Is there a role for cardiac magnetic resonance imaging during pregnancy?

To assess the role of cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) for the evaluation and management of women with cardiac disorders in pregnancy and postpartum. Retrospective record review of women at a university-affiliated, single institution referred for CMR without contrast due to known or suspected cardiac disorders between January 2010 and December 2015. Medical records, echocardiogram and CMR reports were reviewed.

The FinFET Breakthrough and Networks of Innovation in the Semiconductor Industry, 1980-2005: Applying Digital Tools to the History of Technology.

The "FinFET" design for transistors, developed at the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1990s, represented a major leap forward in the semiconductor industry. Understanding its origins and importance requires deep knowledge of local factors, such as the relationships among the lab's principal investigators, students, staff, and the institution. It also requires understanding this lab within the broader network of relationships that comprise the semiconductor industry-a much more difficult task using traditional historical methods, due to the paucity of sources on industrial research.

Severe Paediatric Asthma Collaborative in Europe (SPACE): protocol for a European registry.

The development of new asthma biologics and receptor blockers for the treatment of paediatric severe asthma raises challenges. It is unclear whether there are sufficient children in Europe to recruit into randomised placebo-controlled trials to establish efficacy and safety in this age group. In February 2016, the European Respiratory Society funded a clinical research collaboration entitled "Severe Paediatric Asthma Collaborative in Europe" (SPACE).

Healthy publics: enabling cultures and environments for health.

Despite extraordinary advances in biomedicine and associated gains in human health and well-being, a growing number of health and well-being related challenges have remained or emerged in recent years. These challenges are often 'more than biomedical' in complexion, being social, cultural and environmental in terms of their key drivers and determinants, and underline the necessity of a concerted policy focus on generating healthy societies. Despite the apparent agreement on this diagnosis, the means to produce change are seldom clear, even when the turn to health and well-being requires sizable shifts in our understandings of public health and research practices.

Large-Scale Label-Free Quantitative Mapping of the Sputum Proteome.

Analysis of induced sputum supernatant is a minimally invasive approach to study the epithelial lining fluid and, thereby, provide insight into normal lung biology and the pathobiology of lung diseases. We present here a novel proteomics approach to sputum analysis developed within the U-BIOPRED (unbiased biomarkers predictive of respiratory disease outcomes) international project. We present practical and analytical techniques to optimize the detection of robust biomarkers in proteomic studies.

A comparison of weather variables linked to infectious disease patterns using laboratory addresses and patient residence addresses.

Background: To understand the impact of weather on infectious diseases, information on weather parameters at patient locations is needed, but this is not always accessible due to confidentiality or data availability. Weather parameters at nearby locations are often used as a proxy, but the accuracy of this practice is not known.

Methods: Daily Campylobacter and Cryptosporidium cases across England and Wales were linked to local temperature and rainfall at the residence postcodes of the patients and at the corresponding postcodes of the laboratory where the patient's specimen was tested.

Health Promotion at the Construction Work Site: The Lunch Truck Pilot Study.

The transient nature of construction work makes it difficult to conduct longitudinal worksite-based health promotion activities. As part of a workplace health assessment pilot study, we worked with a commercial lunch truck company to disseminate four types of health education materials including cancer screening, workplace injury prevention, fruit and vegetable consumption, and smoking cessation to construction workers purchasing food items from the truck during their job breaks. Two weeks following the worksite assessment, we followed up with these workers to ascertain their use of the health promotion materials.

Sputum proteomics and airway cell transcripts of current and ex-smokers with severe asthma in U-BIOPRED: an exploratory analysis.

Severe asthma patients with a significant smoking history have airflow obstruction with reported neutrophilia. We hypothesise that multi-omic analysis will enable the definition of smoking and ex-smoking severe asthma molecular phenotypes.The U-BIOPRED cohort of severe asthma patients, containing current-smokers (CSA), ex-smokers (ESA), nonsmokers and healthy nonsmokers was examined.

Early Ambulation Among Hospitalized Heart Failure Patients Is Associated With Reduced Length of Stay and 30-Day Readmissions.

Background: Early ambulation (EA) is associated with improved outcomes for mechanically ventilated and stroke patients. Whether the same association exists for patients hospitalized with acute heart failure is unknown. We sought to determine whether EA among patients hospitalized with heart failure is associated with length of stay, discharge disposition, 30-day post discharge readmissions, and mortality.

The relationship between inflammation and remodeling in childhood asthma: A systematic review.

Objectives: We aimed to perform a systematic review of all studies with direct measurements of both airway inflammation and remodeling in the subgroup of children with repeated wheezing and/or persistent asthma severe enough to warrant bronchoscopy, to address whether airway inflammation precedes remodeling or is a parallel process, and also to assess the impact of remodeling on lung function.

