Contraction Measurements Using Three-Dimensional Fibrillar Collagen Gel Lattices.

The ability of cells to contract is an important feature of many cell types. Methods to quantitate changes in the degree of contraction are important to study how cells respond to stimuli or change due to various pathologies. Here we describe a method of embedding cells in three-dimensional collagen lattices to measure contractile properties of cells in vitro.

A Clinical Decision Support System to Prevent Aggression and Reduce Restrictive Practices in a Forensic Mental Health Service.

Objective: Preventing aggression and reducing restrictive practices in mental health units rely on routine, accurate risk assessment accompanied by appropriate and timely intervention. The authors studied the use of an electronic clinical decision support system that combines two elements, the Dynamic Appraisal of Situational Aggression instrument and an aggression prevention protocol (eDASA+APP), in acute forensic mental health units for men.

Methods: The authors conducted a cluster-randomized controlled trial incorporating a crossover design with baseline, intervention, and washout periods in a statewide, secure forensic mental health service.

Sleep Disturbance in School-Aged Children with Atopic Dermatitis: Prevalence and Severity in a Cross-Sectional Sample.

Background: Atopic dermatitis (AD) causes sleep disturbance but the epidemiology is not known.

Objective: To estimate the US prevalence of sleep disturbance and its impact on psychological and neurocognitive function.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of 180 parent-child dyads with AD using stratified sampling based on disease severity (Patient Oriented Eczema Measure: mild [n = 30), moderate (n = 75) or severe (n = 75]), age, and race (White or Black or African American or other).

Ultrasonography Findings of the Carpal Tunnel after Endoscopic Carpal Tunnel Release for Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

Objective: To investigate changes in the median nerve, retinaculum, and carpal tunnel on ultrasound after successful endoscopic carpal tunnel release (ECTR).

Materials And Methods: This prospective study involved 37 wrists in 35 patients (5 male, 30 female; mean age ± standard deviation [SD], 56.9 ± 6.

Development of novel nanofibers targeted to smoke-injured lungs.

Unlabelled: Smoke inhalation injury is associated with significant mortality and current therapies remain supportive. The purpose of our study was to identify proteins upregulated in the lung after smoke inhalation injury and develop peptide amphiphile nanofibers that target these proteins. We hypothesize that nanofibers targeted to angiotensin-converting enzyme or receptor for advanced glycation end products will localize to smoke-injured lungs.

Cohesiveness in previously deployed Army National Guard units: Implications for postdeployment behavioral health.

A major health policy concern of deployed U.S. military personnel has been the observed high occurrence of postdeployment behavioral health problems.

Electronic Tools to Bridge the Language Gap in Health Care for People Who Have Migrated: Systematic Review.

Background: People who have migrated or with a language barrier may face significant hurdles in accessing health care. Some apps have been specifically developed to facilitate the dialogue between health care professionals and people who have migrated who have low-level language proficiency or to promote health among people who have migrated.

Objective: We conducted a systematic review to investigate development, acceptability, and effectiveness of these types of apps.

Promoting HIV, Hepatitis B Virus, and Hepatitis C Virus Screening Among Migrants With a Language Barrier: Protocol for the Development and Evaluation of an Electronic App (Apidé).

Background: Late diagnoses of HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C are important public health problems that affect the population at large and migrants in particular. Missed opportunities of HIV and hepatitis screening are numerous, with language differences being a significant barrier to testing. Several studies have shown that migrants who do not speak the language of the health provider are less likely to get tested, due to health providers' reluctance to offer a test and to migrants' reluctance to accept testing.

Notch4 signaling limits regulatory T-cell-mediated tissue repair and promotes severe lung inflammation in viral infections.

A cardinal feature of COVID-19 is lung inflammation and respiratory failure. In a prospective multi-country cohort of COVID-19 patients, we found that increased Notch4 expression on circulating regulatory T (Treg) cells was associated with disease severity, predicted mortality, and declined upon recovery. Deletion of Notch4 in Treg cells or therapy with anti-Notch4 antibodies in conventional and humanized mice normalized the dysregulated innate immunity and rescued disease morbidity and mortality induced by a synthetic analog of viral RNA or by influenza H1N1 virus.

Infection-related morbidity and mortality among older patients with DLBCL treated with full- or attenuated-dose R-CHOP.

Infection-related morbidity and mortality are increased in older patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) compared with population-matched controls. Key predictive factors for infection-related hospitalization during treatment with rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) and deaths as a result of infection in older patients during and after treatment with R-CHOP remain incompletely understood. For this study, 690 consecutively treated patients age 70 years or older who received full-dose or attenuated-dose R-CHOP treatment were analyzed for risk of infection-related hospitalization and infection-related death.

Retinopathy of prematurity screening and risk mitigation during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has significantly disrupted the delivery of healthcare. Although most nonurgent ophthalmology visits at Boston Children's Hospital were canceled, premature infants at risk for retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) still required timely, in-person care during the initial 3-month period of the infection surge in Massachusetts. The purpose of the current study was to report our protocols for mitigating risk of exposure to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) between infants and eye care providers and to compare examination rates and results with the same 3-month period in 2019.

