Publications by authors named "Kenney K"

Purpose: The National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) provides access to timely breast and cervical cancer screening and diagnostic services to women who have low incomes and are uninsured or underinsured. Documenting the number of women eligible and the proportion of eligible women who receive NBCCEDP-funded services is important for identifying opportunities to increase screening and diagnostic services among those who would not otherwise have access.

Methods: Using the Census Bureau's Small Area Health Insurance Estimates data, we estimated the number of women who met the NBCCEDP eligibility criteria based on age, income, and insurance status.

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  • A study found that changes in the brain entorhinal cortex (EC) and specific blood lipids are linked to Alzheimer's disease (AD) in individuals with the apolipoprotein E ε4 genetic variant.
  • Analysis of brain imaging and lipid profiles revealed that ε4 carriers with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) had thicker left ECs, but repeated mTBIs reduced right EC thickness.
  • The research highlights the need for further investigation into the relationship between ε4, mTBI, and specific blood lipid ratios as potential biomarkers for early detection of AD in affected individuals.
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Importance: Blast-related mild traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), the "signature injury" of post-9/11 conflicts, are associated with clinically relevant, long-term cognitive, psychological, and behavioral dysfunction and disability; however, the underlying neural mechanisms remain unclear.

Objective: To investigate associations between a history of remote blast-related mild TBI and regional brain volume in a sample of US veterans and active duty service members.

Design, Setting, And Participants: Prospective cohort study of US veterans and active duty service members from the Long-Term Impact of Military-Relevant Brain Injury Consortium-Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium (LIMBIC-CENC), which enrolled more than 1500 participants at 5 sites used in this analysis between 2014 and 2023.

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  • Chronic headaches are a common issue for military Veterans after experiencing traumatic brain injuries (TBI), and their treatment is often complicated and costly.
  • A study of 141,125 Veterans post-9/11 revealed that those with specific types of headache combinations, especially post-TBI migraines, faced significantly higher healthcare costs.
  • There's a need for further research to understand if the high costs correlate with better treatment results or indicate persistent, harder-to-treat headaches.
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Introduction: The National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) observed significant declines in screening volume early in the COVID-19 pandemic, January-June 2020, with variation by race/ethnicity and geography. We aimed to determine how screening in the NBCCEDP recovered from these early declines as it is important for monitoring the long-term impact on women served by the program.

Methods: Extending the previous analyses, we compared monthly breast (BC) and cervical cancer (CVC) screening volume in the NBCCEDP during 2020-2022, to five-year, pre-COVID-19 pandemic averages (2015-2019), and calculated percent change.

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Deficits in memory performance have been linked to a wide range of neurological and neuropsychiatric conditions. While many studies have assessed the memory impacts of individual conditions, this study considers a broader perspective by evaluating how memory recall is differentially associated with nine common neuropsychiatric conditions using data drawn from 55 international studies, aggregating 15,883 unique participants aged 15-90. The effects of dementia, mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injury, stroke, depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder on immediate, short-, and long-delay verbal learning and memory (VLM) scores were estimated relative to matched healthy individuals.

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Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) is shown to be useful in surgeries when the nervous system is at risk. Its success in part relies upon proper setup of often dozens of electrodes correctly placed and secured upon patients and inserted in specific stimulating and recording receptacles. Given the complicated setups and the demanding operating room environment, errors in setup are bound to occur.

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Effective teamwork is essential in almost every job, and can even mean life, death, or disability in some jobs. Intraoperative neurophysiological monitoring (IONM) is a career in which effective teamwork and accurate communication are of utmost importance, yet it comes with a unique set of challenges in which to achieve those goals. Operating rooms can be very stressful environments, even if a surgical neurophysiologist (SNP) works in the same hospital every day.

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Background: We examined spatial patterns of brain atrophy after mild, moderate, and severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), the relationship between progression of brain atrophy with initial traumatic axonal injury (TAI), cognitive outcome, and with serum biomarkers of brain injury.

Methods: A total of 143 patients with TBI and 43 controls were studied cross-sectionally and longitudinally up to 5 years with multiple assessments, which included brain magnetic resonance imaging, cognitive testing, and serum biomarkers.

Results: TBI patients showed progressive volume loss regardless of injury severity over several years, and TAI was independently associated with accelerated brain atrophy.

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The Nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome is activated by stimuli that induce perturbations in cell homeostasis, which commonly converge on cellular potassium efflux. NLRP3 has thus emerged as a sensor for ionic flux. Here, we identify forchlorfenuron (FCF) as an inflammasome activator that triggers NLRP3 signaling independently of potassium efflux.

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  • MRI is a key tool in researching diagnostic and prognostic markers after traumatic brain injury (TBI), particularly to understand mild TBI (mTBI), but findings are often inconsistent, highlighting the need for further study.
  • The study analyzed MRI data from 976 military veterans and service members to explore the links between imaging outcomes and clinical features of mTBI, using regression models to account for factors like age and sex.
  • Results indicated that while no major differences were found between those with and without mTBI history, blast-related mTBI showed significant brain volume reductions in certain areas, and multiple mTBIs correlated with specific MRI findings.
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More than 75% of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are mild (mTBI) and military service members often experience repeated combat-related mTBI. The chronic comorbidities concomitant with repetitive mTBI (rmTBI) include depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or neurological dysfunction. This study sought to determine a long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) expression signature in serum samples that correlated with rmTBI years after the incidences.