Methods: Four databases were searched up to June 2017. Two independent reviewers screened the literature and extracted relevant data.

Asthma exacerbation prediction: recent insights.

Purpose Of Review: Asthma attacks are frequent in children with asthma and can lead to significant adverse outcomes including time off school, hospital admission and death. Identifying children at risk of an asthma attack affords the opportunity to prevent attacks and improve outcomes.

Recent Findings: Clinical features, patient behaviours and characteristics, physiological factors, environmental data and biomarkers are all associated with asthma attacks and can be used in asthma exacerbation prediction models.

Adolescent and caregivers' experiences of electronic adherence assessment in paediatric problematic severe asthma.

This study explored the experiences of adolescents and their caregivers regarding adherence to inhaled corticosteroids which are assessed through an electronic monitoring device (EMD). These devices are increasingly being used for assessing medication adherence, yet there is little information about patient's experience of these tools. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight adolescents with severe asthma, aged 11-15 years, who were electronically monitored as part of their care, along with their caregivers.

Electronic monitoring of adherence to inhaled corticosteroids: an essential tool in identifying severe asthma in children.

International guidelines recommend that severe asthma can only be diagnosed after contributory factors, including adherence, have been addressed. Accurate assessment of adherence is difficult in clinical practice. We hypothesised that electronic monitoring in children would identify nonadherence, thus delineating the small number with true severe asthma.

The impact of participation in a Research/Writing Group on scholarly pursuits by non-tenure track clinical faculty.

Background And Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the success of a faculty Research/Writing Group (RWG) by quantifying the amount of scholarly productivity from participants in the group compared with that of a matched cohort.

Educational Activity And Setting: The RWG meets monthly to discuss current projects, providing an assessment of their scholarly activity. Participants offer ideas on improvement, resources and possible platforms for presentations and/or publications.

Scoping the proximal and distal dimensions of climate change on health and wellbeing.

The impacts of climate on health and wellbeing occur in time and space and through a range of indirect, complicated mechanisms. This diversity of pathways has major implications for national public health planning and influence on interventions that might help to mitigate and adapt to rapidly changing environmental conditions, nationally and internationally. This paper draws upon evidence from public health and adverse impact studies across climate science, hydrology, agriculture, public health, and the social sciences.

Whole-system approaches to improving the health and wellbeing of healthcare workers: A systematic review.

Background: Healthcare professionals throughout the developed world report higher levels of sickness absence, dissatisfaction, distress, and "burnout" at work than staff in other sectors. There is a growing call for the 'triple aim' of healthcare delivery (improving patient experience and outcomes and reducing costs; to include a fourth aim: improving healthcare staff experience of healthcare delivery. A systematic review commissioned by the United Kingdom's (UK) Department of Health reviewed a large number of international healthy workplace interventions and recommended five whole-system changes to improve healthcare staff health and wellbeing: identification and response to local need, engagement of staff at all levels, and the involvement, visible leadership from, and up-skilling of, management and board-level staff.

How the Child's Gender Matters for Families Having a Child With Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia.

Children with congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) are exposed to high levels of testosterone in utero often resulting in nontypical genitalia at birth for girls. The purpose of this analysis, which draws on data from a larger study, was to examine, based on the gender of the child, the family experiences of having a child with CAH. Sixteen parents were interviewed, and comparisons were made across all categories coded in the parents' interviews to examine similarities and differences in the experiences of families based on the child's gender.

Transcriptomic gene signatures associated with persistent airflow limitation in patients with severe asthma.

A proportion of severe asthma patients suffers from persistent airflow limitation (PAL), often associated with more symptoms and exacerbations. Little is known about the underlying mechanisms. Here, our aim was to discover unexplored potential mechanisms using Gene Set Variation Analysis (GSVA), a sensitive technique that can detect underlying pathways in heterogeneous samples.

Land cover and air pollution are associated with asthma hospitalisations: A cross-sectional study.

Background: There is increasing policy interest in the potential for vegetation in urban areas to mitigate harmful effects of air pollution on respiratory health. We aimed to quantify relationships between tree and green space density and asthma-related hospitalisations, and explore how these varied with exposure to background air pollution concentrations.

Methods: Population standardised asthma hospitalisation rates (1997-2012) for 26,455 urban residential areas of England were merged with area-level data on vegetation and background air pollutant concentrations.

Managing problematic severe asthma: beyond the guidelines.

This review discusses issues related to managing problematic severe asthma in children and young people. A small minority of children have genuinely severe asthma symptoms which are difficult to control. Children with genuinely severe asthma need investigations and treatments beyond those described within conventional guidelines.