Evaluation of a Gene-Environment Interaction of and Low-Level Nerve Agent Exposure with Gulf War Illness: A Prevalence Case-Control Study Drawn from the U.S. Military Health Survey's National Population Sample.

Background: Consensus on the etiology of 1991 Gulf War illness (GWI) has been limited by lack of objective individual-level environmental exposure information and assumed recall bias.

Objectives: We investigated a prestated hypothesis of the association of GWI with a gene-environment (GxE) interaction of the () Q192R polymorphism and low-level nerve agent exposure.

Methods: A prevalence sample of 508 GWI cases and 508 nonpaired controls was drawn from the 8,020 participants in the U.

Pathophysiology and Molecular Imaging of Diabetic Foot Infections.

Diabetic foot infection is the leading cause of non-traumatic lower limb amputations worldwide. In addition, diabetes mellitus and sequela of the disease are increasing in prevalence. In 2017, 9.

Resolving whether inhalation of depleted uranium contributed to Gulf War Illness using high-sensitivity mass spectrometry.

Of the hypothesized causes of Gulf War Illness (GWI), a chronic multi-symptom illness afflicting approximately 25% of military personnel deployed to the 1991 Gulf War, exposure to depleted uranium (DU) munitions has attracted international concern. Past research has not tested the potential association of GWI with inhaled DU nor used isotope mass spectrometry of sufficient sensitivity to rigorously assess prior DU exposure. We applied a standard biokinetic model to predict the urinary concentration and uranium isotopic ratios for a range of inhalation exposures.

Epidemiology and risk factors for varicella zoster virus reactivation in heart transplant recipients.

Heart transplant (HT) recipients are at higher risk of varicella zoster virus (VZV) reactivation. Risk factors for VZV reactivation are currently not well defined, impeding the ability to design and implement strategies to minimize the burden of this illness in this population. Automated data extraction tools were used to retrieve data from the electronic health record (EHR) of all adult HT recipients at our center between 2010 and 2016.

The use of automated data extraction tools to develop a solid organ transplant registry: Proof of concept study of bloodstream infections.

Background: We created an electronic health record-based registry using automated data extraction tools to study the epidemiology of bloodstream infections (BSI) in solid organ transplant recipients. The overarching goal was to determine the usefulness of an electronic health record-based registry using data extraction tools for clinical research in solid organ transplantation.

Methods: We performed a retrospective single-center cohort study of adult solid organ transplant recipients from 2010 to 2015.

Superiority of Out-of-Office Blood Pressure for Predicting Hypertensive Heart Disease in Non-Hispanic Black Adults.

Black Americans suffer disproportionately from hypertension and hypertensive heart disease. Out-of-office blood pressure (BP) is more predictive for cardiovascular complications than clinic BP; however, the relative abilities of clinic and out-of-office BP to predict left ventricular hypertrophy in black and white adults have not been established. Thus, we aimed to compare associations of out-of-office and clinic BP measurement with left ventricular hypertrophy by cardiac magnetic resonance imaging among non-Hispanic black and white adults.

Exploring brain mechanisms underlying Gulf War Illness with group ICA based analysis of fMRI resting state networks.

Around 200,000 veterans (up to 32% of those deployed) of the 1991 Gulf War (GW) suffer from GW illness (GWI), which is characterized by multiple deficits in cognitive, affective, sensory and nociception domains. In this study we employed resting state fMRI (rsfMRI) to map impairments in brain function in GWI with advanced network analysis. RsfMRI data was obtained from 60 GWI veterans and 30 age-matched military controls.

Gulf War illness associated with abnormal auditory P1 event-related potential: Evidence of impaired cholinergic processing replicated in a national sample.

Our team previously reported event-related potential (ERP) and hyperarousal patterns from a study of one construction battalion of the U.S. Naval Reserve who served during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Identification of biologically active δ-lactone eicosanoids as paraoxonase substrates.

The mammalian paraoxonases (PONs 1, 2 and 3) are a family of esterases that are highly conserved within and between species. They exhibit antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. However, their physiological function(s) and native substrates are uncertain.

Estimating the Health and Economic Impacts of Changes in Local Air Quality.

Objectives: To demonstrate the benefits-mapping software Environmental Benefits Mapping and Analysis Program-Community Edition (BenMAP-CE), which integrates local air quality data with previously published concentration-response and health-economic valuation functions to estimate the health effects of changes in air pollution levels and their economic consequences.

Methods: We illustrate a local health impact assessment of ozone changes in the 10-county nonattainment area of the Dallas-Fort Worth region of Texas, estimating the short-term effects on mortality predicted by 2 scenarios for 3 years (2008, 2011, and 2013): an incremental rollback of the daily 8-hour maximum ozone levels of all area monitors by 10 parts per billion and a rollback-to-a-standard ambient level of 65 parts per billion at only monitors above that level.

Results: Estimates of preventable premature deaths attributable to ozone air pollution obtained by the incremental rollback method varied little by year, whereas those obtained by the rollback-to-a-standard method varied by year and were sensitive to the choice of ordinality and the use of preloaded or imported data.

Association of the serum myeloperoxidase/high-density lipoprotein particle ratio and incident cardiovascular events in a multi-ethnic population: Observations from the Dallas Heart Study.

