Effectiveness and acceptability of medical abortion provided through telemedicine.

Objective: To estimate the effectiveness and acceptability of telemedicine provision of early medical abortion compared with provision with a face-to-face physician visit at a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Iowa.

Methods: Between November 2008 and October 2009, we conducted a prospective cohort study of women obtaining medical abortion by telemedicine or face-to-face physician visits. We collected clinical data, and women completed a self-administered questionnaire at follow-up.

Technicolor explanation for the CDF Wjj excess.

We propose that the 3.2σ excess at ~150 GeV in the dijet mass spectrum of W+jets reported by CDF is the technipion πT of low-scale technicolor. Its relatively large cross section is due to production of a narrow Wjj resonance, the technirho, which decays to WπT.

Endoplasmic reticulum stress enhances fibrotic remodeling in the lungs.

Evidence of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress has been found in lungs of patients with familial and sporadic idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. We tested whether ER stress causes or exacerbates lung fibrosis by (i) conditional expression of a mutant form of surfactant protein C (L188Q SFTPC) found in familial interstitial pneumonia and (ii) intratracheal treatment with the protein misfolding agent tunicamycin. We developed transgenic mice expressing L188Q SFTPC exclusively in type II alveolar epithelium by using the Tet-On system.

A High Throughput Assay for Discovery of Bacterial β-Glucuronidase Inhibitors.

CPT-11 is a widely-used anti-cancer drug that is converted in vivo to its active metabolite, SN-38. In the liver, enzymes detoxify SN-38 by coupling it to a glucuronidate moiety and this inactive compound (SN-38G) is excreted into the gastrointestinal tract. In the intestine, commensal bacteria convert the SN-38G back to the active and toxic SN-38 using bacterial β-glucuronidase enzyme (GUS).

Predicting the insertion length for gastric tube placement in neonates.

Objective: To compare error rates of three existing methods of predicting the gastric tube insertion length in a group of neonates <1 month corrected age: age-related, height-based (ARHB); direct distance nose-ear-xiphoid (NEX); and direct distance nose-ear-mid-umbilicus (NEMU).

Design: Randomized controlled trial.

Setting: Five neonatal care units in a large midwestern city.

Accurate localization of the position of the tip of a naso/orogastric tube in children; where is the location of the gastro-esophageal junction?

Background: Abdominal radiographs are used to determine the location of the tip of a newly placed nasogastric tube. The precise location of the gastroesophageal junction has not been well described in the radiology literature.

Objective: To improve interpretation of radiographs taken to evaluate the location of the tip of a nasogastric tube.

When is collaboration not collaboration? When it's militarized.

In adopting the medical lobby's preferred definition of collaboration where midwives are legally compelled to seek endorsement for their care plan from an obstetrician, Determination 2010 connotes a form of militarized collaboration and thus negates all that genuine collaboration stands for--equality, mutual trust and reciprocal respect. Using Critical Discourse Analysis, the first half of this paper analyses the submissions from medical, midwifery and consumer peak organisations to the Maternity Services Review and Senate reviews held between 2008 and 2010 showing that Determination 2010 privileges the medical lobby worldview in adopting a vertical definition of collaboration. The second half of the paper responds to the principal assumption of Determination 2010--that midwives do not voluntarily collaborate.

Enhanced surveillance of norovirus outbreaks of gastroenteritis in Georgia.

Objectives: The role of noroviruses in both foodborne and person-to-person outbreaks of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) has been difficult to determine in the U.S. because of lack of routine norovirus testing and of national reporting of person-to-person outbreaks.

Postoperative maxillary sinusitis mimicking tumor recurrence on positron emission tomography.

A significant overlap of standard uptake values occurs in a variety of pathological processes, potentially causing misdiagnosis for tumor recurrence. The authors present a case of acute maxillary sinusitis masquerading as local recurrence of malignancy.

Comparison of effects of alcaftadine and olopatadine on conjunctival epithelium and eosinophil recruitment in a murine model of allergic conjunctivitis.

