Is the Medium Still the Message? Culture-Independent Diagnosis of Gastrointestinal Infections.

Infectious diarrhea is caused by a variety of pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, and parasitic organisms. Though the causative agent of diarrhea has historically been evaluated via stool cultures, recently, culture-independent diagnostic tests (CIDT) have been developed and utilized with increasing frequency. Current practice guidelines recommend their use as adjuncts to stool cultures for diagnosing acute and chronic diarrhea.

Treatment of a Gastrointestinal Sarcoidosis Flare: A Multidisciplinary Approach for a Multisystem Disease.

BACKGROUND Sarcoidosis is a multisystem granulomatous disease with predominant pulmonary involvement and rare gastrointestinal (GI) involvement. The stomach is the most common site when there is GI involvement. Symptomatic gastric sarcoidosis with biopsy-proven disease has rarely been reported and much of the knowledge is from case reports involving white patients.

Intestinal Tuberculosis Presenting as an Ileocecal Mass in a Renal Transplant Patient.

Abdominal tuberculosis accounts for approximately 5% of tuberculosis cases. However, recognition of this entity can be challenging in the absence of concomitant pulmonary involvement. Immunocompromised and immunosuppressed patients are at elevated risk for this infection and are confronted with increased side effects, drug interactions, and disease complications.

Predictors of Acute Liver Failure in Patients With Acute Hepatitis A: An Analysis of the 2016-2018 San Diego County Hepatitis A Outbreak.

Background: Between 2016 and 2018, San Diego County experienced a hepatitis A outbreak with a historically high mortality rate (3.4%) that highlighted the need for early recognition of those at risk of developing acute liver failure (ALF).

Methods: A retrospective case series of adult hospitalized patients with acute hepatitis A.

A Community-Based Outreach Navigator Approach to Establishing Partnerships for a Safety Net Mammography Screening Center.

Washington, DC, has one of the highest incidence and mortality rates for breast cancer in the USA. Patient navigation coupled with informational and community resources are important strategies that assist patients' access and help them understand the complex world of cancer care. The Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center's Capital Breast Care Center (CBCC) is a safety net mammography screening center that utilizes a community-based navigation program.

MicroRNA and cutaneous melanoma: from discovery to prognosis and therapy.

Melanoma incidence and associated mortality continue to increase worldwide. The lack of treatments with durable responses for stage IV melanoma may be due, at least in part, to an incomplete understanding of the molecular mechanisms that regulate tumor initiation and/or progression to metastasis. Recent evidence supports miRNA dysregulation in melanoma impacting several well-known pathways such as the PI3K/AKT or RAS/MAPK pathways, but also underexplored cellular processes like protein glycosylation and immune modulation.

Superficial spreading and nodular melanoma are distinct biological entities: a challenge to the linear progression model.

The classification of melanoma subtypes into prognostically relevant and therapeutically insightful categories has been a challenge since the first description of melanoma in the 1800s. One limitation has been the assumption that the two most common histological subtypes of melanoma, superficial spreading and nodular, evolve according to a linear model of progression, as malignant melanocytes spread radially and then invade vertically. However, recent clinical, pathological, and molecular data indicate that these two histological subtypes might evolve as distinct entities.

Impact of race on survival in patients with clinically nonmetastatic prostate cancer who deferred primary treatment.

Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) racial disparity studies typically focus on survival differences after curative treatment. The authors of this report hypothesized that comparing mortality rates between African American (AA) and Caucasian American (CA) patients who deferred primary treatment for clinically nonmetastatic PCa may provide a better assessment of the impact of race on the natural course of PCa.

Methods: The pathology database of the New York Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC), an equal access-of-care facility, was searched for patients with biopsy-proven PCa.

Hippocampal leptin signaling reduces food intake and modulates food-related memory processing.

The increase in obesity prevalence highlights the need for a more comprehensive understanding of the neural systems controlling food intake; one that extends beyond food intake driven by metabolic need and considers that driven by higher-order cognitive factors. The hippocampus, a brain structure involved in learning and memory function, has recently been linked with food intake control. Here we examine whether administration of the adiposity hormone leptin to the dorsal and ventral sub-regions of the hippocampus influences food intake and memory for food.