Burden of Nasal Polyps in the United States.

Objective: To investigate the clinical and health care burden of chronic rhinosinusitis (CRS) with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) in the United States.

Study Design: Retrospective, cross-sectional design with analyses of patient visits from 2 databases.

Setting: National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey (NAMCS, 2012-2016) and State Ambulatory Surgery and Services Databases (SASD, 2012-2015) in available states.

The Clinical and Economic Burden of Newly Diagnosed Hereditary Transthyretin (ATTRv) Amyloidosis: A Retrospective Analysis of Claims Data.

Introduction: Little is known about the burden of hereditary transthyretin (ATTRv) amyloidosis, a genetic, progressive, and fatal disease caused by extracellular deposition of transthyretin amyloid fibrils. The study's aim was to estimate costs and disease burden associated with ATTRv amyloidosis in a real-world setting.

Methods: Using IBM MarketScan Commercial and Medicare Supplemental data, we identified patients at least 18 years of age with newly diagnosed ATTRv amyloidosis.

Burden of disease in pediatric narcolepsy: a claims-based analysis of health care utilization, costs, and comorbidities.

Background: This study analyzed a privately insured pediatric population with and without narcolepsy to determine the impact of pediatric narcolepsy on comorbidities, health care utilization, and cost. Additional analyses compared narcolepsy type 1 and type 2.

Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study identified US patients with narcolepsy <18 years of age with ≥2 claims with a diagnosis code of narcolepsy using Truven MarketScan® data 2011 to 2015.

Risk of hospitalization among patients with epilepsy using long versus short half-life adjunctive antiepileptic drugs.

Introduction: While antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) remain the primary treatment for epilepsy, many patients continue to have seizures. Uncontrolled seizures may be related to AED half-life, since short half-life (SHL) AEDs require more frequent dosing compared with the simplified regimens of long half-life (LHL) AEDs. Long half-life AEDs may also improve seizure control by extending missed dose forgiveness periods.

Untangling the clinical and economic burden of hospitalization for cardiac amyloidosis in the United States.

Purpose: Cardiac dysfunction is common in amyloid light-chain (AL) amyloidosis, a rare disease caused by extracellular deposition of misfolded immunoglobulin light chains. This study aimed to examine economic/clinical disease burden in hospitalized cardiac amyloidosis patients.

Patients And Methods: Cardiac amyloidosis patients ≥18 years old hospitalized between 2014 and 2016 were identified in claims if they had ≥1 inpatient claim consistent with amyloidosis and evidence of cardiac dysfunction.

Direct Costs Associated with Relapsed Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma Therapies.

Background: About one third of patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) relapse after receiving first-line (1L) treatment of rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP). Relapsed patients may then be eligible for second-line (2L) therapy. The study's objective was to examine health care use and costs among treated patients with DLBCL receiving 2L therapy versus those without relapse.

Weight gain changes in patients with aripiprazole monotherapy compared with aripiprazole-antidepressant polypharmacy in an outpatient sample.

Objective: This study seeks to evaluate the weight gain effect within a community-based population of patients with diagnoses of depression, mood disorder, and schizophrenia receiving aripiprazole over a period of at least 6 months.

Method: The four million members of Kaiser Permanente of Southern California (KPSC) were queried for a four-year period between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2013. The initial cohort comprised 25,682 KPSC members who received at least one dispense of aripiprazole.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Patients With Depression Decreases the Need for Outpatient Visits.

Objective: To determine if the use of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) in patients with a history of 2 or more episodes of major depressive disorder and other mood disorders will decrease the need for medication management and other interventions and will also decrease the need for outpatient services and the overall cost of treatment.

Methods: The study patients completed MBCT group sessions between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2013. Patients who had 2 or more episodes of major depressive disorder (recurrent MDD) were categorized into a group.

Gestational Diabetes Screening: The International Association of the Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups Compared With Carpenter-Coustan Screening.

Objective: To evaluate whether one-step gestational diabetes screening recommended by The International Association of the Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Groups (IADPSG) is associated with better maternal, perinatal, or neonatal outcomes than the two-step Carpenter-Coustan screening.

Methods: In this before-after retrospective cohort study conducted between July 1, 2010, and December 31, 2013, we compared Carpenter-Coustan and IADPSG screening in patients with singleton pregnancies. All patients diagnosed with gestational diabetes received intensive teaching, home glucose monitoring, and medications as indicated.

Clinically Diagnosed Acute Diverticulitis in Outpatients: Misdiagnosis in Patients with Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

Background: Physicians often diagnose diverticulitis and prescribe antibiotics in outpatients with abdominal pain and tenderness without other evidence.

Aim: We investigated the misattribution of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) symptoms to diverticulitis in outpatients.

Methods: In patients diagnosed with diverticulitis and dispensed antibiotics in an integrated healthcare system, we retrospectively compared 15,846 outpatients managed without computed tomography (CT) versus 3750 emergency department/inpatients who had CT.

Oesophageal chemoreceptors of blue crabs, Callinectes sapidus, sense chemical deterrents and can block ingestion of food.

Decapod crustaceans such as blue crabs possess a variety of chemoreceptors that control different stages of the feeding process. All these chemoreceptors are putative targets for feeding deterrents that cause animals to avoid or reject otherwise palatable food. As a first step towards characterizing the chemoreceptors that mediate the effect of deterrents, we used a behavioral approach to investigate their precise location.

Stem cell niche dynamics: from homeostasis to carcinogenesis.

The stem cell microenvironment is involved in regulating the fate of the stem cell with respect to self-renewal, quiescence, and differentiation. Mathematical models are helpful in understanding how key pathways regulate the dynamics of stem cell maintenance and homeostasis. This tight regulation and maintenance of stem cell number is thought to break down during carcinogenesis.