Agreement Between Dried Blood Spot and Plasma PCR in Infants With Congenital Cytomegalovirus Infection.

Congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) infection is diagnosed by positive urine or saliva testing within 21 days after birth. Beyond this age, newborn dried blood spot (DBS) PCR can retrospectively diagnose cCMV infection but has lower sensitivity than urine or saliva PCR testing. The DBS PCR may be negative due to the absence of blood DNAemia at birth or to the technical limit of detection for DBS PCR.

Expanding Access to Continuous Glucose Monitoring Through Empowering Primary Care: A Joint Endocrinology-Primary Care Quality Improvement Project.

Background: Despite guideline recommendations to offer continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) to all patients with diabetes using insulin, prescription rates for CGM remain low in primary care.

Objective: This quality improvement project aimed to improve access to CGM in primary care for patients with type 2 diabetes on insulin.

Design: This was a quality improvement project conducted by a joint endocrinology/primary care team at a single primary care community health clinic.

Clutter-Generating Phantom Material. Part I: Development of a Tunable, Acoustic Clutter-Generating Layer for Use With Ultrasound Tissue-Mimicking Phantoms.

Objective: Acoustic clutter is a major source of image degradation for in vivo ultrasound imaging. However, clutter is often not represented in laboratory testing of ultrasound equipment. A phantom material is proposed that can be used to add calibrated amounts of clutter in the laboratory environment.

A case study on using a large language model to analyze continuous glucose monitoring data.

Continuous glucose monitors (CGM) provide valuable insights about glycemic control that aid in diabetes management. However, interpreting metrics and charts and synthesizing them into linguistic summaries is often non-trivial for patients and providers. The advent of large language models (LLMs) has enabled real-time text generation and summarization of medical data.

Psychosocial determinants of oral health outcomes in young children.

Objective: To examine the social determinants of early childhood caries (ECC), one of the greatest public health risks affecting children, and examine alternative pathways of influence.

Methods: A physically healthy, socio-demographically high-risk sample of initially caries-free children, aged 1-4 years, was prospectively studied for 2 years. At 6-month intervals, assessments were made of caries presence from a standard dental exam; oral microbiology was assayed from saliva samples; oral hygiene behaviors and psychological and psychosocial risk exposure were derived from interviews and questionnaires.

Dnmt3a-dependent DNA methylation enforces lineage commitment and preserves functionality of memory Th1 and Tfh cells.

Following acute viral infection, naïve CD4+ T cells differentiate into T follicular helper (Tfh) and T helper 1 (Th1) cells that generate long-lived memory cells. However, it is unclear how memory Tfh and Th1 cells maintain their lineage commitment. We demonstrate that Tfh and Th1 lineages acquire distinct Dnmt3a-dependent DNA methylation programs that are preserved into memory.

Improving Benefit and Reducing Burden of Informal Caregiving for Patients With Heart Failure: A Mixed Methods Study.

Background: Few randomized clinical trials test the effect of interventions on heart failure caregiver well-being.

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a patient-focused symptom and psychosocial collaborative care intervention (Collaborative Care to Alleviate Symptoms and Adjust to Illness) on heart failure caregiver depression, burden, and benefit-finding.

Methods: A sequential explanatory mixed-method design was used in the context of a multisite, randomized clinical trial.

T cell responses and clinical symptoms among infants with congenital cytomegalovirus infection.

BACKGROUNDCongenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) infection can cause developmental impairment and sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). To determine the relationship between immune responses to cCMV infection and neurologic sequelae, T cell responses were compared for their connection to clinical symptoms at birth and neurodevelopmental outcomes.METHODSThirty cCMV-infected and 15 uninfected infants were enrolled in a single-center prospective observational case-control study.

Accuracy of continuous glucose monitoring in the hospital setting: an observational study.

Aims/hypothesis: Continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) improves glycaemic outcomes in the outpatient setting; however, there are limited data regarding CGM accuracy in hospital.

Methods: We conducted a prospective, observational study comparing CGM data from blinded Dexcom G6 Pro sensors with reference point of care and laboratory glucose measurements during participants' hospitalisations. Key accuracy metrics included the proportion of CGM values within ±20% of reference glucose values >5.

Central Nervous System Prophylaxis Utilization in Patients With Newly Diagnosed Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma Within a Large Community Health System.

