Publications by authors named "M Todd Fontenot"

Problem: Preeclampsia (PE) is a hypertensive pregnancy disorder that is a leading cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality characterized by maternal vascular dysfunction, oxidative stress, chronic immune activation, and excessive inflammation. No cure exists beyond delivery of the fetal-placental unit and the mechanisms driving pathophysiology are not fully understood. However, aberrant immune responses have been extensively characterized in clinical studies and shown to mediate PE pathophysiology in animal studies.

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Background: Diagnosis of ectopic pregnancy can be complicated by nonspecific laboratory and radiographic findings. The multiple alternative diagnoses must be weighed against each other based on the entire clinical presentation.

Case Report: We present a case of a 20-year-old woman who arrived to the Emergency Department (ED) with abdominal pain and ended up being transferred for an Obstetrics evaluation of a possible heterotopic pregnancy.

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Glucocorticoids (GCs) act through the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) and are commonly used as anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant medications. Chronic GC use has been linked with unwanted complications such as steroid-induced diabetes mellitus (SIDM), although the mechanisms for these effects are not completely understood. Modification of six GC parent molecules with 2-mercaptobenzothiazole resulted in consistently less promoter activity in transcriptional activation assays using a 3xGRE reporter construct while constantly reducing inflammatory pathway activity.

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Aim: Type 1 diabetes results from autoimmune events influenced by environmental variables, including changes in diet. This study investigated how feeding refined versus unrefined (aka 'chow') diets affects the onset and progression of hyperglycaemia in non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice.

Methods: Female NOD mice were fed either unrefined diets or matched refined low- and high-fat diets.

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Presurgical anxiety is very common and is often treated with sedatives. Minimizing or avoiding sedation reduces the risk of sedation-related adverse events. Reducing sedation can increase early cognitive recovery and reduce time to discharge after surgery.

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