Gut and oral microbiota are intrinsically linked to human health. Recent studies suggest a direct link with mental health through bidirectional gut-brain pathways. Emerging evidence suggests that the composition and/or function of intestinal microbiome differs in those with psychosis and schizophrenia as compared with controls.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a major public health crisis for which buprenorphine-naloxone is an effective evidence-based treatment. Analysis of Reddit data yields detailed information about firsthand experiences with buprenorphine-naloxone that has the potential to inform treatment of OUD.
Methods: We conducted a thematic analysis of posts about buprenorphine-naloxone from a Reddit forum in which Reddit users anonymously discuss topics related to opioid use.
Epileptic seizures can be mediated by patient autoantibodies targeting ion channels expressed in the brain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: To determine whether rituximab is safe and potentially beneficial, warranting further investigation in an efficacy trial for acetylcholine receptor antibody-positive generalized MG (AChR-Ab+ gMG).
Methods: The B-Cell Targeted Treatment in MG (BeatMG) study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter phase-2 trial that utilized a futility design. Individuals 21-90 years of age, with AChR-Ab+ gMG (MG Foundation of America Class II-IV) and receiving prednisone ≥15 mg/day were eligible.
Mental health issues are fast becoming one of society's greatest health challenges with evidence of higher levels of illness and strain on psychiatric services. The reasons for this trend of increasing mental health problems across the population are complex and there is an urgent need to research and deliver effective public mental health strategies. In this perspective piece we argue that psychiatrists and public health physicians have unique knowledge and perspectives on population mental health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground Or Purpose: We report our single-center experience with percutaneous left atrial appendage closure (LAAC) in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) and primary hemostasis disorders (HD).
Methods: Consecutive patients with primary HD who underwent a percutaneous LAAC were included. Baseline characteristics, procedural data, and clinical outcomes were prospectively collected and compared with the overall LAAC cohort without HD.
Genome editing technologies allow us to study the metabolic pathways of cells and the contribution of each associated enzyme to various processes, including polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) synthesis. These biodegradable polyesters accumulated by a range of bacteria are thermoplastic, elastomeric, and biodegradable, thus have great applicative potential. However, several challenges are associated with PHA production, mainly the cost and shortcomings in their physical properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHeart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) is one of the most common chronic illnesses in the United States and carries significant risk of morbidity and mortality. Use of guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) for patients with HFrEF has been shown to dramatically improve outcomes, but adoption of these treatments remains generally low. Possible explanations for poor GDMT uptake include lack of knowledge about recommended management strategies and provider reluctance due to uncertainties regarding application of said guidelines to real-world practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealthy hair results from a combination of good generalized health and mindful health care practices. Many nutritional deficiencies lead to poor hair health and include changes to hair structure, texture, and viability. Although the mechanisms by which individual nutrients contribute to hair growth and maintenance have yet to be fully resolved, there are a variety of risk factors that predispose an individual to a nutritional deficiency; age, malnutrition, malabsorption, and medication use are among the most common.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFNeurol Neuroimmunol Neuroinflamm
January 2022
Background And Objectives: There are limited data on severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine reactogenicity in persons with multiple sclerosis (PwMS) and how reactogenicity is affected by disease-modifying therapies (DMTs). The objective of this retrospective cross-sectional study was to generate real-world multiple sclerosis-specific vaccine safety information, particularly in the context of specific DMTs, and provide information to mitigate specific concerns in vaccine hesitant PwMS.
Methods: Between 3/2021 and 6/2021, participants in iConquerMS, an online people-powered research network, reported SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, experiences of local (itch, pain, redness, swelling, or warmth at injection site) and systemic (fever, chills, fatigue, headache, joint pain, malaise, muscle ache, nausea, allergic, and other) reactions within 24 hours (none, mild, moderate, and severe), DMT use, and other attributes.
