Relativity, Rank, and the US News Health's Cardiology, Heart, and Vascular Surgery Best Hospitals.

Objective: Virtually anything can be ranked; the (USNWR or US News) ranks the top 50 hospitals specializing in cardiology, heart, and vascular surgery. Here the authors propose validating the effectiveness of rankings by comparing differences among the USNWR metrics across the top 50 hospitals.

Methods: The ranking system for the top 50 hospitals specializing in cardiology, heart, and vascular surgery was derived from 16 variant scores.

A Single-center Experience With >200 Lung Transplant Recipients With COVID-19 Infection.

Background: Although COVID-19 is no longer a declared global health emergency, data remain limited on the impact of COVID-19 in lung transplant recipients.

Methods: We identified lung transplant recipients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 from March 2020 through August 2022 in our institutional database and investigated clinical outcomes. We then analyzed outcomes based on date of COVID-19 diagnosis (first wave March 2020-October 2020; second wave November 2020-2021; third wave December 2021-September 2022) and compared these results.

Buprenorphine Induction in Trauma Patients With Opioid Use Disorder - A Single Center Experience?

Introduction: Buprenorphine is a Food and Drug Administration-approved therapy for opioid use disorder, with proven efficacy in treatment retention and reduction in opioid use and mortality. Low-dose buprenorphine initiation or microinduction is a novel means of initiation that may allow for an easier transition in patients. Trauma patients have high rates of opioid use disorder and patient directed discharges (PDD).

Cardiac device creativity and innovation under constraints: Exploring trends from the food and drug administration's device clearances and recalls.

Background: Medical device expenditures have increased in the 21st century, with cardiac devices comprising an outsized portion of the market. Meanwhile, the disproportionate share of FDA recalls of cardiac devices is often overshadowed. Using the FDA 510(k) premarket notification pathway and FDA recalls issued from 2000 to 2020, this project seeks to engage our understanding of innovation and recalls in the cardiac device space.

Safety of thyroidectomy in hospitalized patients: A descriptive analysis of the NSQIP thyroidectomy-targeted data.

Background: Some patients undergo thyroidectomy while hospitalized for a related or independent indication. Outcomes have not been described in this group.

Methods: The 2016-2018 thyroidectomy-targeted NSQIP datasets were queried for patients admitted for ≥1 day preoperatively.

Optical redox imaging of ANT1-deficient muscles.

Adenine nucleotide translocator (ANT) is a mitochondrial protein involved in the exchange of ADP and ATP across the mitochondrial inner membrane. It plays a crucial role in cellular energy metabolism by facilitating the transport of ATP synthesized within the mitochondria to the cytoplasm. The isoform ANT1 predominately expresses in cardiac and skeletal muscles.

Caspase-4/11 promotes hyperlipidemia and chronic kidney disease-accelerated vascular inflammation by enhancing trained immunity.

To determine whether hyperlipidemia and chronic kidney disease (CKD) have a synergy in accelerating vascular inflammation via trained immunity (TI), we performed aortic pathological analysis and RNA-Seq of high-fat diet-fed (HFD-fed) 5/6 nephrectomy CKD (HFD+CKD) mice. We made the following findings: (a) HFD+CKD increased aortic cytosolic LPS levels, caspase-11 (CASP11) activation, and 998 gene expressions of TI pathways in the aorta (first-tier TI mechanism); (b) CASP11-/- decreased aortic neointima hyperplasia, aortic recruitment of macrophages, and casp11-gasdermin D-mediated cytokine secretion; (c) CASP11-/- decreased N-terminal gasdermin D (N-GSDMD) membrane expression on aortic endothelial cells and aortic IL-1B levels; (d) LPS transfection into human aortic endothelial cells resulted in CASP4 (human)/CASP11 (mouse) activation and increased N-GSDMD membrane expression; and (e) IL-1B served as the second-tier mechanism underlying HFD+CKD-promoted TI. Taken together, hyperlipidemia and CKD accelerated vascular inflammation by promoting 2-tier trained immunity.

Migraine epidemiology in collegiate student-athletes: Findings from the Concussion Assessment, Research, and Education (CARE) Consortium.

Objective: This cross-sectional study evaluated de-identified data from the National Collegiate Athletic Association-Department of Defense Grand Alliance from 2014 to 2020 to determine the prevalence of migraine and migraine medication and to describe differences in migraine prevalence by sex, race, and sport.

Background: Epidemiological studies can help identify underdiagnosed and undertreated populations. Understanding migraine prevalence in collegiate student-athletes is essential for positive healthcare outcomes including development of prevention and treatment plans.