Background: Antihistamines constitute the first line of therapy for allergic conjunctivitis, and are safe and effective in relieving the signs and symptoms of ocular allergy. Despite this, they are less effective than some other drugs in relieving delayed symptoms of allergic conjunctivitis. Recent evidence suggests that changes in the conjunctival epithelium may underlie aspects of delayed reactions.

Optic disc contractility in morning glory disc anomaly.

Morning glory disc anomaly is a sporadic congenital abnormality of the optic disc that is often unilateral. These eyes possess heterotropic smooth muscle and can undergo spontaneous contraction with transient vision loss. The authors report an unusual case of contractility of a morning glory disc anomaly induced by ocular massage.

Honey promotes lower weight gain, adiposity, and triglycerides than sucrose in rats.

Various dietary carbohydrates have been linked to obesity and altered adipose metabolism; however, the influences of honey vs common sweeteners have not been fully explored. We hypothesized that in comparison with sucrose, a honey-based diet would promote lower weight gain, adiposity, and related biomarkers (leptin, insulin, and adiponectin) as well as a better blood lipid profile. Thirty-six male Sprague-Dawley rats (228.

Hypertension and incident dementia in community-dwelling elderly Yoruba Nigerians.

Objectives: To investigate the relationship between hypertension and dementia incidence in community-dwelling elderly Yoruba (aged 70 years and above) because of sparse information on dementia and its risk factors in developing countries.

Materials And Methods: Community-based, prospective study of consenting elderly Yoruba using two-stage design. Blood pressure was measured during the baseline evaluation at 2001 and hypertension was defined as BP ≥ 140/90 mmHg.

The anthropogenic environment lessens the intensity and prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in Balinese long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis).

The distribution of wildlife parasites in a landscape is intimately tied to the spatial distribution of hosts. In parasite species, including many gastrointestinal parasites, with obligate or common environmental life stages, the dynamics of the parasite can also be strongly affected by geophysical components of the environment. This is especially salient in host species, for example humans and macaques, which thrive across a wide variety of habitat types and quality and so are exposed to a wealth of environmentally resilient parasites.

Alleviating cancer drug toxicity by inhibiting a bacterial enzyme.

The dose-limiting side effect of the common colon cancer chemotherapeutic CPT-11 is severe diarrhea caused by symbiotic bacterial β-glucuronidases that reactivate the drug in the gut. We sought to target these enzymes without killing the commensal bacteria essential for human health. Potent bacterial β-glucuronidase inhibitors were identified by high-throughput screening and shown to have no effect on the orthologous mammalian enzyme.

Validity and reliability of the de Morton Mobility Index in the subacute hospital setting in a geriatric evaluation and management population.

Objective: To investigate the clinimetric properties of the de Morton Mobility Index (DEMMI) in a Geriatric Evaluation and Management (GEM) population.

Design: A longitudinal validation study (n = 100) and inter-rater reliability study (n = 29) in a GEM population.

Patients: Consecutive patients admitted to a GEM rehabilitation ward were eligible for inclusion.

Incidence and risk factors for cognitive impairment no dementia and mild cognitive impairment in African Americans.

The aim of this study was to estimate the age-specific incidence of cognitive impairment, no dementia and mild cognitive impairment (CIND/MCI) in a large, community-based sample of older African Americans in Indianapolis, IN. A longitudinal, prospective, 2-stage design was used with follow-up assessments 2 and 5 years after the baseline. A total of 1668 participants completed the 2-year follow-up and a total of 1255 participants completed the 5-year follow-up.

The complete genomes of Staphylococcus aureus bacteriophages 80 and 80α--implications for the specificity of SaPI mobilization.

Staphylococcus aureus pathogenicity islands (SaPIs) are mobile elements that are induced by a helper bacteriophage to excise and replicate and to be encapsidated in phage-like particles smaller than those of the helper, leading to high-frequency transfer. SaPI mobilization is helper phage specific; only certain SaPIs can be mobilized by a particular helper phage. Staphylococcal phage 80α can mobilize every SaPI tested thus far, including SaPI1, SaPI2 and SaPIbov1.