Int J Community Wellbeing
November 2020
COVID-19 has had unprecedented effects on people around the world, causing even the best performing communities to live in uncertainty for the future. How are people coping? We - the general public, the academic community, and policy makers - need answers. To that end we analyse novel data for Luxembourg, finding one third of residents report their mental health declined during lockdown and young adults (ages 18-44) fared the worst.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFData were collected on patients admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham with type-1 myocardial infarction during 2016 and 2017 inclusively, who were treated by percutaneous intervention and had pre-discharge transthoracic echocardiography. The data were obtained from prospectively maintained hospital databases and records. Echocardiography was performed and reported contemporaneously by accredited echocardiographers.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMoral judgments about interpersonal transgressions are shaped by attributions about the actor's mental state (intent), responsibility, and harmful consequences. Curiously, most research has investigated these judgments from a third-party perspective, often overlooking perceptions of the individuals directly involved in the transgression. We address this by reviewing research on how victims and transgressors involved in interpersonal transgressions form judgments about the transgressor's intent, responsibility, and how much harm was caused, and the ways in which victims' and transgressors' judgments diverge from one another.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo delineate the in vivo role of different costimulatory signals in activating and expanding highly functional virus-specific cytotoxic CD8+ T cells, we designed synTacs, infusible biologics that recapitulate antigen-specific T cell activation signals delivered by antigen-presenting cells. We constructed synTacs consisting of dimeric Fc-domain scaffolds linking CD28- or 4-1BB-specific ligands to HLA-A2 MHC molecules covalently tethered to HIV- or CMV-derived peptides. Treatment of HIV-infected donor PBMCs with synTacs bearing HIV- or CMV-derived peptides induced vigorous and selective ex vivo expansion of highly functional HIV- and/or CMV-specific CD8+ T cells, respectively, with potent antiviral activities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFA search for new phenomena is presented in final states with two leptons and one or no b-tagged jets. The event selection requires the two leptons to have opposite charge, the same flavor (electrons or muons), and a large invariant mass. The analysis is based on the full run-2 proton-proton collision dataset recorded at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt[s]=13 TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb^{-1}.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWell-documented manual dexterity impairments in older adults may critically depend on the processing of visual information. The purpose of this study was to determine age-related changes in eye and hand movements during commonly used pegboard tests and the association with manual dexterity impairments in older adults. The relationship between attentional deficits and manual dexterity was also assessed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Am Med Inform Assoc
November 2021
Objective: We address a first step toward using social media data to supplement current efforts in monitoring population-level medication nonadherence: detecting changes to medication treatment. Medication treatment changes, like changes to dosage or to frequency of intake, that are not overseen by physicians are, by that, nonadherence to medication. Despite the consequences, including worsening health conditions or death, 50% of patients are estimated to not take medications as indicated.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol
December 2021
Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are crucial transmembrane receptors that form part of the innate immune response. They play a role in the recognition of various microorganisms and their elimination from the host. TLRs have been proposed as vital immunomodulators in the regulation of multiple neonatal stressors that extend beyond infection such as oxidative stress and pain.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Hyperkalemia more commonly affects patients with a glomerular filtration rate of less than 60 mL/min. Using intravenous (IV) insulin to shift potassium intracellularly may cause hypoglycemia, requiring additional treatment or longer hospitalization. Literature on insulin dosing in this context is limited, with one previous study indicating that 5 units of IV insulin might be as effective and result in less hypoglycemia than the standard dose of 10 units of IV insulin.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOpportunities continue to be lost with a high rate of kidneys recovered for transplant but not utilized, particularly those considered less than ideal quality. The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) Organ Center is tasked with allocating arguably the most difficult-to-place kidneys, and we hypothesized an accelerated placement pathway would increase utilization of kidneys placed by the Organ Center. The Kidney Accelerated Placement (KAP) project, implemented by the Organ Center from July 18, 2019 to July 15, 2020, aimed to offer kidneys with a high kidney donor profile index to programs that had a history of accepting such organs.
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