Cutaneous disorders in captive psittacines, a retrospective study of 1454 cases at a university veterinary teaching hospital (1988-2021).

Background: Psittacines (parrots and their allies) are kept under human care as companion animals, live exhibit specimens in zoological institutions and occasionally as research subjects. Cutaneous disorders such as feather destructive behaviour (FDB) and pododermatitis are commonly noted in clinical reviews, case reports and text book chapters.

Hypothesis/objectives: To document the type, signalment associations and prevalence of cutaneous disorders in a large number of captive psittacines in an academic referral teaching hospital population.

A blended learning approach for capacity strengthening to improve the quality of integrated HIV, TB, and malaria services during antenatal and postnatal care in LMICs: a feasibility study.

Background: The blended learning (BL) approach to training health care professionals is increasingly adopted in many countries because of high costs and disruption to service delivery in the light of severe human resource shortage in low resource settings. The Covid-19 pandemic increased the urgency to identify alternatives to traditional face-to-face (f2f) education approach. A four-day f2f antenatal care (ANC) and postnatal care (PNC) continuous professional development course (CPD) was repackaged into a 3-part BL course; (1) self-directed learning (16 h) (2) facilitated virtual sessions (2.

Preoperative Oral Feeding in Infants with Congenital Heart Disease Within the First Month of Life is Associated with a Higher Likelihood of Freedom From Tube Feeding at Time of Postoperative Discharge.

Though several studies have demonstrated that preoperative oral feeding (PO) can be safe in patients with congenital heart disease, they are commonly prohibited from doing so, potentially precluding the development of such skills. We sought to determine whether preoperative oral feeding is associated with freedom from tube feeding at postoperative discharge. Single-center, observational study including patients in the first month of life (≤ 30 days of age) who underwent a single cardiac surgery between 7/1/2017-6/30/2022 and survived to discharge.

Mitochondrial DNA variant detection in over 6,500 rare disease families by the systematic analysis of exome and genome sequencing data resolves undiagnosed cases.

Background: Variants in the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) cause a diverse collection of mitochondrial diseases and have extensive phenotypic overlap with Mendelian diseases encoded on the nuclear genome. The mtDNA is often not specifically evaluated in patients with suspected Mendelian disease, resulting in overlooked diagnostic variants.

Methods: Using dedicated pipelines to address the technical challenges posed by the mtDNA - circular genome, variant heteroplasmy, and nuclear misalignment - single nucleotide variants, small indels, and large mtDNA deletions were called from exome and genome sequencing data, in addition to RNA-sequencing when available.

Hip Fracture Intervention Study for Prevention of Hypotension Trial: a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Hypotension during anesthesia for surgery for hip fracture is common and associated with myocardial injury, stroke, acute kidney injury, and delirium. We hypothesized that maintaining intraoperative blood pressure close to patients' preoperative values would reduce these complications compared to usual care.

Methods: A pilot feasibility patient- and assessor-blinded parallel group randomized controlled trial.