Three-Year Left Ventricular Assist Device Outcomes and Strategy After Heart Transplant Allocation Score Change.

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) adopted new criteria for the heart allocation score on October 18, 2018 to reflect the changing trends of candidates' mortality while awaiting transplant. We examined the impact of these policy changes on rates of left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation and outcomes after transplant from a relatively newer UNOS database. The UNOS registry was used to identify first-time adult heart recipients with LVAD at listing or transplant who underwent transplantation between January 1, 2016 and March 10, 2020.

A real-time simulation model of water quality with the impact of internal pollution for water source reservoir.

The water source reservoirs are the important urban water source in northern China. Although external pollution has been greatly improved, the internal pollutants in reservoirs continue to accumulate with the complex deposition and release processes, resulting in potential risks to water supply safety. To address the aforementioned issue, this paper proposed a simulation model of water quality named ECOlab EU1-WSR to simulate the spatio-temporal changes of water quality under the influence of internal pollution for the water source reservoirs.

A single-centre analysis of lung transplantation outcomes in recipients aged 70 or older.

Objectives: As life expectancies continue to increase, a greater proportion of older patients will require lung transplants (LTs). However, there are no well-defined age cutoffs for which LT can be performed safely. At our high-volume LT centre, we explored outcomes for LT recipients ≥70 vs <70 years old.

Pelvic Vein Obstruction in Chronic Thromboembolic Pulmonary Hypertension: A Novel Association.

Pelvic venous obstruction (PVO), defined as greater than 50% stenosis or occlusion of pelvic veins, is a known risk factor for deep vein thrombosis (DVT). DVT is a known risk factor for chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH), but the prevalence of PVO in CTEPH is unknown. This cross-sectional study at Temple University's tertiary referral center for Pulmonary Hypertension, Right Heart Failure, and CTEPH sought to identify the presence of PVO in patients with CTEPH who underwent cardiac catheterization, pulmonary angiography, and venography.

Distinct functional neutrophil phenotypes in sepsis patients correlate with disease severity.

Purpose: Sepsis is a clinical syndrome defined as life-threatening organ dysfunction caused by a dysregulated host response to infection. Sepsis is a highly heterogeneous syndrome with distinct phenotypes that impact immune function and response to infection. To develop targeted therapeutics, immunophenotyping is needed to identify distinct functional phenotypes of immune cells.

Innate immunity of vascular smooth muscle cells contributes to two-wave inflammation in atherosclerosis, twin-peak inflammation in aortic aneurysms and trans-differentiation potential into 25 cell types.

Introduction: Vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) are the predominant cell type in the medial layer of the aorta, which plays a critical role in aortic diseases. Innate immunity is the main driving force for cardiovascular diseases.

Methods: To determine the roles of innate immunity in VSMC and aortic pathologies, we performed transcriptome analyses on aortas from ApoE angiotensin II (Ang II)-induced aortic aneurysm (AAA) time course, and ApoE atherosclerosis time course, as well as VSMCs stimulated with danger-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs).

Maternal Blood Lipid Biomarkers of Oligodendrocyte Pathology to Predict Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders.

Introduction: Up to 9.9% of children have fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD), the most frequent cause of intellectual disability in the US. FASD may involve abnormal brain development, including dysmyelination, suggesting abnormal development of oligodendrocytes (OLs), which make myelin and are rich in lipids.

Deciphering the True Immunologic Risk in Renal Transplantation in Patients With HIV.

Since 1995, rates of end-stage renal disease have risen dramatically in patients living with HIV infection. However, given the concern for higher rates of acute rejection in this patient population, the immunologic threat posed by HIV infection is a specter clinicians must continually confront. Living donor transplantation may negate this risk; this study aims to assess the benefit of living donor transplantation in this population and to ascertain the immunologic risk faced by patients who are HIV-infected.

Delay in hospital presentation is the main reason large vessel occlusion stroke patients do not receive intravenous thrombolysi.

Objectives: Intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) and endovascular therapy (EVT) are the mainstays of treatment for large vessel occlusion stroke (LVOS). Prior studies have examined why patients have not received IVT, the most cited reasons being last-known-well (LKW) to hospital arrival of >4.5 hours and minor/resolving stroke symptoms.

A Shorter Door-In-Door-Out Time Is Associated with Improved Outcome in Large Vessel Occlusion Stroke.

Endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) significantly improves outcomes in large vessel occlusion stroke (LVOS). When a patient with a LVOS arrives at a hospital that does not perform EVT, emergent transfer to an endovascular stroke center (ESC) is required. Our objective was to determine the association between door-in-door-out time (DIDO) and 90-day outcomes in patients undergoing EVT.