The Economic Burden of Adults with Major Depressive Disorder in the United States (2019).

Introduction: Previous societal burden estimations for major depressive disorder (MDD) often fail to account for several hidden cost components. This study provides a comprehensive evaluation of societal costs for adults with MDD in the United States (USA) in 2019. The potential impact of a more effective, rapid-acting MDD therapy vs standard of care on the economic burden of MDD was estimated to illustrate the utility of such a framework in evaluating new interventions.

Micro-relief characterization of benign and malignant skin lesions by polarization speckle analysis in vivo.

Background/purpose: A recent direction in skin disease classification is to develop quantitative diagnostic techniques. Skin relief, colloquially known as roughness, is an important clinical feature. The aim of this study is to demonstrate a novel polarization speckle technique to quantitatively measure roughness on skin lesions in vivo.

Chronic use of benzodiazepines: The problem that persists.

Though clinical guidelines and policies discourage the chronic prescribing of benzodiazepines, rates of prescribing have continued to rise in the United States with an estimated 65.9 million office visits per year made for this purpose. Quietly, we have become a nation on benzodiazepines.

Survey of the Faculty Status of Optometrists at Academic Medical Centers in the United States.

Significance: This is the first study of the prevalence and faculty status of optometrists practicing at academic medical centers in the United States.

Purpose: This study aimed to quantify the number of optometrists at academic medical centers, along with faculty rank and post-doctoral training programs.

Methods: The official Web sites of academic medical centers and schools of medicine in the United States were examined during the 2021 to 2022 academic year to identify departments of ophthalmology and collect faculty profiles of employed optometrists.

Psychological Contributions to Symptom Provocation Testing After Concussion.

Objective: Following concussion, symptoms such as headache, dizziness, and fatigue may transiently worsen or reemerge with increased exertion or activity. Standardized tests have been developed to assess symptom increases following aerobic, cognitive, or vestibular/oculomotor challenge. Although neurophysiological mechanisms are proposed to underlie symptom increases following exertion, psychological factors such as anxiety and misinterpretation of normal bodily sensations may also play a role.

Tumor-Draining Lymph Node Reconstruction Promotes B Cell Activation During E0771 Mouse Breast Cancer Growth.

Lymph node metastasis is associated with tumor aggressiveness and poor prognosis in patients. Despite its significance in cancer progression, how immune cells in the tumor-draining lymph node (TDLN) participate in cancer immune regulation remains poorly understood. It has been reported that both anti-tumor and exhausted tumor-specific T cells can be induced in the TDLNs; however, B cell activation and maturation in the TDLN has received far less attention.

Polarization memory rate as a metric to differentiate benign and malignant tissues.

Non-invasive optical methods for cancer diagnostics, such as microscopy, spectroscopy, and polarimetry, are rapidly advancing. In this respect, finding new and powerful optical metrics is an indispensable task. Here we introduce polarization memory rate () as a sensitive metric for optical cancer diagnostics.

Differentiating Between Contact Lens Warpage and Keratoconus Using OCT Maps of Corneal Mean Curvature and Epithelial Thickness.

Purpose: To formulate an Epithelial Modulation index to differentiate between eyes with contact lens warpage and keratoconus.

Methods: Normal eyes and eyes with either contact lens warpage or keratoconus were scanned by a Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (OCT) system. Maps of epithelial thickness and anterior surface mean curvature were generated and converted to deviation maps by subtracting the average maps from a healthy population.

Simulating the Self-Assembly and Hysteresis Loops of Ferromagnetic Nanoparticles with Sticking of Ligands.

The agglomeration of ferromagnetic nanoparticles in a fluid is studied using nanoparticle-level Langevin dynamics simulations. The simulations have interdigitation and bridging between ligand coatings included using a computationally-cheap, phenomenological sticking parameter . The interactions between ligand coatings are shown in this preliminary study to be important in determining the shapes of agglomerates that form.

Prevalence of Walking Limitation After Acute Stroke and Its Impact on Discharge to Home.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to provide contemporary estimates of the prevalence of lower extremity motor impairment and walking limitation after first-ever stroke and to characterize the predictive nature of early walking ability for being discharged home after acute hospitalization.

Methods: In this cohort study, data were collected from a metropolitan acute care hospital in Canada at admission for 487 adults with first-ever acute ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke. Lower extremity motor impairment and walking limitation were measured using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale and AlphaFIM, respectively.

Patients' and therapists' experience and perception of exoskeleton-based physiotherapy during subacute stroke rehabilitation: a qualitative analysis.

Purpose: To explore the experience and acceptability of an exoskeleton-based physiotherapy program for non-ambulatory patients during subacute stroke rehabilitation from the perspective of patients and therapists.

Materials And Methods: This was a qualitative descriptive study using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis. Fourteen patients with stroke who participated in the experimental arm of a randomized controlled trial investigating the efficacy of exoskeleton-based physiotherapy were recruited.

