J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg
February 2024
Objectives: The overdose epidemic was designated a 'Public Health Emergency' in the USA on 26 October 2017, bringing attention to the severity of this public health problem. The Appalachian region remains substantially impacted by the effects from years of overprescription of opioids, and subsequently opioid non-medical use and addiction. This study aims to examine the utility of the PRECEDE-PROCEED model constructs (ie, predisposing, reinforcing and enabling factors) to explain opioid addiction helping behaviour (ie, helping someone who has an opioid addiction) among members of the public living in tri-state Appalachian counties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common major congenital anomaly and causes significant morbidity and mortality. Epidemiologic evidence supports a role of genetics in the development of CHD. Genetic diagnoses can inform prognosis and clinical management.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Single-center studies have demonstrated excellent results for the Ross procedure in children. We aimed to evaluate national variation in clinical outcomes using The Society of Thoracic Surgeons Congenital Heart Surgery Database.
Methods: The database was used to identify 2805 children undergoing the Ross procedure from 2000 through 2018, comprising 163 neonates (<30 days, 5.
Background: Congenital heart disease (CHD) is the most common anomaly at birth, with a prevalence of ≈1%. While infants born to mothers with diabetes or obesity have a 2- to 3-fold increased incidence of CHD, the cause of the increase is unknown. Damaging de novo variants (DNV) in coding regions are more common among patients with CHD, but genome-wide rates of coding and noncoding DNVs associated with these prenatal exposures have not been studied in patients with CHD.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAxonal demyelination is a cardinal feature of aging and age-related diseases. The g-ratio, mathematically defined as the inner-to-outer diameter of a myelinated axon, is used as a structural index of optimal axonal myelination and has been shown to represent a sensitive imaging biomarker of microstructural integrity. Several magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods for whole-brain mapping of aggregate g-ratio have been introduced.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSemin Thorac Cardiovasc Surg Pediatr Card Surg Annu
October 2021
Genetic diagnosis is becoming increasingly sophisticated, with the ability to identify even fine differences in patients with a wide variety of congenital heart lesions. Although we have an incomplete understanding of the clinical consequences of most genetic findings, some categories of mutations can have important implications for disease recurrence and prognosis. Consideration of the biology underlying a genetic deficiency, when known, can be useful in the clinical management of some patients.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Myelin loss and cerebral blood flow (CBF) decline are central features of several neurodegenerative diseases. Myelin maintenance through oligodendrocyte metabolism is an energy-demanding process, so that myelin homeostasis is particularly sensitive to hypoxia, hypoperfusion or ischaemia. However, in spite of its central importance, little is known about the association between blood supply and myelin integrity.
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