Integra at Home: A flexible continuum of in-home medical care for older adults with complex needs.

Background: As individuals age, they may need new strategies to manage exacerbations of chronic disease to maintain their dignity and independence. Many end up in a revolving cycle of emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and post-acute care. Support to stay at home, which is often their preference, becomes a challenge and varies with insurance coverage, location, and financial status.

Using Nurse Care Managers Trained in the Serious Illness Conversation Guide to Increase Goals-of-Care Conversations in an Accountable Care Organization.

Community-dwelling adults with serious illness benefit from conversations about their goals for care. We undertook a project to increase the number of serious illness conversations occurring in an accountable care organization (ACO) using a script delivered telephonically by nurse care managers. Working with nurses previously trained in the basics of geriatric assessment and goals-of-care conversations, we used a quality improvement framework to modify the Ariadne Laboratories Serious Illness Conversation Guide to a six-question script.

A comparison of risk factors for metastasis at diagnosis in humans and dogs with osteosarcoma.

Background: Canine osteosarcoma (OS) is a relevant spontaneous model for human OS. Identifying similarities in clinical characteristics associated with metastasis at diagnosis in both species may substantiate research aimed at using canine OS as a model for identifying mechanisms driving distant spread in the human disease.

Methods: This retrospective study included dog OS cases from three academic veterinary hospitals and human OS cases from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results program.

Evaluation of the Environmental Bias on Accelerometer-Measured Total Daily Activity Counts and Owner Survey Responses in Dogs with Osteoarthritis.

 To determine if environmental variables affect the average daily activity counts (AC) of dogs with osteoarthritis (OA) and/or owners' perception of their dog's clinical signs or quality of life.  The AC and Canine Brief Pain Inventory (CBPI) owner questionnaires of 62 dogs with OA were compared with daily environmental variables including the following: average temperature (°C), high temperature (°C), low temperature (°C), relative humidity (%), total precipitation (mm), average barometric pressure (hPa) and total daylight hours.  Daily AC significantly correlated with average temperature and total daylight hours, but average temperature and total daylight hours accounted for less than 1% of variation in AC.

Efficacy of an oral nutraceutical for the treatment of canine osteoarthritis. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled prospective clinical trial.

Objectives: To assess the safety and efficacy of an orally administered nutraceutical (Glu/CS+; + for additional ingredient) for the treatment of clinical osteoarthritis (OA) in dogs.

Methods: In this double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial, client-owned dogs with clinical signs of OA in one or more joints were assigned to a Glu/CS+ (n = 30) or placebo (n = 30) group. Dogs were administered Glu/CS+ or placebo orally and wore an activity monitor (AM) continuously throughout a 97 day study period.

Long-term outcome of an intra-articular allograft technique for treatment of spontaneous cranial cruciate ligament rupture in the dog.

Objective: To determine the 12-month outcome in dogs with spontaneous cranial cruciate ligament (CCL) rupture after repair with an intra-articular decellularized allograft.

Study Design: Prospective pilot case series.

Animals: Ten client-owned dogs with unilateral CCL rupture.

Evaluation of 18-F-fluoro-2-deoxyglucose (FDG) positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) as a staging and monitoring tool for dogs with stage-2 splenic hemangiosarcoma - A pilot study.

Positron Emission Tomography-Computed Tomography (PET-CT) is routinely used for staging and monitoring of human cancer patients and is becoming increasingly available in veterinary medicine. In this study, 18-fluorodeoxyglucose (18FDG)-PET-CT was used in dogs with naturally occurring splenic hemangiosarcoma (HSA) to assess its utility as a staging and monitoring modality as compared to standard radiography and ultrasonography. Nine dogs with stage-2 HSA underwent 18FDG-PET-CT following splenectomy and prior to commencement of chemotherapy.

Biochemical, histologic, and biomechanical characterization of native and decellularized flexor tendon specimens harvested from the pelvic limbs of orthopedically normal dogs.

Objective: To evaluate the biochemical and biomechanical properties of native and decellularized superficial digital flexor tendons (SDFTs) and deep digital flexor tendons (DDFTs) harvested from the pelvic limbs of orthopedically normal dogs.

Sample: 22 commercially supplied tendon specimens (10 SDFT and 12 DDFT) harvested from the pelvic limbs of 13 canine cadavers.

Procedures: DNA, glycosaminoglycan, collagen, and protein content were measured to biochemically compare native and decellularized SDFT and DDFT specimens.