Efficacy of an exoskeleton-based physical therapy program for non-ambulatory patients during subacute stroke rehabilitation: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Individuals requiring greater physical assistance to practice walking complete fewer steps in physical therapy during subacute stroke rehabilitation. Powered exoskeletons have been developed to allow repetitious overground gait training for individuals with lower limb weakness. The objective of this study was to determine the efficacy of exoskeleton-based physical therapy training during subacute rehabilitation for walking recovery in non-ambulatory patients with stroke.

Investigating the depolarization property of skin tissue by degree of polarization uniformity contrast using polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography.

The depolarization property of skin has been found to be important for skin cancer detection. Previous techniques based on light polarization lack the capability of depth differentiation. Polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) has the advantage of both depth-resolved 3D imaging and high sensitivity to polarization.

Incorporating clinical knowledge with constrained classifier chain into a multimodal deep network for melanoma detection.

In recent years, vast developments in Computer-Aided Diagnosis (CAD) for skin diseases have generated much interest from clinicians and other eventual end-users of this technology. Introducing clinical domain knowledge to these machine learning strategies can help dispel the black box nature of these tools, strengthening clinician trust. Clinical domain knowledge also provides new information channels which can improve CAD diagnostic performance.

Mirror Therapy for Lower-Extremity Hemiparesis: A Knowledge Translation Study Using an Educational Module to Change Physiotherapists' Perceptions.

Despite growing evidence that mirror therapy (MT) is effective for improving lower-extremity (LE) function in patients with stroke, it is not commonly used by physiotherapists. The purpose of this study was to determine whether change would occur in physiotherapists' knowledge of, confidence in performing, and willingness to use MT for LE stroke rehabilitation after participating in a 1-hour educational module. A convenience sample of physiotherapists working in neurorehabilitation was recruited for a single-group quasi-experimental pre-post study.

Ultrasound therapy for treatment of lower extremity intermittent claudication.

Background: While often thought of as a diagnostic tool, ultrasound (US) can also potentially be used as a therapeutic modality. US applies mechanical stress on endothelial cells and induces nitric oxide synthase, which regulates the secretion of nitric oxide, a potent vasodilator. In animal ischemic models, US has been shown to improve hindlimb, myocardial, and cerebral perfusion.

Constructing a portable optical polarimetry probe for in-vivo skin cancer detection.

Significance: Management of skin cancer worldwide is often a challenge of scale, in that the number of potential cases presented outweighs the resources available to detect and treat skin cancer.

Aim: This project aims to develop a polarimetry probe to create an accessible skin cancer detection tool.

Approach: An optical probe was developed to perform bulk tissue Stokes polarimetry, a technique in which a laser of known polarization illuminates a target, and the altered polarization state of the backscattered light is measured.

Immediate effects of hemodialysis on upper extremity and cognitive function.

Background: Subjects undergoing hemodialysis often describe feeling "weak" and "fatigued" after dialysis. This has not previously been quantified. We sought to evaluate upper extremity and cognitive function before and after hemodialysis to see if differences existed and how long recovery takes.

Brain activity during real-time walking and with walking interventions after stroke: a systematic review.

Investigations of real-time brain activations during walking have become increasingly important to aid in recovery of walking after a stroke. Individual brain activation patterns can be a valuable biomarker of neuroplasticity during the rehabilitation process and can result in improved personalized medicine for rehabilitation. The purpose of this systematic review is to explore the brain activation characteristics during walking post-stroke by determining: (1) if different components of gait (i.

The prospects for sustaining evidence-based responses to the US opioid epidemic: state leadership perspectives.

Background: The US 21st Century Cures Act provided $7.5 billion in grant funding to states and territories for evidence-based responses to the opioid epidemic. Currently, little is known about optimal strategies for sustaining these programs beyond this start-up funding.

Passive, yet not inactive: robotic exoskeleton walking increases cortical activation dependent on task.

Background: Experimental designs using surrogate gait-like movements, such as in functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), cannot fully capture the cortical activation associated with overground gait. Overground gait in a robotic exoskeleton may be an ideal tool to generate controlled sensorimotor stimulation of gait conditions like 'active' (i.e.

Perspectives on the prospective development of stroke-specific lower extremity wearable monitoring technology: a qualitative focus group study with physical therapists and individuals with stroke.

Background: Wearable activity monitors that track step count can increase the wearer's physical activity and motivation but are infrequently designed for the slower gait speed and compensatory patterns after stroke. New and available technology may allow for the design of stroke-specific wearable monitoring devices, capable of detecting more than just step counts, which may enhance how rehabilitation is delivered. The objective of this study was to identify important considerations in the development of stroke-specific lower extremity wearable monitoring technology for rehabilitation, from the perspective of physical therapists and individuals with stroke.