Initial experience with a novel re-sterilisable decapolar electrophysiology catheter.

Purpose: Diagnostic electrophysiology catheters are single-use and their expense can act as a barrier to their use. A decapolar catheter with a re-sterilisable handle and inner core was developed, along with a disposable outer sheath. This initial experience evaluated the performance of the Khelix partially recyclable steerable decapolar electrophysiology catheter.

A new way of rapidly screening for depression in multiple sclerosis using Emotional Thermometers.

Objective: Depression is a common, serious, but under-recognised problem in multiple sclerosis (MS). The primary objective of this study was to assess whether a rapid visual analogue screening tool for depression could operate as a quick and reliable screening method for depression, in patients with MS.

Method: Patients attending a regional MS outpatient clinic completed the Emotional Thermometer 7 tool (ET7), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale - Depression Subscale (HADS-D) and the Major Depression Inventory (MDI) to establish a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, 4th edition (DSM-IV) diagnosis of Major Depression.

Achieving Health Equity Through Community Engagement in Translating Evidence to Policy: The San Francisco Health Improvement Partnership, 2010-2016.

Background: The San Francisco Health Improvement Partnership (SFHIP) promotes health equity by using a novel collective impact model that blends community engagement with evidence-to-policy translational science. The model involves diverse stakeholders, including ethnic-based community health equity coalitions, the local public health department, hospitals and health systems, a health sciences university, a school district, the faith community, and others sectors.

Community Context: We report on 3 SFHIP prevention initiatives: reducing consumption of sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs), regulating retail alcohol sales, and eliminating disparities in children's oral health.

Perinatal midline astrocyte development is impaired in fibroblast growth factor 8 hypomorphic mice.

Our previous studies showed that Fgf8 mutations can cause Kallmann syndrome (KS), a form of congenital hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, in which patients do not undergo puberty and are infertile. Interestingly, some KS patients also have agenesis of the corpus callosum (ACC) suggesting that KS pathology is not limited to reproductive function. Here, we asked whether FGF8 dysfunction is the underlying cause of ACC in some KS patients.

Implementing routine screening for distress, the sixth vital sign, for patients with head and neck and neurologic cancers.

This study examined the benefits of incorporating screening for distress as a routine part of care for patients with head and neck and neurologic cancers in a tertiary cancer center. Using a comparative 2-cohort pre-post implementation sequential design, consecutive outpatients with head and neck and neurologic cancers were recruited into 2 separate cohorts. Cohort 1 included patients attending clinics during April 2010, before the implementation of the screening program.

Competitive foods, discrimination, and participation in the National School Lunch Program.

Meals served through the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) must meet rigorous nutritional standards; however, barriers to student participation may limit the program's health and social equity benefits. Unsubsidized meals and food offerings competing with the NSLP offerings in school lunch environments may be lowering qualified student participation either directly or via identification of subsidized low-income students or stigmatization of the NSLP. We document a pilot intervention conducted in San Francisco in 2009 and 2010 that demonstrated gains in NSLP participation after removal of separate competitive à la carte lunch meal offerings.

Supporting equitable food systems through food assistance at farmers' markets.

The failure to consider access to food resources in an integrated way may lead to inequalities in nutritional opportunities among populations. Working with community groups and other public agencies, the San Francisco Department of Public Health has led interagency food system planning in San Francisco, California, since 2002. We report on one of the interventions within that initiative-a partnership between a public health agency, a local nonprofit organization, and the local food stamp program to institutionalize improved access to farmers' markets for federal food assistance beneficiaries.

The impact of iron overload and its treatment on quality of life: results from a literature review.

Background: To assess the literature for the impact of iron overload and infusion Iron Chelation Therapy (ICT) on patients' quality of life (QoL), and the availability of QoL instruments for patients undergoing infusion ICT. Also, to obtain patients' experiences of having iron overload and receiving infusion ICT, and experts' clinical opinions about the impact of treatment on patients' lives.

Methods: A search of studies published between 1966 and 2004 was conducted using Medline and the Health Economic Evaluation Database (HEED).

A young man who could not walk.

Infections affecting the central nervous system caused by Blastomyces dermatitidis are rare but curable. We describe a case of a 24-year-old man who presented to the emergency department with progressive bilateral lower extremity weakness over 1 month. On the day of admission, he had minimal muscle strength and was hyperreflexic in the lower extremities.

Mupirocin resistance in clinical isolates of Staphylococcus aureus.

One hundred isolates of Staphylococcs aureus were collected in a laboratory serving several hospitals and clinics in southeastern Wisconsin and tested for mupirocin susceptibility. Only two isolates of S. aureus showed mupirocin resistance.