Understanding Clinician Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Relating to Nonpharmaceutical Fentanyl and Harm Reduction.

Background: Nonpharmaceutical fentanyl (NPF) is driving the national epidemic of opioid overdose deaths. Clinicians can play a role in fostering awareness of this growing risk and delivering interventions to reduce mortality. However, there is limited research assessing clinician knowledge, attitudes, and practices relating to NPF and harm reduction strategies.

Low dose IV buprenorphine inductions for patients with opioid use disorder and concurrent pain: a retrospective case series.

Background: Hospitalizations are a vital opportunity for the initiation of life-saving opioid agonist therapy (OAT) for patients with opioid use disorder. A novel approach to OAT initiation is the use of IV buprenorphine for low dose induction, which allows patients to immediately start buprenorphine at any point in a hospitalization without stopping full agonist opioids or experiencing significant withdrawal.

Methods: This is a retrospective case series of 33 patients with opioid use disorder concurrently treated with full agonist opioids for pain who voluntarily underwent low dose induction at a tertiary academic medical center.

Overcoming challenges in acute care hospitalizations for patients with opioid use disorder.

Background: Hospitalized patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) present unique challenges and opportunities for inpatient medical teams. Having the ability to initiate medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) and linkage to outpatient treatment are key to improve inpatient care of patients with OUD.

Objective: This study aimed to describe the process taken by a multidisciplinary work group to improve the acute care management of patients with OUD.

Elevated Patellofemoral and Tibiofemoral T1ρ Relaxation Times Following a First Time Patellar Dislocation.

Objective: The study was performed to evaluate cartilage within the knee following a first-time patellar dislocation, using elevated MRI-based T1ρ relaxation times as an indicator of low proteoglycan concentration. The hypothesis is that MRI-based T1ρ relaxation times for patellofemoral and tibiofemoral cartilage are significantly longer for knees being treated for patellar dislocation than for healthy control knees.

Design: Twenty-one subjects being treated for a first-time, unilateral dislocation of the patella and 16 healthy controls participated in MRI-based T1ρ relaxation time mapping.

Implementation and Assessment of a Proning Protocol for Nonintubated Patients With COVID-19.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic has caused over 1,250,000 deaths worldwide. With limited therapeutic options, proning nonintubated patients emerged as a safe and affordable intervention to manage hypoxemia.

Methods: A proning protocol to identify and prone eligible patients was implemented.

Amantadine withdrawal syndrome masquerading as COVID-19 encephalopathy: a case report and review of the literature.

Amantadine withdrawal syndrome (AWS) is a rare but recognized cause of severe and persistent altered mental status sometimes with co-occurring extrapyramidal symptoms. First described in a case series from 1987, its clinical manifestations have been characterized along a spectrum ranging from profound hypoactive delirium to hyperactive delirium with hallucinations. Risk factors for withdrawal include abrupt medication discontinuation, prolonged use, older age and underlying dementia.

MRI of sonographically indeterminate adnexal masses.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of MRI to characterize sonographically indeterminate adnexal masses and to define the sonographic features contributing to indeterminate diagnoses.

Materials And Methods: Two blinded radiologists retrospectively reviewed the MRI examinations of 87 patients with 95 sonographically indeterminate adnexal masses. Reviewers determined the origin of a mass, its tissue content (cystic, solid, complex cystic, or cystic and solid), tissue characteristics (fat, blood, fibrous, or leiomyomatous), and benignity versus malignancy.

Phosphorylation of the platelet-derived growth factor receptor-beta and epidermal growth factor receptor by G protein-coupled receptor kinase-2. Mechanisms for selectivity of desensitization.

Accumulating evidence suggests that receptor protein-tyrosine kinases, like the platelet-derived growth factor receptor-beta (PDGFRbeta) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), may be desensitized by serine/threonine kinases. One such kinase, G protein-coupled receptor kinase-2 (GRK2), is known to mediate agonist-dependent phosphorylation and desensitization of multiple heptahelical receptors. In testing whether GRK2 could phosphorylate and desensitize the PDGFRbeta, we first found by phosphoamino acid analysis that cells expressing GRK2 could serine-phosphorylate the PDGFRbeta in an agonist-dependent manner.