Three linked vasculopathic processes characterize Kawasaki disease: a light and transmission electron microscopic study.

Background: Kawasaki disease is recognized as the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children in the developed world. Clinical, epidemiologic, and pathologic evidence supports an infectious agent, likely entering through the lung. Pathologic studies proposing an acute coronary arteritis followed by healing fail to account for the complex vasculopathy and clinical course.

Ultrastructural, immunofluorescence, and RNA evidence support the hypothesis of a "new" virus associated with Kawasaki disease.

Background: Intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies (ICI) have been identified in ciliated bronchial epithelium of Kawasaki disease (KD) patients using a synthetic antibody derived from acute KD arterial IgA plasma cells; ICI may derive from the KD etiologic agent.

Methods: Acute KD bronchial epithelium was subjected to immunofluorescence for ICI and cytokeratin, high-throughput sequencing, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Interferon pathway gene expression profiling was performed on KD lung.

Perception of intimidation in a perioperative setting.

Intimidation in health care settings can negatively affect patient safety. Following an adverse event in 2006 at Spectrum Health, a 7-hospital health care system in Grand Rapids, Michigan, leadership of the Grand Rapids perioperative services department led an initiative to evaluate and reduce the incidence of intimidation in the department. Physicians were surveyed to ascertain their beliefs about behaviors that constitute intimidation and to correlate those findings with definitions of intimidation identified by several national professional organizations.

Improving prophylactic perioperative antibiotic utilization in a hospital system.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched the Surgical Infection Prevention Project in 2002. The groups developed performance measures regarding perioperative antibiotic use to prevent surgical site infections. Other organizations have since adopted these measures.

Human airway epithelial cell culture to identify new respiratory viruses: coronavirus NL63 as a model.

Propagation of new human respiratory virus pathogens in established cell lines is hampered by a lack of predictability regarding cell line permissivity and by availability of suitable antibody reagents to detect infection in cell lines that do not exhibit significant cytopathic effect. Recently, molecular methods have been used to amplify and identify novel nucleic acid sequences directly from clinical samples, but these methods may be hampered by the quantity of virus present in respiratory secretions at different time points following the onset of infection. Human airway epithelial (HAE) cultures, which effectively mimic the human bronchial environment, allow for cultivation of a wide variety of human respiratory viral pathogens.

RNA-containing cytoplasmic inclusion bodies in ciliated bronchial epithelium months to years after acute Kawasaki disease.

Background: Kawasaki Disease (KD) is the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children in developed nations. The KD etiologic agent is unknown but likely to be a ubiquitous microbe that usually causes asymptomatic childhood infection, resulting in KD only in genetically susceptible individuals. KD synthetic antibodies made from prevalent IgA gene sequences in KD arterial tissue detect intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies (ICI) resembling viral ICI in acute KD but not control infant ciliated bronchial epithelium.

Magnetic resonance-based serial pelvimetry: do maternal pelvic dimensions change during pregnancy?

Objective: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the stability of the maternal pelvis over the course of the third trimester and the puerperium.

Study Design: Pregnant patients were recruited to undergo comparative magnetic resonance-based pelvimetry and fetal ultrasonography at 37 to 38 weeks of gestation. Most of the patients were recruited from a study of women who planned a trial of labor after a previous cesarean delivery for cephalopelvic disproportion.

Cytoplasmic inclusion bodies are detected by synthetic antibody in ciliated bronchial epithelium during acute Kawasaki disease.

Background: In developed nations, Kawasaki disease (KD) is the most common cause of acquired heart disease in children. An infectious etiology is likely but has not yet been identified. We have previously reported that oligoclonal immunoglobulin A plasma cells infiltrate acute KD tissues and that synthetic KD antibodies detect a distinctive spheroidal antigen in acute KD ciliated bronchial epithelium.

The magnetic resonance imaging-based fetal-pelvic index: a pilot study in the community hospital.

Objective: This study was undertaken to assess feasibility of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) pelvimetry in conjunction with fetal ultrasonography as a technique in evaluating patients with previous cesarean sections for cephalopelvic disproportion (CPD).

Study Design: Pregnant patients with one previous cesarean section for CPD who planned a trial of labor after cesarean (TOLAC) were recruited to undergo MRI pelvimetry and fetal ultrasonography at 37 to 38 weeks. Entry criteria included no previous successful vaginal deliveries and no contraindications for vaginal delivery in the ongoing pregnancy.