Early Acute Kidney Injury in Adult Patients With Burns in Australia & New Zealand.

Introduction: Acute kidney injury (AKI) following burns is associated with increased mortality and morbidity. Some patients require renal replacement therapy. There is limited large-scale data to sufficiently validate risk factors influencing the incidence and severity of early AKI, defined as AKI within the first 72 h since admission to a burn center following burn injury.

Assessing the prognostic utility of clinical and radiomic features for COVID-19 patients admitted to ICU: challenges and lessons learned.

Severe cases of COVID-19 often necessitate escalation to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), where patients may face grave outcomes, including mortality. Chest X-rays play a crucial role in the diagnostic process for evaluating COVID-19 patients. Our collaborative efforts with Michigan Medicine in monitoring patient outcomes within the ICU have motivated us to investigate the potential advantages of incorporating clinical information and chest X-ray images for predicting patient outcomes.

Use of machine learning to assess the prognostic utility of radiomic features for in-hospital COVID-19 mortality.

As portable chest X-rays are an efficient means of triaging emergent cases, their use has raised the question as to whether imaging carries additional prognostic utility for survival among patients with COVID-19. This study assessed the importance of known risk factors on in-hospital mortality and investigated the predictive utility of radiomic texture features using various machine learning approaches. We detected incremental improvements in survival prognostication utilizing texture features derived from emergent chest X-rays, particularly among older patients or those with a higher comorbidity burden.

High-Dimensional Survival Analysis: Methods and Applications.

In the era of precision medicine, time-to-event outcomes such as time to death or progression are routinely collected, along with high-throughput covariates. These high-dimensional data defy classical survival regression models, which are either infeasible to fit or likely to incur low predictability due to over-fitting. To overcome this, recent emphasis has been placed on developing novel approaches for feature selection and survival prognostication.

Persistent organic pollutant exposure contributes to Black/White differences in leukocyte telomere length in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Despite racial disparities in diseases of aging and premature mortality, non-Hispanic Black Americans tend to have longer leukocyte telomere length (LTL), a biomarker of cellular aging, than non-Hispanic White Americans. Previous findings suggest that exposure to certain persistent organic pollutants (POPs) is both racially-patterned and associated with longer LTL. We examine whether Black/White differences in LTL are explained by differences in exposure to 15 POPs by estimating the indirect effect (IE) of self-reported race on LTL that is mediated through nine polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), three furans, and three dioxins, as well as their mixtures.

The efficacy and safety of blunt impingement followed by a sharp recanalization technique in hemodialysis patients with refractory central vein occlusion: a single-center experience.

Background: Central vein occlusion (CVO) is a serious problem in hemodialysis patients. There is an unsatisfactory result for refractory CVO by sharp recanalization alone. This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of blunt impingement followed by sharp recanalization for the treatment of CVO in hemodialysis patients.

Understanding the Tradeoffs Between Travel Burden and Quality of Care for In-center Hemodialysis Patients.

Background: Renal dialysis is a lifesaving but demanding therapy, requiring 3 weekly treatments of multiple-hour durations. Though travel times and quality of care vary across facilities, the extent to which patients are willing and able to engage in weighing tradeoffs is not known. Since 2015, Medicare has summarized and reported quality data for dialysis facilities using a star rating system.

COVID-19 Risk Factors and Mortality Outcomes Among Medicare Patients Receiving Long-term Dialysis.

Importance: There is a need for studies to evaluate the risk factors for COVID-19 and mortality among the entire Medicare long-term dialysis population using Medicare claims data.

Objective: To identify risk factors associated with COVID-19 and mortality in Medicare patients undergoing long-term dialysis.

Design, Setting, And Participants: This retrospective, claims-based cohort study compared mortality trends of patients receiving long-term dialysis in 2020 with previous years (2013-2019) and fit Cox regression models to identify risk factors for contracting COVID-19 and postdiagnosis mortality.

Clinical and hemodynamic insights into the use of internal iliac artery balloon occlusion as a prophylactic technique for treating postpartum hemorrhage.

Recently, the effectiveness of internal iliac artery balloon occlusion (IIABO) for treating postpartum hemorrhage caused by pernicious placenta previa (PPP) has been questioned. We conducted a retrospective analysis and hemodynamic simulation to assess the IIABO's effectiveness. The retrospective analysis involved 480 patients with PPP, among which 288 underwent IIABO treatment and the remaining 192 were used as controls.

Status and factors related to post-traumatic growth in continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis: A multi-centre study.

Aim: To investigate the extent of post-traumatic growth, and the correlation between post-traumatic growth and self-perceived stress, post-traumatic growth and self-perceived burden among CAPD patients.

Design: A cross-sectional study.

Methods: This was a multi-centre study including 752 patients from 44 hospitals.

Understanding the Patterns of Serological Testing for COVID-19 Pre- and Post-Vaccination Rollout in Michigan.

Testing for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies is commonly used to determine prior COVID-19 infections and to gauge levels of infection- or vaccine-induced immunity. Michigan Medicine, a primary regional health center, provided an ideal setting to understand serologic testing patterns over time. Between 27 April 2020 and 3 May 2021, characteristics for 10,416 individuals presenting for SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests (10,932 tests in total) were collected.

Comprehensive evaluation of COVID-19 patient short- and long-term outcomes: Disparities in healthcare utilization and post-hospitalization outcomes.

