Curr Hypertens Rep
March 2025
Purpose Of Review: Survivors of childhood cancer and hematopoietic cell transplant are at risk for developing chronic health conditions, including hypertension. Studies have identified hypertension as an influential risk factor for late kidney dysfunction and cardiovascular disease in childhood cancer survivors. The overall risk of hypertension depends on the specific cancer treatment, from chemotherapy to surgery to radiation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRenal cancer, although still rare among individuals under 45 years of age, is on the rise in the general population. The risk and timing of subsequent renal cancer in survivors of childhood cancer is not well established. Using the SEER registry, we reported the incidence of subsequent malignant renal neoplasms after treatment for primary malignancy diagnosed under 20 years of age.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The optimal management of fever without severe neutropenia (absolute neutrophil count [ANC] ≥500/µL) in pediatric patients with cancer is undefined. The previously proposed Esbenshade Vanderbilt (EsVan) models accurately predict bacterial bloodstream infections (BSIs) in this population and provide risk stratification to aid management, but have lacked prospective external validation.
Materials And Methods: Episodes of fever with a central venous catheter and ANC ≥500/µL occurring in pediatric patients with cancer were prospectively collected from 18 academic medical centers.
Introduction: Medical clearance for patients with primary psychiatric complaints presenting to the emergency department has been debated for decades. Emergency physicians have argued that clearance labs are unnecessary, yet psychiatrists may still order or require them. A retrospective review was conducted to evaluate the continued need for labs of psychiatric patients and help identify high risk groups that may need additional intervention prior to medical clearance.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSince their approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1989, proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) have become one of the most highly utilized drugs in the United States, assuming a position as one of the top 10 most prescribed medications in the country. The purpose of PPIs is to limit the amount of gastric acid secreted by the parietal cells via irreversible inhibition of the H+/K+-ATPase pump, therefore maintaining an elevated gastric acid pH of greater than 4 for 15-21 h. Even though PPIs have many clinical uses, they are not without their adverse effects, mimicking achlorhydria.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Kidney failure is a rare but serious late effect following treatment for childhood cancer. We developed a model using demographic and treatment characteristics to predict individual risk of kidney failure among 5-year survivors of childhood cancer.
Methods: Five-year survivors from the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study (CCSS) without history of kidney failure (n = 25,483) were assessed for subsequent kidney failure (ie, dialysis, kidney transplantation, or kidney-related death) by age 40 years.
Even as prescription opioid dispensing rates have begun to decrease, the use of illicit opioids such as heroin and fentanyl has increased. Thus, the end of the opioid epidemic is not in sight, and treating patients that are addicted to opioids remains of utmost importance. Currently, the primary pharmacotherapies used to treat opioid addiction over the long term are the opioid antagonist naltrexone, the partial-agonist buprenorphine, and the full agonist methadone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: We previously demonstrated that high levels of circulating methylated DNA are associated with subsequent disease progression in women with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). In this study, we evaluated the clinical utility of a novel liquid biopsy-breast cancer methylation (LBx-BCM) prototype assay using the GeneXpert cartridge system for early assessment of disease progression in MBC.
Experimental Design: The 9-marker LBx-BCM prototype assay was evaluated in TBCRC 005, a prospective biomarker study, using plasma collected at baseline, week 4, and week 8 from 144 patients with MBC.
Light is one of the most crucial parameters for enclosed cannabis () production, as it highly influences growth, secondary metabolite production, and operational costs. The objective of this study was to investigate and evaluate the impact of six light spectra on ('Babbas Erkle Cookies' accession) growth traits and secondary metabolite (cannabinoid and terpene) profiles. The light spectra evaluated included blue (430 nm), red (630 nm), rose (430 + 630 nm, ratio 1:10), purple (430 + 630 nm, ratio 2:1), and amber (595 nm) LED treatments, in addition to a high-pressure sodium (HPS, amber-rich light) treatment as a control.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSurvivors of hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) are at risk for neurocognitive impairments, which can negatively affect quality of life. Given limited studies, we aimed to describe the neurocognitive outcomes in a cohort of long-term adult HCT survivors. Eligible survivors (age ≥21 years at HCT and alive ≥2 years following HCT) completed a 60-question survey of neurocognitive function and quality of life, which included the Neuro-Quality of Life Cognitive Function Short Form (Neuro-QoL) and the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study Neurocognitive Questionnaire (NCQ).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDescribe a novel use for a kinase inhibitor, imatinib, in young children with a known activated somatic mutation in PDGFR-beta. Two patients with infantile myofibromatosis treated with imatinib. Case description of evaluation, diagnosis and treatment decisions for infantile myfibromatosis of the head and neck.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose Of Review: Insomnia is a common type of sleep disorder defined by an ongoing difficulty initiating or maintaining sleep or nonrestorative sleep with subsequent daytime impairment. The sleep disturbances in insomnia usually manifest as difficulty in falling asleep, maintaining the continuity of sleep, or waking up too early in the morning well before the desired time, irrespective of the adequate circumstances to sleep every night. Insomnia can significantly impact daytime functioning resulting in decreased workplace productivity, proneness to errors and accidents, inability to concentrate, frequent daytime naps, and poor quality of life.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The incidence of and risk factors for late-onset kidney failure among survivors over the very long term remains understudied.
