Increased COVID-19 Infection Risk Drives Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Severe COVID-19 Outcomes.

COVID-19 inequities have been well-documented. We evaluated whether higher rates of severe COVID-19 in racial and ethnic minority groups were driven by higher infection rates by evaluating if disparities remained when analyses were restricted to people with infection. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of adults insured through Kaiser Permanente (Colorado, Northwest, Washington), follow-up in March-September 2020.

Obstructive sleep apnea and risk of motor vehicle accident.

Objective: To evaluate the association between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and risk of motor vehicle accident (MVA).

Methods: We conducted a cohort study at Kaiser Permanente Washington using electronic health plan data and linked Washington State Department of Transportation MVA records. We included persons 18-79 years of age during 2005-2014.

Prevalence and Medication Treatment of Opioid Use Disorder Among Primary Care Patients with Hepatitis C and HIV.

Background: Hepatitis C and HIV are associated with opioid use disorders (OUD) and injection drug use. Medications for OUD can prevent the spread of HCV and HIV.

Objective: To describe the prevalence of documented OUD, as well as receipt of office-based medication treatment, among primary care patients with HCV or HIV.

Safer use of antipsychotics in youth (SUAY) pragmatic trial protocol.

Background: Programs such as the Pediatric Access Line in Washington state have shown decreases in antipsychotic medication use by youth with non-psychotic disorders. Program outcomes have been studied with observational designs. This manuscript describes the protocol for Targeted and Safer Use of Antipsychotics in Youth (SUAY), a randomized controlled trial of psychiatrist review of prescriptions and facilitated access to psychosocial care.

Efficacy of "touch" DNA recovery and room-temperature storage from assault rifle magazines.

Crimes committed with assault rifles are becoming increasingly prevalent in the United States. In the absence of other evidence, DNA analysis can often provide informative leads. Unfortunately, any DNA transferred to rifle components left behind at a crime scene is likely to be low in quantity and/or quality.

Identifying hypertension in pregnancy using electronic medical records: The importance of blood pressure values.

Objective: To incorporate blood pressure (BP), diagnoses codes, and medication fills from electronic medical records (EMR) to identify pregnant women with hypertension.

Study Design: A retrospective cohort study of singleton pregnancies at three US integrated health delivery systems during 2005-2014.

Main Outcome Measures: Women were considered hypertensive if they had any of the following: (1) ≥2 high BPs (≥140/90 mmHg) within 30 days during pregnancy (High BP); (2) an antihypertensive medication fill in the 120 days before pregnancy and a hypertension diagnosis from 1 year prior to pregnancy through 20 weeks gestation (Treated Chronic Hypertension); or (3) a high BP, a hypertension diagnosis, and a prescription fill within 7 days during pregnancy (Rapid Treatment).

Clinical outcomes in adult patients with aplastic anemia: A single institution experience.

Newer treatment modalities are being investigated to improve upon historical outcomes with standard immunosuppressive therapy (IST) in aplastic anemia (AA). We analyzed outcomes of adult patients with AA treated with various combinatorial anti-thymoglobulin-based IST regimens in frontline and relapsed/refractory (R/R) settings. Pretreatment and on-treatment clinical characteristics were analyzed for relationships to response and outcome.

Clinical and pathological characteristics of HIV- and HHV-8-negative Castleman disease.

Castleman disease (CD) comprises 3 poorly understood lymphoproliferative variants sharing several common histopathological features. Unicentric CD (UCD) is localized to a single region of lymph nodes. Multicentric CD (MCD) manifests with systemic inflammatory symptoms and organ dysfunction due to cytokine dysregulation and involves multiple lymph node regions.