Communication lessons learned from the 2017 measles-rubella campaign in India: perspectives from vaccine decision-makers.

In 2017, to reduce the burden of measles and rubella, a nation-wide measles-rubella campaign was launched in India. Despite detailed planning efforts that involved many stakeholders, vaccine refusal arose in several communities during the campaign. As strategic health communication and promotion is critical in any vaccine campaign, we sought to document lessons learned from the 2017 MR campaign from a strategic health communication and promotion perspective to capture lessons learned.

Community child psychiatric medication experiences measured by an internet-based, prospective parent survey of retail pharmacy customers.

One thousand five hundred parents filling a psychiatric prescription for their 6-18 year old child with a multi-state retail pharmacy chain received a single mailed invitation to complete a detailed online survey. 276 parents responded (18.4%).

A prospective comparison of cardiac imaging using intracardiac echocardiography with transesophageal echocardiography in patients with atrial fibrillation: the intracardiac echocardiography guided cardioversion helps interventional procedures study.

Background: The Intracardiac Echocardiography Guided Cardioversion Helps Interventional Procedures study evaluated the concordance of intracardiac echocardiography (ICE) with transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF).

Methods And Results: Patients with AF undergoing right heart catheterization underwent left atrium (LA) and interatrial septal (IAS) imaging by TEE and ICE. A blinded comparison of the 2 modalities was performed at a core laboratory.

Are there sex differences in affective modulation of spinal nociception and pain?

Unlabelled: Sex differences in the processing and experience of emotion exist. The present study examined whether sex differences in emotion lead to sex differences in affective modulation of pain and spinal nociception (assessed by nociceptive flexion reflex, NFR). Participants were healthy men (n = 47) and women (n = 73).

Does intensity of rate-control influence outcome in atrial fibrillation? An analysis of pooled data from the RACE and AFFIRM studies.

Aims: The AFFIRM and RACE studies showed that rate control is an acceptable treatment strategy for atrial fibrillation (AF). We examined whether strict rate control offers benefit over more lenient rate control.

Methods And Results: We compared the outcome of patients enrolled in the rate-control arms of AFFIRM and RACE, using data from patients who met a composite of overlapping inclusion and exclusion criteria.

Perceived effects on patients' health of participation in the atrial fibrillation follow-up investigation of rhythm management study.

Background: Patients' views about participation in clinical trials have been explored using end-of-study questionnaires for various disease entities. However, little is known about why individuals with atrial fibrillation (AF) choose to participate in clinical trials or how they view their research experience. Understanding these perceptions should provide valuable information for future studies in developing methods to enhance enrollment, optimize adherence to therapies, and maximize patient retention.

Atrial fibrillation among African Americans, Hispanics and Caucasians: clinical features and outcomes from the AFFIRM trial.

Unlabelled: The Atrial Fibrillation Follow-Up Investigation of Rhythm Management (AFFIRM) study concluded that rate control with anticoagulation was equivalent overall to rhythm control with cardioversion for long-term survival and that anticoagulation reduced the risk of stroke. We compared baseline and follow-up data for three ethnic groups: Caucasians (n=3,599), African Americans (n=265) and Hispanics (n=132). Caucasians were older and more likely male, African Americans were more likely female and hypertensive, and Hispanics had higher prevalence of cardiomyopathy.

Comparison of management patterns and clinical outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation in Canada and the United States (from the analysis of the Atrial Fibrillation Follow-up Investigation of Rhythm Management [AFFIRM] database).

Little is known about differences in practice patterns or outcomes in the management of patients who have atrial fibrillation in Canada compared with those in the United States (US). We evaluated the effect that the country of enrollment may have on the management patterns and clinical outcomes in patients who participated in the AFFIRM study. Three thousand four hundred patients came from the US and 660 from Canada.

Insulin resistance and preeclampsia in gestational diabetes mellitus.

Objective: To compare the degree of insulin resistance in women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) who do and do not develop preeclampsia.

Research Design And Methods: We conducted a prospective cohort study of initially normotensive women with GDM who underwent oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTTs), intravenous glucose tolerance tests (IVGTTs), and glucose clamp studies in the early third trimester (n = 150) and 15 months postpartum (n = 89). After delivery, the women were categorized as nonpreeclamptic or preeclamptic (systolic blood pressure [SBP] > or = 140 mmHg, diastolic blood pressure [DBP] > or = 90 mmHg, and at least >1+ proteinuria or >300 mg/24 h).

Are transthoracic echocardiographic parameters associated with atrial fibrillation recurrence or stroke? Results from the Atrial Fibrillation Follow-Up Investigation of Rhythm Management (AFFIRM) study.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the associations of transthoracic echocardiographic parameters with recurrent atrial fibrillation (AF) and/or stroke.

Background: The Atrial Fibrillation Follow-up Investigation of Rhythm Management (AFFIRM) study, an evaluation of elderly patients with AF at risk for stroke, provided an opportunity to evaluate the implications of echocardiographic parameters in patients with AF.

Methods: Transthoracic echocardiographic measures of mitral regurgitation (MR), left atrial (LA) diameter, and left ventricular (LV) function were evaluated in the AFFIRM rate- and rhythm-control patients who had sinus rhythm resume and had these data available.

Risk of proarrhythmic events in the Atrial Fibrillation Follow-up Investigation of Rhythm Management (AFFIRM) study: a multivariate analysis.

Objectives: This study examined the risk of proarrhythmic events in patients receiving antiarrhythmic drugs for treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) according to present-day safety guidelines.

Background: Advances in understanding the proarrhythmic risk of antiarrhythmic drugs has led to development of safety guidelines for these agents. Such guidelines were used in the Atrial Fibrillation Follow-up Investigation of Rhythm Management (AFFIRM) study.

Relation between achieved heart rate and outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation (from the Atrial Fibrillation Follow-up Investigation of Rhythm Management [AFFIRM] Study).

Many patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) are treated with rate control and anticoagulation. However, the relation between the degree of heart rate (HR) control and clinical outcome is uncertain. We assessed whether lower achieved HR at rest and/or lower achieved exercise HR was associated with improved prognosis, quality of life (QoL), and functional status among patients in the AFFIRM study.

Analysis of cause-specific mortality in the Atrial Fibrillation Follow-up Investigation of Rhythm Management (AFFIRM) study.

Background: Expectations that reestablishing and maintaining sinus rhythm in patients with atrial fibrillation might improve survival were disproved in the Atrial Fibrillation Follow-up Investigation of Rhythm Management (AFFIRM) study. This report describes the cause-specific modes of death in the AFFIRM treatment groups.

Methods And Results: All deaths in patients enrolled in AFFIRM underwent blinded review by the AFFIRM Events Committee, and a mode of death was assigned.

A computational model for the identification of biochemical pathways in the krebs cycle.

We have applied an algorithmic methodology which provably decomposes any complex network into a complete family of principal subcircuits to study the minimal circuits that describe the Krebs cycle. Every operational behavior that the network is capable of exhibiting can be represented by some combination of these principal subcircuits and this computational decomposition is linearly efficient. We have developed a computational model that can be applied to biochemical reaction systems which accurately renders pathways of such reactions via directed hypergraphs (Petri nets).