Association Between Incident Delirium Treatment With Haloperidol and Mortality in Critically Ill Adults.

Objectives: Haloperidol is commonly administered in the ICU to reduce the burden of delirium and its related symptoms despite no clear evidence showing haloperidol helps to resolve delirium or improve survival. We evaluated the association between haloperidol, when used to treat incident ICU delirium and its symptoms, and mortality.

Design: Post hoc cohort analysis of a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, delirium prevention trial.

Opioid Use Increases the Risk of Delirium in Critically Ill Adults Independently of Pain.

It is unclear whether opioid use increases the risk of ICU delirium. Prior studies have not accounted for confounding, including daily severity of illness, pain, and competing events that may preclude delirium detection. To evaluate the association between ICU opioid exposure, opioid dose, and delirium occurrence.

Effects of RANKL inhibition on promoting healing of bone erosion in rheumatoid arthritis using HR-pQCT: a 2-year, randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial.

Objective: To evaluate the effects of denosumab on erosion healing at 2-4 metacarpophalangeal (MCP) head as determined by high-resolution peripheral quantitative CT (HR-pQCT) in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) with stable disease.

Methods: This was a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind study. Patients with RA with disease activity score 28 joints (DAS28) ≤5.

Affective Development from Middle Childhood to Late Adolescence: Trajectories of Mean-Level Change in Negative and Positive Affect.

Adolescence has long been purported to be a period of emotional upheaval, yet relatively little is known regarding normative patterns of change in youth positive and negative affect across the adolescent transition. This study addressed this gap by examining normative patterns of mean-level change in youth positive and negative affect from middle childhood through late adolescence, encompassing the full span of adolescent development. Participants included 665 youth recruited in 3rd, 6th, and 9th grade cohorts (55.

Efficacy of ketamine for major depressive episodes at 2, 4, and 6-weeks post-treatment: A meta-analysis.

Rationale: Major depressive episodes are severe mood episodes which occur both in major depressive disorder and bipolar I and II disorder. Major depressive episodes are characterized by debilitating symptoms that often persist and interfere with typical daily functioning. Various treatments exist for major depressive episodes; however, most primary pharmacologic treatments may take weeks to months to provide relief from depressive symptoms.

Renal schwannoma: A case report and literature review of a rare and benign entity mimicking an invasive renal neoplasm.

Schwannomas of the kidney are rare with only a handful of cases reported in literature. We present a case of a large Schwannoma of the right kidney causing mass effect with imaging characteristics thought to represent renal cell carcinoma. On imaging, these masses present similarly to solid renal masses and are therefore indistinguishable without tissue diagnosis.

COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Canada: Content Analysis of Tweets Using the Theoretical Domains Framework.

Background: With the approval of two COVID-19 vaccines in Canada, many people feel a sense of relief, as hope is on the horizon. However, only about 75% of people in Canada plan to receive one of the vaccines.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to determine the reasons why people in Canada feel hesitant toward receiving a COVID-19 vaccine.

Application of ddPCR for detection of Enterococcus spp. in coastal water quality monitoring.

Droplet digital polymerase chain reaction (ddPCR) was evaluated for the detection of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB), Enterococcus spp., in San Diego County beach water samples collected under diverse conditions, from multiple pollution sources, as part of regulatory monitoring activities over 20 months. Two US EPA-approved methods, qPCR (EPA 1609.

Moral distress of medical family therapists and their physician colleagues during the transition to COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed healthcare for both clinicians and patients. This conceptual article uses ideas from the moral distress literature to understand the challenges MedFTs and physicians face during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors highlight earlier themes from the moral distress literature and share current reflections to illustrate similar challenges.

Efflux Limits Tumor Drug Delivery Despite Disrupted BBB.

Apparent blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption is common in glioblastoma (GBM), but has not translated to improved drug delivery efficacy. Recently, de Gooijer et al. demonstrated that efflux transporters can have a prominent role in limiting drug delivery.

Radiomics: The Next Frontier of Cardiac Computed Tomography.

Radiomics uses advanced image analysis to extract massive amounts of quantitative information from digital images, which is not otherwise distinguishable to the human eye. The mined data can be used to explore and establish new and undiscovered correlations between these imaging features and clinical end points. Cardiac computed tomography (CT) is a first-line imaging modality for evaluating coronary artery disease and has a primary role in the assessment of cardiac structures.

Assessing the quality of mobile applications in chronic disease management: a scoping review.

While there has been a rapid growth of digital health apps to support chronic diseases, clear standards on how to best evaluate the quality of these evolving tools are absent. This scoping review aims to synthesize the emerging field of mobile health app quality assessment by reviewing criteria used by previous studies to assess the quality of mobile apps for chronic disease management. A literature review was conducted in September 2017 for published studies that use a set of quality criteria to directly evaluate two or more patient-facing apps supporting promote chronic disease management.