Implementation of a screening tool for child sex trafficking among youth presenting to the emergency department - A quality improvement initiative.

Background: Identification of sex-trafficked youth in the emergency department (ED) is difficult and routine screening is uncommon.

Objectives: Our Quality Improvement (QI) Project aimed to increase ED screening and identification of high-risk youth using the Short Screen for Child Sex Trafficking (SSCST).

Participants: Youth (11 through 17 years) seeking care at two metropolitan EDs with a high-risk chief complaint triggering a best practice alert (BPA).

Mesenteritis precedes vasculitis in the rat mesentery after subacute administration of a phosphodiesterase type 4 inhibitor.

Inhibitors of phosphodiesterase type 4 (PDE4) are currently exploited as potent drugs for pulmonary diseases. Some PDE4 inhibitors induce necrotizing panarteritis in the mesentery of rats, comparable to spontaneous polyarteritis nodosa in rats and vascular alterations that are induced by various vasoactive compounds, such as fenoldopam and inhibitors of PDE3. The mechanism of toxicity is unknown.

Effects of thrombolysis for acute stroke in patients with pre-existing disability.

Background: Thrombolysis for acute stroke is beneficial in selected patients. Because clinical trials generally exclude patients with pre-existing disability, this subgroup of patients has not been studied. We examined the outcomes after thrombolysis of patients with and without disability before their stroke.