Publications by authors named "Kara Samsel"

Background: Point-of-care ultrasound is becoming a ubiquitous diagnostic tool, and there has been increasing interest to teach novice practitioners. One of the challenges is the scarcity of qualified instructors, and with COVID-19, another challenge is the difficulty with social distancing between learners and educators. The purpose of our study was to determine if ultrasound-naïve operators can learn ultrasound techniques and develop the psychomotor skills to acquire ultrasound images after reviewing SonoSim® online modules.

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Objectives: To determine the feasibility of integrating pre-intubation ultrasound into airway course and assess emergency medicine (EM) residents' confidence and comfort level in using ultrasound for pre-intubation hemodynamic stabilization and identifying cricothyroid membrane after the training session.

Materials And Methods: This is a retrospective study. Pre-intubation ultrasound training was delivered with the following ultrasound components (didactics and hands-on sessions using human models) to EM residents: (1) sonoanatomy and scanning technique to identify cricothyroid membrane and (2) pre-intubation echocardiography for recognition of acute right ventricular failure and pre-intubation hemodynamic stabilization.

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Introduction  Ultrasound-guided peripheral nerve blocks (USGPNB) are performed by various specialists and are excellent, non-addicting pain control techniques. Alternative pain management approaches are needed to combat opiate abuse. Medical students should be aware of alternative pain management therapies before they begin clinical practice.

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Small heat shock proteins (sHSPs) are virtually ubiquitous stress proteins that are also found in many normal tissues and accumulate in diseases of protein folding. They generally act as ATP-independent chaperones to bind and stabilize denaturing proteins that can be later reactivated by ATP-dependent Hsp70/DnaK, but the mechanism of substrate capture by sHSPs remains poorly understood. A majority of sHSPs form large oligomers, a property that has been linked to their effective chaperone action.

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