Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Clostridioides difficile: a dual-site study of three different media and three therapeutic antimicrobials.

Objectives: Increasing resistance to antimicrobials used for the treatment of Clostridioides difficile infections necessitates reproducible antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Current guidelines take a one-size-fits-all approach and/or offer limited guidance. We investigated how the choice of medium affects measured MIC values across two sites.

What Is in a Name? Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Collegiate Athletes With and Without a History of Concussion.

Context: Athletes with a history of concussion (CON) have been demonstrated to have heightened levels of anxiety and depression that may continue well beyond the resolution of concussion symptoms. The global events of 2020 resulted in elevated levels of anxiety and depression in the general population, which may have unequally presented in collegiate athletes with (CON) than those without a history of concussion (NoCON). Using a deception design, our survey-based study compared levels of anxiety and depression in CON and NoCON collegiate athletes in response to the pandemic and social injustices.

State of the Art in Left Atrial Appendage Occlusion.

Left atrial appendage occlusion (LAAO) has become an important therapeutic target for stroke prevention in patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation. Over the past 2 decades, several advancements in LAAO devices (percutaneous and surgical) have been made for stroke prevention and arrhythmia therapy. However, there are several unanswered questions regarding optimal patient selection, the preferred LAAO approach and device, the management of periprocedural and postprocedural complications, including pericardial effusion, device-related thrombus, and device leaks.

Building the capacity of young professionals in family planning to publish: Insights from the ICFP2022 WHO scientific writing, mentoring and coaching course.

Objectives: We describe the development, delivery, and evaluation of a program to support junior professionals to publish their work in a scientific journal.

Study Design: Conference delegates with an accepted abstract at the International Conference on Family Planning (ICFP), self-identifying as junior professionals and from a low- or middle-income country (LMIC) or working predominantly in LMIC settings, were eligible for the program. The program involved: (1) Four face-to-face workshops at ICFP from the 14th to 17th of November 2022; (2) mentoring meetings at ICFP; (3) a six-month post-conference online coaching program; and (4) post-conference learning webinars from December 2022 to May 2023.

Commutability assessment of new standard reference materials (SRMs) for determining serum total 25-hydroxyvitamin D using ligand binding and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) assays.

Commutability is where the measurement response for a reference material (RM) is the same as for an individual patient sample with the same concentration of analyte measured using two or more measurement systems. Assessment of commutability is essential when the RM is used in a calibration hierarchy or to ensure that clinical measurements are comparable across different measurement procedures and at different times. The commutability of three new Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) for determining serum total 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], defined as the sum of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D], was assessed through an interlaboratory study.