Hemoglobin and aerobic fitness changes with supervised exercise training in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.

Background: Aerobic exercise training (AET) is known to increase RBC production; however, this has not been evaluated in breast cancer patients undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy. The purpose of this study was to examine the changes in hemoglobin (Hb) levels in the Supervised Trial of Aerobic versus Resistance Training (START) and to determine its association with changes in VO(2peak).

Methods: Two hundred and forty-two breast cancer patients initiating chemotherapy were randomized to usual care (n = 82), resistance exercise (RET, n = 82), or AET (n = 78) groups for the duration of their chemotherapy (median, 17 weeks).

Addressing SNOMED CT implementation challenges through multi-disciplinary collaboration.

This article describes the challenges of implementing SNOMED CT into electronic clinical documentation systems for discharge summaries, synoptic operative notes and ambulatory documentation. Four significant implementation challenges were identified throughout these projects, which required collaboration between specialists across several disciplines to resolve. The challenges included: designing the graphical user interface for selecting SNOMED CT values, gathering and validating template specifications that use SNOMED CT subsets, handling SNOMED CT subsets and extensions, and, creating algorithms and the technological infrastructure to generate fast, meaningful, non-redundant search results.

Use of anticholinergics and the risk of cognitive impairment in an African American population.

Background: Anticholinergic properties of certain medications often go unrecognized, and are frequently used by the elderly population. Few studies have yet defined the long-term impact of these medications on the incidence of cognitive impairment.

Methods: We report a 6-year longitudinal, observational study, evaluating 1,652 community-dwelling African American subjects over the age of 70 years who were enrolled in the Indianapolis-Ibadan Dementia Project between 2001 and 2007 and who had normal cognitive function at baseline.

Effect of revascularization on long-term survival in patients with ischemic left ventricular dysfunction and a wide range of viability.

Short-term survival in patients with viability and ischemic left ventricular dysfunction appears improved by revascularization, but no randomized studies have shown a long-term benefit of revascularization in patients with a wide range of viability. Propensity analysis was used as a substitute for randomization in a study comparing the survival of revascularized and medically treated patients with ischemic dysfunction. Dobutamine echocardiography was performed in 274 patients with ischemic left ventricular dysfunction (mean ejection fraction 32%), with 32% having viability in > or =25% of the myocardium.

Varus malalignment negates the structure-modifying benefits of doxycycline in obese women with knee osteoarthritis.

Objective: To estimate the extent to which varus malalignment, a source of abnormal intra-articular stresses in the medial tibiofemoral compartment and risk factor for progression of knee osteoarthritis (OA), may have diminished the structure-modifying benefit of doxycycline in knee OA.

Methods: Post hoc treatment group comparisons from a randomized, placebo-controlled trial of the effect of doxycycline (100mg, twice daily) on medial joint space narrowing (JSN) in subgroups of varus and non-varus OA knees. Subjects (N=379 with X-ray follow-up) were obese 45-64-year-old women with unilateral knee OA at baseline.

The cancer pain practice index: a measure of evidence-based practice adherence for cancer pain management in older adults in hospice care.

Various clinical practice guidelines addressing pain assessment and management have been available for several years that pertain, at least to some extent, to older patients with cancer. Nonetheless, systematic evaluations or methodologically sound studies of adherence to pain management practice guidelines within Medicare-certified hospice programs are lacking. As part of a larger translating-research-into-practice pain improvement study involving older patients with cancer in hospice programs, we recognized the need to create a valid and reliable tool that can facilitate critical evaluation of hospice medical records for nurse and physician adherence to pain management guidelines to create a consolidated score for comparative and quality improvement purposes.

Assessing male spousal engagement with prevention of mother-to-child transmission (pMTCT) programs in western Kenya.

The importance of male spousal involvement in the prevention of mother-to-child transmission (pMTCT) programs is incremental to maintain family health and adherence to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) treatment and prevention regimens. This study examined reasons for men's involvement in pMTCT initiatives sought by their wives and other HIV-related services in western Kenya. Data were collected from 146 men and women during 16 focus groups across four different HIV-related clinics.