Duration of double balloon catheter for patients with prior cesarean: a before and after study.

Background: Previous studies that suggest a shorter time from cervical ripening balloon placement to delivery with shorter total balloon placement time have excluded patients with prior cesarean deliveries.

Objective: To evaluate, in patients with a prior history of cesarean delivery undergoing cervical ripening with a double-balloon catheter, whether planned removal of device after 6 vs 12 hours would result in shorter time to vaginal delivery.

Study Design: A before-and-after study was performed after a practice change occurred November 2020, shortening the planned time of double-balloon catheter placement for cervical ripening from 12 to 6 hours.

Premorbid Risk Factors and Acute Injury Characteristics of Sport-Related Concussion Across the National Collegiate Athletic Association: Findings from the Concussion Assessment, Research, and Education (CARE) Consortium.

Background: Previous sport-related concussion research highlights post-injury characteristics that influence recovery trajectories; however, there is limited information regarding premorbid factors that affect sport-related concussion risk.

Objective: We aimed to (a) compare premorbid demographic factors among a large cohort of collegiate student athletes who did or did not sustain a sport-related concussion and (b) assess differences in acute injury characteristics based on biological sex and contact level.

Methods: We conducted a cohort study of university student athletes from 22 sports enrolled in the Concussion Assessment, Research, and Education (CARE) Consortium study from 2014 to 2021 (n = 1804 student athletes with sport-related concussions; n = 21,702 student athletes without sport-related concussions).

Prevalence and Predictors of Symptoms in Persons with Advanced Dementia Living in the Community.

Behavioral, psychological, and physical symptoms are prevalent in advanced dementia, as well as major contributors to poor quality of life, health care costs, caregiver burden, and nursing home placement. To determine the frequency and severity of symptoms in persons with advanced dementia living in the community, as well as the association between symptoms and satisfaction with care, and the identification of factors associated with symptom burden. Baseline data from a clinical trial testing the effectiveness of collaborative care home-based management for patients with advanced dementia.

An Automated Line-of-Therapy Algorithm for Adults With Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: Validation Study Using Blinded Manual Chart Review.

Background: Extraction of line-of-therapy (LOT) information from electronic health record and claims data is essential for determining longitudinal changes in systemic anticancer therapy in real-world clinical settings.

Objective: The aim of this retrospective cohort analysis is to validate and refine our previously described open-source LOT algorithm by comparing the output of the algorithm with results obtained through blinded manual chart review.

Methods: We used structured electronic health record data and clinical documents to identify 500 adult patients treated for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer with systemic anticancer therapy from 2011 to mid-2018; we assigned patients to training (n=350) and test (n=150) cohorts, randomly divided proportional to the overall ratio of simple:complex cases (n=254:246).

Association of State Medicaid Expansion With Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Liver Transplant Wait-listing in the United States.

Importance: Millions of Americans gained insurance through the state expansion of Medicaid, but several states with large populations of racial/ethnic minorities did not expand their programs.

Objective: To investigate the implications of Medicaid expansion for liver transplant (LT) wait-listing trends for racial/ethnic minorities.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A cohort study was performed of adults wait-listed for LT using the United Network of Organ Sharing database between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2017.

Weighted Blankets: Anxiety Reduction in Adult Patients Receiving Chemotherapy.

Background: Weighted blankets have been used as a deep touch pressure (DTP) tool to alleviate anxiety in many patient populations. Patients with cancer can experience anxiety related to diagnosis and treatments, such as chemotherapy infusions. Research on the effectiveness of weighted blankets as a DTP tool to alleviate anxiety in patients receiving chemotherapy is limited.

Detection and Analysis of Circulating Epithelial Cells in Liquid Biopsies From Patients With Liver Disease.

Epithelial cells in the circulation (circulating epithelial cells, or CECs) are analyzed as a non-invasive method to detect cancers; we investigated whether analysis of hepatocytes in the circulation can identify patients with chronic liver disease or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We previously developed a cell-sorting device to isolate CECs from patient blood samples and combined it with an mRNA analysis system to identify CECs with liver-specific markers. We tested the ability of this device to detect CECs of hepatocyte origin in blood samples from healthy individuals (n=10), patients with chronic liver disease without HCC (n=39), and patients with HCC (n=54), using immunofluorescence.