Impact of a pharmaceutical care incentive program on the asthma medication ratio among pediatric patients with persistent asthma enrolled in a Medicaid program.

Asthma is one of the leading chronic disease states in pediatric patients in Texas. Pharmacy-led interventions such as targeted asthma education, scheduled consultations, and monitoring have shown success in improving asthma outcomes. However, no studies have evaluated the impact of the pharmaceutical care incentive (PCI) programs on Texas Medicaid pediatric beneficiaries.

Altered molecular signatures during kidney development after intrauterine growth restriction of different origins.

This study was performed to identify transcriptional alterations in male intrauterine growth restricted (IUGR) rats during and at the end of nephrogenesis in order to generate hypotheses which molecular mechanisms contribute to adverse kidney programming. IUGR was induced by low protein (LP) diet throughout pregnancy, bilateral uterine vessel ligation (LIG), or intrauterine stress (IUS) by sham operation. Offspring of unimpaired dams served as controls.

Fluorescence optical imaging for treatment monitoring in patients with early and active rheumatoid arthritis in a 1-year follow-up period.

Background: Fluorescence optical imaging (FOI) enables visualization of inflammation in the hands in rheumatic joint diseases with currently a lack of long-term follow-up studies.

Objective: To investigate FOI for treatment monitoring in a homogenous cohort of patients with early (disease duration < 2 years) and active (DAS28 > 3.2) RA over a period of 12 months.

Simulation and experimental determination of the online separation of blood components with the help of microfluidic cascading spirals.

Microfluidic spirals were used to successfully separate rare solid components from unpretreated human whole blood samples. The measured separation ratio of the spirals is the factor by which the concentration of the rare component is increased due to the Dean effect present in a flow profile in a curved duct. Different rates of dilution of the blood samples with a phosphate-buffered solution were investigated.

Dexamethasone and N-acetyl-cysteine attenuate Pseudomonas aeruginosa-induced mucus expression in human airways.

Background: Infection with Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA) induces mucus hypersecretion in airways. Therapeutic options to attenuate excessive mucus expression are sparse.

Objective: To investigate the effect of steroids and N-acetyl-cysteine (NAC) on PA-induced mucus expression.