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Background: Little is known about cervical cancer screening strategy utilization (cytology alone, cytology plus high-risk human papillomavirus [HPV] testing [cotesting], primary HPV testing) and test results in the United States.

Methods: Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program were analyzed for 199,578 persons aged 21-65 years screened from 2019 to 2020. Screening test utilization and results were stratified by demographic characteristics and geographic region.

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  • The study investigates the relationship between traumatic brain injury (TBI) and changes in brain connectivity, particularly in military personnel with different histories of TBI during combat versus non-combat situations.
  • It focuses on how functional connectivity (FC) in brain regions related to movement, like the basal ganglia, varies depending on the context of the injuries.
  • The results reveal that those with deployment-related mild TBI have increased connectivity in certain brain areas, while non-deployment mild TBI was linked to significant correlations with walking performance, suggesting different behavioral outcomes based on the circumstances of the injury.*
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Increasingly, applied social scientists and clinicians recognize the value of engaging transgender and gender-diverse (TGD) people, particularly TGD individuals with lived experience as care recipients (peers), to inform the provision of gender-affirming care. Despite this trend, few researchers have systematically examined how this group can contribute to and enhance the development and delivery of interventions intended to affirm gender diversity. In this article, we address limitations in the literature by drawing on a secondary analysis of qualitative data - originally collected to examine the peer support experiences of TGD individuals - to explore the potential that TGD peers hold for elevating gender-affirming care.

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  • Chronic cognitive difficulties after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) are common, prompting a study to explore the relationship between aerobic physical activity and cognitive well-being in veterans and service members with prior mTBI.
  • The study involved over 1,000 participants, who were classified into different activity levels and underwent cognitive tests alongside self-reported measures of life satisfaction and well-being.
  • Results indicated no significant differences in cognitive performance across activity levels, but those who engaged in regular aerobic activity reported higher life satisfaction and health status, with some exploratory findings suggesting improved working memory and verbal fluency associated with greater activity levels.
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The development of high intensity petawatt lasers has created new possibilities for ion acceleration and nuclear fusion using solid targets. In such laser-matter interaction, multiple ion species are accelerated with broad spectra up to hundreds of MeV. To measure ion yields and for species identification, CR-39 solid-state nuclear track detectors are frequently used.

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Background: Headache (HA) is a common persistent complaint following mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), but the association with remote mTBI is not well established, and risk factors are understudied.

Objective: Determine the relationship of mTBI history and other factors with HA prevalence and impact among combat-exposed current and former service members (SMs).

Design: Secondary cross-sectional data analysis from the Long-Term Impact of Military-Relevant Brain Injury Consortium-Chronic Effects of Neurotrauma Consortium prospective longitudinal study.

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Multiple phase III randomized controlled trials (RCTs) for pharmacologic interventions in traumatic brain injury (TBI) have failed despite promising results in experimental models. The heterogeneity of TBI, in terms of pathomechanisms and impacted brain structures, likely contributes to these failures. Biomarkers have been recommended to identify patients with relevant pathology (predictive biomarkers) and confirm target engagement and monitor therapy response (pharmacodynamic biomarkers).

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Mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is the most common form of brain injury. While most individuals recover from mTBI, roughly 20% experience persistent symptoms, potentially including reduced fine motor control. We investigate relationships between regional white matter organization and subcortical volumes associated with performance on the Grooved Pegboard (GPB) test in a large cohort of military Service Members and Veterans (SM&Vs) with and without a history of mTBI(s).

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Introduction: Selective utilization of human papillomavirus (HPV) genotyping in cervical cancer screening can accelerate clinical management, leading to earlier identification and treatment of precancerous lesions and cancer. Specifically, immediate colposcopy (instead of 1-year return) is recommended in persons with normal cytology and HPV genotypes 16 and/or 18, and expedited treatment (instead of colposcopy) is recommended in persons with high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) cytology and HPV genotype 16. The effects of implementing HPV testing and genotyping into a screening program are largely unknown.

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  • The study analyzed outcomes from a 14-year period of surgeries for pediatric bone tumors with blood vessel involvement, emphasizing a multidisciplinary approach.
  • Researchers conducted a retrospective review of 117 tumor resections that involved both orthopedic and vascular surgeons, focusing on cases with major blood vessel involvement.
  • The findings showed that a vessel-sparing technique resulted in minimal complications, with clear margins in all cases and only one local recurrence, indicating its effectiveness in managing such complex surgeries.
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  • Researchers in neuroscience are using Big Data to improve the reliability and replication of cognitive studies, focusing on memory testing.
  • They conducted a mega-analysis with data from 53 studies, involving over 10,500 individuals, employing methods to harmonize data and reduce variability across different sites.
  • Their findings show that large-scale data sharing can enhance the reproducibility of research in behavioral sciences, and they offer a free conversion tool for this purpose.
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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) in military populations can cause disruptions in brain structure and function, along with cognitive and psychological dysfunction. Diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) can detect alterations in white matter (WM) microstructure, but few studies have examined brain asymmetry. Examining asymmetry in large samples may increase sensitivity to detect heterogeneous areas of WM alteration in mild TBI.

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