Advocating for an Advanced Cardiac POCUS Curriculum Among Internal Medicine Residents.

Advocating for integrating a cardiac point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) curriculum into Internal Medicine residency, this letter emphasizes the unique advantages of cardiac POCUS, particularly its rapid utility and safety, while highlighting existing knowledge gaps among trainees. This perspective research letter underscores the need for a structured advanced cardiac POCUS elective to address the knowledge and skill gaps among internal medicine trainees who have taken the introductory POCUS elective, providing a career preparatory course for internal medicine residents interested in cardiology, critical care, hospital medicine, primary care, and rural medicine. The perspective research paper also underscores the feasibility and benefits of such training, ultimately supporting the implementation of an advanced cardiac POCUS elective in the United States Internal Medicine residency programs.

Conformational response of αβ and αβ integrins to force.

As major adhesion receptors, integrins transmit biochemical and mechanical signals across the plasma membrane. These functions are regulated by transitions between bent and extended conformations and modulated by force. To understand how force on integrins mediates cellular mechanosensing, we compared two highly homologous integrins, αβ and αβ.

Esophageal Obstruction from Food Bolus Impaction Successfully Managed with the "Upright Posture, Chin Tuck, Double Swallow" Maneuver: A Case Report.

Introduction: An attempt at medical management is often the initial step in addressing esophageal obstruction from an impacted food bolus. Medical management, however, has limited success and often requires urgent endoscopy. We present a case in which standard medical treatment failed, but a swallowing augmentation maneuver resolved the obstruction.

Polycomb Repressive Complex 2 promotes atherosclerotic plaque vulnerability.

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), the leading cause of mortality worldwide, is driven by endothelial cell inflammatory activation and counter-balanced by anti-inflammatory transcription factors Klf2 and Klf4 (Klf2/4). Understanding vascular endothelial inflammation to develop effective treatments is thus essential. Here, we identify, Polycomb Repressive Complex (PRC) 2, which blocks gene transcription by trimethylating histone3 Lysine27 in gene promoter/enhancers, as a potent, therapeutically targetable determinant of vascular inflammation and ASCVD progression.

Integrins as Drug Targets in Vascular and Related Diseases.

Integrins are transmembrane receptors that, as critical participants in a vast range of pathological processes, are potential therapeutic targets. However, in only a few cases has the promise been realized by drug approval. In this review, we briefly review basic integrin biology and participation in disease, challenges in the development of safe, effective integrin-targeted therapies, and recent advances that may lead to progress.