Purpose: The impact of central nervous system (CNS) prophylaxis in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is contentious. The CNS International Prognostic Index (IPI) calculator offers prognostic guidance in identifying those patients who may be at highest risk of disease progression or relapse to the CNS. However, it is unclear whether this tool has guided clinician decision-making in a real-world setting.

Ordered Transfer from 3D-Oriented MOF Superstructures to Polymeric Films: Microfabrication, Enhanced Chemical Stability, and Anisotropic Fluorescent Patterns.

Films and patterns of 3D-oriented metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) afford well-ordered pore structures extending across centimeter-scale areas. These macroscopic domains of aligned pores are pivotal to enhance diffusion along specific pathways and orient functional guests. The anisotropic properties emerging from this alignment are beneficial for applications in ion conductivity and photonics.

Renal function in PUSH-AHF: a summary of newly released data from the 2024 Annual Congress of the Heart Failure Association of the ESC.

The Pragmatic Urinary Sodium-based algoritHm in Acute Heart Failure (PUSH-AHF) study, published in August of 2023, was the first randomized clinical trial to compare natriuresis-guided decongestion (based on spot urinary sodium measurement) to standard of care in patients with acute heart failure with congestion receiving loop diuretic therapy. Based on results from their trial, the authors concluded that natriuresis-guided loop diuretic treatment was safe and improved natriuresis and diuresis without impacting long-term clinical outcomes. The original PUSH-AHF trial included limited information about renal outcomes and left clinicians with important questions about how natriuresis-guided decongestion might affect their patients' renal function.

Intra-articular Calcaneal Fractures: A Report of Cases and Comments on Preoperative Management.

Objectives: To present a review of the clinical characteristics, preoperative and surgical management, and outcomes of patients with intra-articular calcaneal fractures who had open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) and to offer some comments on and research ideas for the preoperative management of patients with these fractures.

Patients And Methods: We studied consecutive patients who had ORIF performed by a single surgeon for closed, intra-articular calcaneal fractures at our level-1 trauma center between 5/29/2012 and 3/20/2018. All inpatients were treated with a preoperative soft tissue management protocol, whereas outpatients were not.

Leveraging Large Language Models to Analyze Continuous Glucose Monitoring Data: A Case Study.

Continuous glucose monitors (CGM) provide patients and clinicians with valuable insights about glycemic control that aid in diabetes management. The advent of large language models (LLMs), such as GPT-4, has enabled real-time text generation and summarization of medical data. Further, recent advancements have enabled the integration of data analysis features in chatbots, such that raw data can be uploaded and analyzed when prompted.

Photophysical Studies of Helicate and Mesocate Double-Stranded Dinuclear Ru(II) Complexes.

The metal-ligand charge transfer (MLCT) and phosphorescence-quenching metal-centered (MC) states of the helicate and mesocate diastereoisomers of a double-stranded dinuclear polypyridylruthenium(II) complex have been investigated using ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy. At 294 K, transient signals of the helicate decayed significantly slower than those of the mesocate, whereas at 77 K, no clear contrast in kinetics was observed. Contributions to excited-state decay from high-lying MLCT states were identified at both temperatures.

Human Observer Sensitivity to Temporal Noise During B-Mode Ultrasound Scanning: Characterization and Imaging Implications.

This work measures temporal signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) thresholds that indicate when random noise during ultrasound scanning becomes imperceptible to expert human observers. Visible noise compromises image quality and can potentially lead to non-diagnostic scans. Noise can arise from both stable acoustic sources (clutter) or randomly varying electronic sources (temporal noise).

Psychosocial Risk Exposure Limits Routine Pediatric Oral Health Care.

Introduction: This study aimed to identify social, psychological, and contextual factors that influenced attendance at routine oral health visits in a cohort of 189 preschool children who were followed over a 2-year period.

Methods: Generalized estimating equation was used to examine the association between clinic attendance and the predictors. ORs and 95% CIs were reported in the multiple logistic regression models.

Enhanced Bioactivity of Enzyme/MOF Biocomposite via Host Framework Engineering.

This study reports the successful development of a sustainable synthesis protocol for a phase-pure metal azolate framework (MAF-6) and its application in enzyme immobilization. An esterase@MAF-6 biocomposite was synthesized, and its catalytic performance was compared with that of esterase@ZIF-8 and esterase@ZIF-90 in transesterification reactions. Esterase@MAF-6, with its large pore aperture, showed superior enzymatic performance compared to esterase@ZIF-8 and esterase@ZIF-90 in catalyzing transesterification reactions using both -propanol and benzyl alcohol as reactants.