Background: Understanding risk factors for short- and long-term COVID-19 outcomes have implications for current guidelines and practice. We study whether early identified risk factors for COVID-19 persist one year later and through varying disease progression trajectories.

Methods: This was a retrospective study of 6,731 COVID-19 patients presenting to Michigan Medicine between March 10, 2020 and March 10, 2021.

Blood Pressure Variability and Prognosis in Hemodialysis Patients: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

Background: The prognostic value of blood pressure variability (BPV) in patients receiving hemodialysis is inconclusive. In this study, we aimed to assess the association between BPV and clinical outcomes in the hemodialysis population.

Methods: Pubmed/Medline, EMBASE, Ovid, the Cochrane Library, and the Web of Science databases were searched for relevant articles published until April 1, 2020.

Prediction of intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy.

Aim: Intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy (ICP) is a pregnancy-specific liver disease associated with a significant risk of fetal complications including pre-term delivery and fetal death. Typically, it was diagnosed in the third trimester of pregnancy. This study utilized characteristics from routine maternal examinations in the first 20 weeks' gestation to predict ICP in pregnant women.

Acute Hemodynamic Improvement by Thermal Vasodilation inside the Abdominal and Iliac Arterial Segments of Young Sedentary Individuals.

Objective: To study the hemodynamic response to lower leg heating intervention (LLHI) inside the abdominal and iliac arterial segments (AIAS) of young sedentary individuals.

Methods: A Doppler measurement of blood flow was conducted for 5 young sedentary adults with LLHI. Heating durations of 0, 20, and 40 min were considered.

Reproductive concerns and associated factors among female chronic kidney diseases patients: a Multi-Center Cross-Sectional Study.

Aim: The study aimed to investigate the current status of reproductive concerns and explore the associated factors among young female chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients.

Design: A multi-center cross-sectional study was designed.

Methods: The study was conducted in six representative tertiary hospitals across southwest China.

Do black/white differences in telomere length depend on socioeconomic status?

Social and economic disadvantage are hypothesized to increase the risk of disease and death via accelerated biological aging. Given that US blacks are socially and economically disadvantaged relative to whites, health disparities scholars expected that blacks would have shorter telomere length-a biomarker of cell aging-than whites. Yet the majority of studies have found that blacks have longer telomere length than whites.

Evaluating national trends in outcomes after implementation of a star rating system: Results from dialysis facility compare.

Objective: To examine which factors are driving improvement in the Dialysis Facility Compare (DFC) star ratings and to test whether nonclinical facility characteristics are associated with observed longitudinal changes in the star ratings.

Data Sources: Data were collected from eligible patients in over 6,000 Medicare-certified dialysis facilities from three annual star rating and individual measure updates, publicly released on DFC in October 2015, October 2016, and April 2018.

Study Design: Changes in the star rating and individual quality measures were investigated across three public data releases.

Understanding the patterns of repeated testing for COVID-19: Association with patient characteristics and outcomes.

Importance The diagnostic tests for COVID-19 have a high false negative rate, but not everyone with an initial negative result is re-tested. Michigan Medicine, being one of the primary regional centers accepting COVID-19 cases, provided an ideal setting for studying COVID-19 repeated testing patterns during the first wave of the pandemic. Objective To identify the characteristics of patients who underwent repeated testing for COVID-19 and determine if repeated testing was associated with patient characteristics and with downstream outcomes among positive cases.

Prediction of gestational diabetes mellitus in the first 19 weeks of pregnancy using machine learning techniques.

Aim: Our objective was to develop a first 19 weeks risk prediction model with several potential gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) predictors including hepatic and renal and coagulation function measures.

Methods: A total of 490 pregnant women, 215 with GDM and 275 controls, participated in this case-control study. Forty-three blood examination indexes including blood routine, hepatic and renal function, and coagulation function were obtained.

The feasibility and safety of sharp recanalization for superior vena cava occlusion in hemodialysis patients: A retrospective cohort study.

Introduction: Hemodialysis catheter-related superior vena cava (SVC) occlusions can cause considerable morbidity for patients and be challenging to treat if refractory to conventional guide wire transversal. This pilot study assessed the feasibility and safety of sharp recanalization of SVC occlusion in hemodialysis patients.

Methods: This study retrospectively enrolled hemodialysis patients treated in West China Hospital diagnosed with SVC occlusion who failed traditional guide wire transversal from January 2014 to November 2017.

Rhabdomyolysis-induced acute kidney injury in a patient with undifferentiated connective tissue disease: A case report and literature review rhabdomyolysis-induced AKI in a patient with UCTD.

Rationale: Acute kidney injury (AKI) accounts for 8% to 16% of hospital admissions and can quadruple hospital mortality, placing a serious burden on the health economy. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is mainly caused by dehydration, shock, infection, sepsis, heart disease, or as a side-effect of nephrotoxic drugs. About 10% to 60% of patients with rhabdomyolysis develop AKI, and 10% of AKI is attributable to rhabdomyolysis.

Microbial and metabolomic remodeling by a formula of Sichuan dark tea improves hyperlipidemia in apoE-deficient mice.

Medicine-food homology is a long-standing concept in traditional Chinese medicine. YiNianKangBao (YNKB) tea is a medicine-food formulation based on Sichuan dark tea (Ya'an Tibetan tea), which is traditionally used for its lipid-lowering properties. In this study, we evaluated the effects of YNKB on dyslipidemia and investigated the mechanism underlying its correlation with gut microbiota and serum metabolite regulation.