Design and Pilot Implementation of an ECHO Module on Hepatitis C Virus Infection During Pregnancy.

We developed a Project ECHO® module to offer prenatal providers training on engaging in shared decision-making about hepatitis C virus (HCV) treatment during pregnancy. In this pilot program, the ECHO module addressing HCV during pregnancy and the potential benefits of treatment was associated with increases in self-efficacy scores among participants.

Impact of an Urban Project ECHO: Safety-Net Clinician Self-Efficacy Across Conditions.

Introduction: To mitigate the lack of specialty healthcare, Project ECHO (Extension for Community Health Outcomes) trains community-based primary care clinicians to better prevent the progression of, manage, and treat common health conditions. ECHO-Chicago launched in 2010 as the first urban-centered ECHO program, focusing on safety-net clinicians, and has trained over 5,175 community clinicians across 34 topic areas. This paper examines self-efficacy among ECHO-Chicago participants across 11 clinical series, including a novel use of qualitative themes from self-efficacy questions.

Dramatic Increase in Incidence of Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn's Disease (1988-2011): A Population-Based Study of French Adolescents.

Objectives: Few data are available to describe the changes in incidence of pediatric-onset inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The aim of this study was to describe changes in incidence and phenotypic presentation of pediatric-onset IBD in northern France during a 24-year period.

Methods: Pediatric-onset IBD (<17 years) was issued from a population-based IBD study in France between 1988 and 2011.

The developmental relationship between DHEA and visual attention is mediated by structural plasticity of cortico-amygdalar networks.

Humans and the great apes are the only species demonstrated to exhibit adrenarche, a key developmental event leading to increased production of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), suggesting that this hormone may play an important evolutionary role. Similarly, visual attention networks have been shown to evolve in a human-specific manner, with some anatomical connections and elements of cortical organization exclusive to our species. Existing studies of human brain development support the notion that DHEA shows significant uptake in cortical structures and the amygdala, and as such, could be involved in the bottom-up regulation of visual attention.

Assessing Competence in Collaborative Case Conceptualization: Development and Preliminary Psychometric Properties of the Collaborative Case Conceptualization Rating Scale (CCC-RS).

Background: Case conceptualization is assumed to be an important element in cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) because it describes and explains clients' presentations in ways that inform intervention. However, we do not have a good measure of competence in CBT case conceptualization that can be used to guide training and elucidate mechanisms.

Aims: The current study addresses this gap by describing the development and preliminary psychometric properties of the Collaborative Case Conceptualization - Rating Scale (CCC-RS; Padesky et al.

Epidemiological and prognostic factors involved in upper gastrointestinal bleeding: results of a French prospective multicenter study.

Background And Study Aims: The mortality rate from upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) remains high, at 5 % - 10 %. The aim of the current study was to describe the epidemiological characteristics, prognostic factors, and actual practice in a cohort of patients with UGIB admitted to French general hospitals.

Methods: From March 2005 to February 2006, a prospective multicenter study was conducted at 53 French hospitals.

Does CBT facilitate emotional processing?

Background: Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is not primarily conceptualized as operating via affective processes. However, there is growing recognition that emotional processing plays an important role during the course of therapy.

Aims: The Emotional Processing Scale was developed as a clinical and research tool to measure emotional processing deficits and the process of emotional change during therapy.

The Emotional Processing Scale: scale refinement and abridgement (EPS-25).

Objective: The Emotional Processing Scale (EPS) is a 38-item, eight-factor self-report questionnaire designed to measure emotional processing styles and deficits. Scale development is an ongoing process and our aim was to (i) refine the scale by trying out items from a new item pool and (ii) shorten the scale to enhance its clinical and research utility.

Methods: Fifteen new items were added to the original 38-item pool.

Strengthening motivational interviewing skills following initial training: a randomised trial of workplace-based reflective practice.

Aim: The study assesses whether a workplace-based educational intervention helps professionals who had trained in Motivational Interviewing (MI) become more competent in it.

Design: Randomised controlled trial.

Participants: Professionals in health and social services in Dorset, UK, who had received training in MI (n=54).

Nephropathy caused by Chinese herbs in the UK.

The use of Chinese herbal remedies is increasing in the UK. We report the presence of a nephrotoxic compound in herb samples, which led to end-stage renal failure in two patients. We suggest that use of these products is regulated more tightly.

Abnormal mucus in cap polyposis.

Background: Cap polyposis is a rare disease characterised by mucoid and bloody diarrhoea, with polyps covered by a cap of mucoid and fibrinopurulent exudate. The pathogenesis is not known.

Aims: To pour some light on cap polyposis pathogenesis, by examining the mucus of patients and analysing the expression of five mucin genes, MUC2, MUC3, MUC4, MUC5AC, and MUC5B.

Long term effect of renal transplantation on dialysis-related amyloid deposits and symptomatology.

We report the five year outcome of nine patients with dialysis-related amyloid (DRA) who underwent successful renal transplantation (RT) and six patients who remained on hemodialysis (HD). Amyloid bone cysts, a radiologic feature of DRA, and scintigraphy with 123I-labeled serum amyloid P component (SAP), a specific technique for evaluating amyloid deposits in vivo, were monitored and compared with clinical features. In all HD patients there was clinical, scintigraphic and/or radiologic evidence that DRA progressed.

Cap polyposis occurring in the postoperative course of pelvic surgery.

The case is reported of a 42 year old woman who presented with the characteristic clinical, sigmoidoscopic, and histological features of cap polyposis occurring in the postoperative course of pelvic surgery. Pathogenesis of cap polyposis is unknown. In this patient, abnormal colonic motility was not a likely aetiological factor as suggested in previous cases.

Prevalence of antibodies to hepatitis C in dialysis patients and transplant recipients with possible routes of transmission.

The prevalence of hepatitis C infection and possible predisposing factors was assessed in a renal unit. Of 343 patients at our renal dialysis centre, 37 (10.8%) were anti-HCV positive by a 1st-generation assay (ELISA, Ortho/Chiron) and confirmed positive in 35 (10.

Serum amyloid P component in chronic renal failure and dialysis.

A normal reference interval for serum amyloid P component (SAP) concentration in the serum was established in 500 healthy adult individuals (274 women, 226 men), by electroimmunoassay calibrated with standards of highly purified, isolated SAP. The mass of SAP in these was determined from the extinction coefficient of SAP at 280 nm measured here precisely for the first time by spectrophotometry and cryogenic drying. The mean (SD, range) SAP concentration was significantly lower in women: 24 mg/l (8, 8-55), compared to 32 mg/l (7, 12-50) in men (P less than 0.

Imaging of haemodialysis-associated amyloidosis with 123I-serum amyloid P component.

Long-term haemodialysis is frequently complicated by amyloid deposition in which the fibrils consist of beta 2-microglobulin. Dialysis-related amyloid disease causes extensive morbidity and has been associated with deaths in some cases. All amyloid deposits contain amyloid P component that is derived from the normal circulating protein, serum amyloid P component (SAP).

Dialysis arthropathy: a clinical, biochemical, radiological and histological study of 36 patients.

Out of a population of 97 haemodialysis patients, 36 patients with dialysis arthropathy were identified. Dialysis arthropathy is a chronic symmetrical polyarthritis which affected 97 per cent of the patients who had been undergoing cuprophane haemodialysis for more than 10 years. It commonly affected the shoulders, hips, hands, knees and wrists, worsening with time and extending to other joints.