maternal mortality and severe maternal morbidity (SMM) in Maryland and nationally. Currently, through a quality collaborative, the state is implementing the Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health (AIM) patient safety bundle on obstetric hemorrhage.
Objective: To describe SMM events contributed by obstetric hemorrhage and their preventability in Maryland.
Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr
November 2024
In recent years, there has been a growing demand for alternative food processing technologies that can improve food safety while preserving the nutritional quality of food products. Traditional thermal processing methods can lead to nutrient loss and degradation, prompting the exploration of novel approaches. Cold plasma (CP) technology, an emerging non-thermal food processing technique, has gained significant attention for its potential in the food industry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeuroinflammation in response to environmental stressors is an important common pathway in a number of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Responses to immune-mediated stress can lead to epigenetic changes and the development of neuropsychiatric disorders. Isothiocyanates (ITC) have shown promise in combating oxidative stress and inflammation in the nervous system as well as organ systems.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Birthing parents, defined as postpartum women and people with various gender identities who give birth, commonly experience challenging postpartum symptoms. However, many report feeling uninformed and unprepared to navigate their postpartum health.
Objective: To identify typologies of postpartum symptom informedness and preparedness using latent class analysis (LCA) and to examine the associated patient and healthcare characteristics.
Study Objective: To determine the median perioperative blood loss (PBL) during minimally invasive surgical (MIS) myomectomy.
Design: Prospective pilot study.
Setting: Large academic teaching hospital.
In the modern era, patients often resort to the internet for answers to their health-related concerns, and clinics face challenges to providing timely response to patient concerns. This has led to a need to investigate the capabilities of AI chatbots for ophthalmic diagnosis and triage. In this in silico study, 80 simulated patient complaints in ophthalmology with varying urgency levels and clinical descriptors were entered into both ChatGPT and Bard in a systematic 3-step submission process asking chatbots to triage, diagnose, and evaluate urgency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfluenza Other Respir Viruses
February 2024
Background: New Zealand's (NZ) complete absence of community transmission of influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) after May 2020, likely due to COVID-19 elimination measures, provided a rare opportunity to assess the impact of border restrictions on common respiratory viral infections over the ensuing 2 years.
Methods: We collected the data from multiple surveillance systems, including hospital-based severe acute respiratory infection surveillance, SHIVERS-II, -III and -IV community cohorts for acute respiratory infection (ARI) surveillance, HealthStat sentinel general practice (GP) based influenza-like illness surveillance and SHIVERS-V sentinel GP-based ARI surveillance, SHIVERS-V traveller ARI surveillance and laboratory-based surveillance. We described the data on influenza, RSV and other respiratory viral infections in NZ before, during and after various stages of the COVID related border restrictions.
Calf injuries are common in professional football; thus, the establishment of reliable and time-efficient methods of measuring the peak force capabilities of the plantar flexors with equipment that is accessible to football practitioners is valuable. In this study, we determined the preliminary reliability and feasibility of a new test, termed the kneeling isometric plantar flexion test (KIPFT), for footballers. Twenty-one male youth footballers (age = 17.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLimited research has reported the reliability of rapid force generation characteristics during isometric assessments of the hamstrings. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to determine the between-session reliability of rapid force generating characteristics of the hamstrings and relationship to maximal force production. Twenty-three female soccer players (age: 20.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHuntington's disease (HD) is a devastating monogenic neurodegenerative disease characterized by early, selective pathology in the basal ganglia despite the ubiquitous expression of mutant huntingtin. The molecular mechanisms underlying this region-specific neuronal degeneration and how these relate to the development of early cognitive phenotypes are poorly understood. Here we show that there is selective loss of synaptic connections between the cortex and striatum in postmortem tissue from patients with HD that is associated with the increased activation and localization of complement proteins, innate immune molecules, to these synaptic elements.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPaediatr Perinat Epidemiol
January 2024
Background: The assessment of birthweight for gestational age and the identification of small- and large-for-gestational age (SGA and LGA) infants remain contentious, despite the recent creation of the Intergrowth 21st Project and World Health Organisation (WHO) birthweight-for-gestational age standards.
Objective: We carried out a study to identify birthweight-for-gestational age cut-offs, and corresponding population-based, Intergrowth 21st and WHO centiles associated with higher risks of adverse neonatal outcomes, and to evaluate their ability to predict serious neonatal morbidity and neonatal mortality (SNMM) at term gestation.
Methods: The study population was based on non-anomalous, singleton live births between 37 and 41 weeks' gestation in the United States from 2003 to 2017.
Atrial fibrillation can present with symptoms of myocardial infarction and elevated troponin, even in the absence of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD). We sought to determine the characteristics that predict underlying obstructive CAD. Obstructive CAD was far more likely in those with troponin elevation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: We investigated how the Antenatal Late Preterm Steroids (ALPS) trial findings have been translated into clinical practice in Canada and the United States (U.S.).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInfectious agents have varying susceptibilities to thermal inactivation and/or mechanical removal from cages by the use of heated, pressurized water. In this study, we tested whether 5 specific infectious organisms ( [segmented filamentous bacterium (SFB)], sp., mouse norovirus (MNV), sp.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSulforaphane has been reported to possibly improve core symptoms associated with autism spectrum disorders from mostly small size studies. Here we present results of a larger randomized clinical trial (N = 108) in China. There were no significant changes in caregiver rated scales between sulforaphane and placebo groups.
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