Using National Survey Data to Estimate Healthcare Communication Disparities for Adults With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Background: Previous studies have identified considerable health outcome disparities for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) as well as poor or ineffective communication between adults with IDD and their medical providers.

Methods: Using National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data, this paper uses logistic regression to estimate disparities in healthcare communication and satisfaction between adults with IDD, adults with non-IDD disabilities, and adults with no reported disabilities, controlling for sociodemographic characteristics. Communication quality is measured with survey questions about whether medical providers are respectful, ask for patients' opinions, and offer understandable medical information.

Microbial metabolism of food allergens determines the severity of IgE-mediated anaphylaxis.

Anaphylaxis is an acute, potentially life-threatening reaction, often triggered by foods and largely mediated by IgE. A critically important aspect of anaphylaxis pertains to the factors that modulate its severity. The human microbiota is known to influence oral tolerance, but the microbial mechanisms directly involved in IgE-mediated anaphylaxis remain unknown.

Non-Invasive Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation Decreases Heart Rate Variability Independent of Caloric Load.

The vagus nerve is crucial in regulating physiological functions, including the cardiovascular system. While heart rate (HR) and its variability (HRV) may provide non-invasive proxies of cardiac vagal activity, transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) has yielded mixed effects, with limited research on right branch stimulation. In a randomized crossover study with 36 healthy participants, we investigated taVNS effects on HR and HRV indexed by SDRR, RMSSD, HF-HRV, and LF/HF ratio.

Addressing Ethnicity in the Design and Evaluation of an Educational Intervention on Interindividual Variation in Pharmacokinetics.

Interindividual variation in pharmacokinetics can occur due to diet, environmental or lifestyle factors, underlying pathology, and gene variants, typically single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Genetic mechanisms have received the most attention in research and education about ethnic differences in pharmacokinetics. Making this connection between genetics and ethnicity is problematic because it could reinforce the erroneous idea that there is a biological basis to ethnicity.

Nephrostomy tubes for management of a bladder occupying embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma in a 2-year-old: A case report and review of the literature.

Local control approaches for bladder/prostate rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) may include surgery and/or radiation after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, with goal of maximizing long term function. We report a case of bladder RMS presenting with acute renal complications in a 2-year-old female necessitating bilateral nephrostomy tube placement before administration of chemotherapy. As local control for RMS is delayed until after 12 weeks of neoadjuvant chemotherapy has been given, management of medical complications prior to surgery is not protocolized, making case reports and discussion helpful to future patients and providers.