Materials And Methods: A total of 25,530 childhood cancer survivors (median follow-up 22.3 years, interquartile range 17.
Mood and psychotic disorders are a group of illnesses that affect behavior and cognition. Schizophrenia is characterized by positive symptoms, such as delusions and hallucinations, as well as negative symptoms. Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a mood disorder that affects the patient's emotions, energy, and motivation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Pediatric patients who undergo hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) are at risk for neurocognitive impairments, which can impact quality of life. Given limited long-term studies, we aimed to characterize the late neurocognitive outcomes in a cohort of pediatric HCT survivors.
Methods: Eligible survivors (HCT at age < 21 year and ≥ 1 year post-HCT) completed a 60-question survey of neurocognitive function and quality of life, which included the Childhood Cancer Survivor Study Neurocognitive Questionnaire (CCSS-NCQ) and the Neuro-Quality of Life Cognitive Function Short Form (Neuro-QoL).
Objectives: Breast cancer immunohistochemistry (IHC) biomarker testing is limited in low-resource settings, and an alternative solution is needed. A point-of-care mRNA STRAT4 breast cancer assay for ESR1, PGR, ERBB2, and MKi67, for use on the GeneXpert platform, has been recently validated on tissues from internationally accredited laboratories, showing excellent concordance with IHC.
Methods: We evaluated STRAT4/IHC ESR1/estrogen receptor (ER), ERBB2/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) concordance rates of 150 breast cancer tissues processed in Rwanda, with undocumented cold ischemic and fixation time.
Increasing numbers of patients are undergoing hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT); however, further characterization of late kidney outcomes in HCT recipients is needed. This study investigated long-term kidney outcomes in HCT survivors and compared the risk of late kidney morbidity/mortality in these survivors with that in non-HCT cancer survivors and the general population. A cohort of long-term (≥2 years) allogeneic and autologous HCT survivors treated for cancer at our institution between 1992 and 2009 (n = 1792) was compared with a non-HCT cancer cohort selected from the state cancer registry (n = 5455) matched on diagnosis, sex, and age at year of cancer diagnosis/HCT (index date).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPediatric oncology and hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) patients are susceptible to both acute kidney injury (AKI) and chronic kidney disease (CKD). The etiologies of AKI vary but include tumor infiltration, radiation, drug-induced toxicity, and fluid and electrolyte abnormalities including tumor lysis syndrome. HCT patients can also have additional complications such as sinusoidal obstructive syndrome, graft-versus-host disease, or thrombotic microangiopathy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Schizophrenia is a severe psychotic disorder that is diagnosed by the presence of hallucinations or delusions along with disorganized speech, disorganized thought, or negative symptoms that are present for at least six months. Roughly 1 in 10,000 people a year are diagnosed with this psychiatric disorder. It is a chronic disorder requiring a lifetime of treatment of which antipsychotics have been the mainstay of this treatment.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMore than 50 individuals with activating variants in the receptor tyrosine kinase PDGFRB have been reported, separated based on clinical features into solitary myofibromas, infantile myofibromatosis, Penttinen syndrome with premature aging and osteopenia, Kosaki overgrowth syndrome, and fusiform aneurysms. Despite their descriptions as distinct clinical entities, review of previous reports demonstrates substantial phenotypic overlap. We present a case series of 12 patients with activating variants in PDGFRB and review of the literature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThere are no consensus guidelines for management of pediatric oncology patients presenting with fever and nonneutropenia, with limited research into the outcomes of withholding empiric i.v. antibiotics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Pharmacol Exp Ther
November 2018
Alcohol is a widely used and abused substance. A major unresolved issue in the alcohol research field is determining which of the many alcohol target proteins identified to date is responsible for shaping each specific alcohol-related behavior. The large-conductance, calcium- and voltage-activated potassium channel (BK channel) is a conserved target of ethanol.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: The methods (IHC/FISH) typically used to assess ER, PR, HER2, and Ki67 in FFPE specimens from breast cancer patients are difficult to set up, perform, and standardize for use in low and middle-income countries. Use of an automated diagnostic platform (GeneXpert®) and assay (Xpert® Breast Cancer STRAT4) that employs RT-qPCR to quantitate ESR1, PGR, ERBB2, and MKi67 mRNAs from formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues facilitates analyses in less than 3 h. This study compares breast cancer biomarker analyses using an RT-qPCR-based platform with analyses using standard IHC and FISH for assessment of the same biomarkers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHistorically, mRNA measurements have been tested on several commercially available platforms, but none have gained broad acceptance for assessment of HER2. An mRNA measurement, as a continuous value, has the potential for use in adjudication of the equivocal category. Here we use a real-time quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) assay in a closed, single-use cartridge, automated system.
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