Sensitivity and clinical utility of the anti-cytosolic 5'-nucleotidase 1A (cN1A) antibody test in sporadic inclusion body myositis: Report of 40 patients from a single neuromuscular center.

Sporadic inclusion body myositis (IBM) is the most common acquired myopathy affecting patients over age 50. The discovery of an autoantibody directed against a 43-44 kD protein (anti-cytosolic-5'-nucleotidase 1A or anti-cN1A) has provided support for the hypothesis of an immune-mediated pathogenesis. Previous studies have reported variable test sensitivity and specificity, and inconsistent results on the predictive value.

The Role of Patient History and Body Site Surveillance Cultures as Predictors of Colonization in a Long-Term Acute Care Hospital Setting.

Background: Long-term acute care hospitals (LTACHs) have high rates of antibiotic and device use, hospital-acquired infections, and antibiotic resistance. Admission surveillance cultures are controversial.

Objective: Evaluate the significance of patienthistory and multiple body site admission surveillance cultures for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus (VRE).

Nanomedicine drug development: a scientific symposium entitled "Charting a roadmap to commercialization".

The use of nanotechnology in medicine holds great promise for revolutionizing a variety of therapies. The past decade witnessed dramatic advancements in scientific research in nanomedicines, although significant challenges still exist in nanomedicine design, characterization, development, and manufacturing. In March 2013, a two-day symposium "Nanomedicines: Charting a Roadmap to Commercialization," sponsored and organized by the Nanomedicines Alliance, was held to facilitate better understanding of the current science and investigative approaches and to identify and discuss challenges and knowledge gaps in nanomedicine development programs.

Low rate of bacteremia with a subcutaneously implanted central venous access device.

Purpose: Patients at long-term acute care hospitals (LTACs) are medically complex with multiple comorbidities and high rates of antibiotic and device use. The objective of the study was to analyze the incidence and rate of central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSI) and the critical factors for patient care, management, placement and maintenance of the implanted central venous access device at this LTAC.

Methods: A 13-year retrospective chart review was performed comprising 191 medically complex patients with multiple comorbidities who had an implanted central line port.

Beyond the medical home: Special Care Family Academy for children and youth.

Children and youth with special health care needs require more health care and related services and consequently incur more costs than other individuals. Implementation of the "medical home" concept has benefitted children with special needs, resulting in fewer unmet medical needs and more consistent health care delivery. As advances in health care have enabled an increasingly higher percentage of children with special needs to live far into adulthood, the transition from adolescence to adulthood poses new challenges in obtaining medical care, education, job training, and employment opportunities.

An analysis of clinical outcomes and costs of a long term acute care hospital.

Objective: Compare clinical outcomes and costs in a study group of long-term acute care hospital (LTCH) patients with a control group of LTCH-eligible patients in an acute care hospital. LTCHs were created to provide post-acute care services not available at other post-acute settings. This is based on the premise that these patients would otherwise have stayed at acute care hospitals as high-cost outliers.

Prolonged survival and improved glycemia in BioBreeding diabetic rats after early sustained exposure to glucagon-like peptide 1.

Background: Type 1 diabetes (T1D) in both humans and BioBreeding (BB) rats is an autoimmune disease that results in complete destruction of islets and insulin dependency for life. Glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1) promotes beta cell proliferation and neogenesis and has a potent insulinotropic effect. We hypothesized that the expression of GLP-1 before disease onset would increase islet mass, delay diabetes and prolong survival of BB rats.

Inhaled sodium pyruvate improved FEV1 and decreased expired breath levels of nitric oxide in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Exogenously administered sodium pyruvate has a variety of biological effects including antioxidant/anti-inflammatory effects. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an inflammatory disease of the airways mediated in part by reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS). The current therapies for COPD have limited efficacy.

Glucose-regulated insulin production from genetically engineered human non-beta cells.

In this report we describe development and characterization of four human cell lines that are able to secrete insulin and C-peptide in response to higher concentrations of glucose. These cell lines have been developed by stably and constitutively expressing human proinsulin with a furin-cleavable site, whereas expression of furin is regulated by glucose concentration. These cell lines have been cloned and, therefore, the transgene in each cell is located in an identical location of the genome leading to a uniform expression.

Long-term erythropoietin gene expression from transduced cells in bioisolator devices.

Recombinant erythropoietin (EPO) is widely administered for long-term treatment of anemia associated with renal failure and other chronic diseases. The ability to deliver EPO by gene therapy would have clinical and economic benefit. We compared autologous and allogeneic transduced primary vascular smooth muscle cells for their ability to provide sustained EPO gene expression when encapsulated in TheraCyte devices implanted subcutaneously (SQ) or intraperitoneally (IP) in rats.