Background And Aims: Myeloperoxidase (MPO), a product of systemic inflammation, promotes oxidation of lipoproteins; whereas, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) exerts anti-oxidative effects in part via paraoxonase-1 (PON1). MPO induces dysfunctional HDL particles; however, the interaction of circulating levels of these measures in cardiovascular disease (CVD) has not been studied in humans. We tested whether serum levels of MPO indexed to HDL particle concentration (MPO/HDLp) are associated with increased CVD risk in a large multiethnic population sample, free of CVD at baseline.

Electrophysiological correlates of semantic memory retrieval in Gulf War Syndrome 2 patients.

Gulf War veterans meeting criteria for Haley Syndrome 2 of Gulf War illness endorse a particular constellation of symptoms that include difficulty with processing information, word-finding, and confusion. To explore the neural basis of their word-finding difficulty, we assessed event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with semantic memory retrieval in 22 veterans classified as Syndrome 2 and 28 veterans who served as controls. We recorded EEGs while subjects judged whether pairs of words that represented object features combined to elicit a retrieval of an object memory or no retrieval.

Cognitive Slowing in Gulf War Illness Predicts Executive Network Hyperconnectivity: Study in a Population-Representative Sample.

Cognitive slowing is a prevalent symptom observed in Gulf War Illness (GWI). The present study assessed the extent to which functional connectivity between dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and other task-relevant brain regions was predictive of GWI-related cognitive slowing. GWI patients (n = 54) and healthy veteran controls (n = 29) were assessed on performance of a processing speed task (the Digit Symbol Substitution Task; DSST) while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Memory and functional brain differences in a national sample of U.S. veterans with Gulf War Illness.

Roughly 26-32% of U. S. veterans who served in the 1991 Persian Gulf War report suffering from chronic health problems.

Self-Administered Outpatient Antimicrobial Infusion by Uninsured Patients Discharged from a Safety-Net Hospital: A Propensity-Score-Balanced Retrospective Cohort Study.

Background: Outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy (OPAT) is accepted as safe and effective for medically stable patients to complete intravenous (IV) antibiotics in an outpatient setting. Since, however, uninsured patients in the United States generally cannot afford OPAT, safety-net hospitals are often burdened with long hospitalizations purely to infuse antibiotics, occupying beds that could be used for patients requiring more intensive services. OPAT is generally delivered in one of four settings: infusion centers, nursing homes, at home with skilled nursing assistance, or at home with self-administered therapy.

New-Onset Myocarditis in an Immunocompetent Adult with Acute Metapneumovirus Infection.

Introduction. A number of viruses have been implicated in viral myocarditis; however, there has been no previous report of human metapneumovirus (hMPV) causing this condition. Discovered in 2001, hMPV is typically associated with upper respiratory illness, mainly affecting children.

Word-finding impairment in veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Approximately one quarter of 1991 Persian Gulf War Veterans experience cognitive and physiological sequelae that continue to be unexplained by known medical or psychological conditions. Difficulty coming up with words and names, familiar before the war, is a hallmark of the illness. Three Gulf War Syndrome subtypes have been identified and linked to specific war-time chemical exposures.

Central Executive Dysfunction and Deferred Prefrontal Processing in Veterans with Gulf War Illness.

Gulf War Illness is associated with toxic exposure to cholinergic disruptive chemicals. The cholinergic system has been shown to mediate the central executive of working memory (WM). The current work proposes that impairment of the cholinergic system in Gulf War Illness patients (GWIPs) leads to behavioral and neural deficits of the central executive of WM.

Methods for measuring serum activity levels of the 192 Q and R isoenzymes of paraoxonase 1 in QR heterozygous individuals.

Background: Paraoxonase 1 (PON1), an esterase that hydrolyzes toxic organophosphates and has antioxidative and antiatherogenic properties, contains a common polymorphism at position 192: glutamine (Q) or arginine (R). The Q and R isoenzymes exhibit different physical and protective properties. We describe 2 methods for quantifying their serum activity levels.

The 2012 West Nile encephalitis epidemic in Dallas, Texas.

Importance: After progressive declines over recent years, in 2012 West Nile virus epidemics resurged nationwide, with the greatest number of cases centered in Dallas County, Texas.

Objective: To analyze the epidemiologic, meteorologic, and geospatial features of the 2012 Dallas West Nile virus epidemic to guide future prevention efforts.

Design, Setting, And Patients: Public health surveillance of Dallas County, an area of 2257 km2 and population of 2.

Prevalence and risk factors for renal scars in children with febrile UTI and/or VUR: a cross-sectional observational study of 565 consecutive patients.

Purpose: To determine prevalence and risk factors for renal scar in children referred for urologic assessment of febrile UTI and/or VUR.

Methods: Pre-determined risk factors for renal scar were prospectively recorded in consecutive patients referred for UTI/VUR. Age, gender, VUR grade, and reported number of febrile and non-febrile UTIs were analyzed with logistic regression to determine risk for focal cortical defects on non-acute DMSA.

Anteroposterior perfusion heterogeneity in human hippocampus measured by arterial spin labeling MRI.

Measurements of blood flow in the human hippocampus are complicated by its relatively small size, unusual anatomy and patterns of blood supply. Only a handful of arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI articles have reported regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) values for the human hippocampus. Numerous reports have found heterogeneity in a number of other physiological and biochemical parameters along the longitudinal hippocampal axis.