Stability of predictors of mortality after spinal cord injury.

Study Design: Cohort study.

Objectives: To identify the stability of socio-environmental, behavioral and health predictors of mortality over an 8-year time frame.

Setting: Data were analyzed at a large medical university in the Southeast United States of America (USA).

Do primigravidae and their carers have a realistic expectation of uncomplicated labour and delivery?: a survey of primigravidae in late pregnancy, obstetric staff and medical students.

Background: Women who experience unexpected labour and birth interventions describe feeling distressed and have an increased risk of postnatal depression. Primigravidae who have an unrealistic expectation of labour and birth may be at higher risk of these outcomes.

Aims: To determine whether primigravidae and their carers have a realistic expectation of uncomplicated labour and birth.

Health, secondary conditions, and life expectancy after spinal cord injury.

Objective: To evaluate the association of health status, secondary health conditions, hospitalizations, and risk of mortality and life expectancy (LE) after spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Setting: Preliminary data were collected from a specialty hospital in the Southeastern United States, with mortality follow-up and data analysis conducted at a medical university.

Personality and Behavioral Predictors of Pressure Ulcer History.

PURPOSE: To assess the relationship of psychological, environmental, and behavioral factors with pressure ulcers (PUs) in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI). METHODS: A total of 1,549 participants from a large rehabilitation hospital in the southeast United States answered questions regarding outcomes after SCI. Variables from each set of factors were entered sequentially into the model: (1) psychological and environmental, and (2) behavioral.

Current trends in venous thromboembolism among persons hospitalized with acute traumatic spinal cord injury: does early access to rehabilitation matter?

Objective: To determine the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) among patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI) in acute care settings that is attributable to extended length of stay (LOS), insurance status, and access to rehabilitation.

Design: Population-based, retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Levels I through III and undesignated trauma centers.

Risk of Mortality and Life Expectancy After Spinal Cord Injury: The Role of Health Behaviors and Participation.

PURPOSE: To identify the relationships between health behaviors and participation and life expectancy after spinal cord injury (SCI), while controlling for biographic and injury factors. METHODS: Data for this prospective cohort study were collected by mailed survey. Participants included 1,361 adults with traumatic SCI, 1 or more years post injury.

Actin filament dynamics in the actomyosin VI complex is regulated allosterically by calcium-calmodulin light chain.

The contractile and enzymatic activities of myosin VI are regulated by calcium binding to associated calmodulin (CaM) light chains. We have used transient phosphorescence anisotropy to monitor the microsecond rotational dynamics of erythrosin-iodoacetamide-labeled actin with strongly bound myosin VI (MVI) and to evaluate the effect of MVI-bound CaM light chain on actin filament dynamics. MVI binding lowers the amplitude but accelerates actin filament microsecond dynamics in a Ca(2+)- and CaM-dependent manner, as indicated from an increase in the final anisotropy and a decrease in the correlation time of transient phosphorescence anisotropy decays.

Erythrocyte pyruvate kinase deficiency in an old-order Amish cohort: longitudinal risk and disease management.

Pyruvate kinase deficiency is a chronic illness with age specific consequences. Newborns suffer life-threatening hemolytic crisis and hyperbilirubinemia. Adults are at risk for infections because of asplenia, pregnancy-related morbidity, and may suffer organ damage because of systemic iron overload.

A longitudinal study of depression in survivors of spinal cord injury.

Study Design: Cohort study.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to assess depression over a 5-year period in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) and to assess risk factors for depression over time.

Setting: Rehabilitation hospitals in the Southeast and Midwest.

The relationship between prescription medication use and ability to ambulate distances after spinal cord injury.

Objective: To investigate the relationship between prescription medication use for pain and spasticity and ambulation distances while controlling for pain severity, injury severity, age, sex, and race in participants with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: Secondary analysis of survey data.

Setting: Specialty hospital in the Southeast United States.

Kinetic analysis of autotaxin reveals substrate-specific catalytic pathways and a mechanism for lysophosphatidic acid distribution.

Autotaxin (ATX) is a secreted lysophospholipase D that hydrolyzes lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) into lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), initiating signaling cascades leading to cancer metastasis, wound healing, and angiogenesis. Knowledge of the pathway and kinetics of LPA synthesis by ATX is critical for developing quantitative physiological models of LPA signaling. We measured the individual rate constants and pathway of the LPA synthase cycle of ATX using the fluorescent lipid substrates FS-3 and 12-(N-methyl-N-(7-nitrobenz-2-oxa-1,3-diazol-4-yl))-LPC.

Emergency department coding of bicycle and pedestrian injuries during the transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10.

Background: The international classification of diseases version 10 (ICD-10) uses alphanumeric expanded codes and external cause of injury codes (E-codes).

Objective: To examine the reliability and validity of emergency department (ED) coders in applying E-codes in ICD-9 and -10.

Methods: Bicycle and pedestrian injuries were identified from the ED information system from one period before and two periods after transition from ICD-9 to -10 coding.

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9: a study of the participants from the spinal cord injury model systems.

Objective: To examine the factor structure of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, a measure of depression, in persons with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: Cross-sectional, confirmatory factor analytic study.

Setting: Community.

Bicycle helmet use after the introduction of all ages helmet legislation in an urban community in Alberta, Canada.

Background: Bicycle trauma is a common cause of recreational death and disability and helmets have been shown to reduce fatal and non-fatal head and face injuries. This study evaluated the effect of mandatory bicycle helmet legislation for all ages in St. Albert, Alberta.

All-cause and HIV-related mortality rates among HIV-infected patients after initiating highly active antiretroviral therapy: the impact of Aboriginal ethnicity and injection drug use.

Background: Aboriginals are over-represented in Canada's HIV epidemic and are commonly infected with HIV via injection drug use (IDU); however, little is known about the impact of Aboriginal ethnicity on mortality after starting highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Therefore, we compared mortality rates between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal HIV patients and between IDU and non-IDU HIV patients after they initiated HAART.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of antiretroviral-naïve patients starting HAART January 1999-June 2005 (baseline), followed until December 2005.

Association of spasticity and life satisfaction after spinal cord injury.

Study Design: Cross-sectional survey; secondary analysis of existing data by linear regression analysis between spasticity and quality of life.

Objective: To identify the relationship between spasticity and life satisfaction as measured by three multi-item factor scales and a rating of overall quality of life among participants with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Setting: Large specialty hospital in the Southeastern United States.

Sensitization of head and neck cancer to cisplatin through the use of a novel curcumin analog.

Objective: To determine whether a novel small molecule inhibitor derived from curcumin (FLLL32) that targets signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 3 would induce cytotoxic effects in STAT3-dependent head and neck squamous cell cancer (HNSCC) cells and would sensitize tumors to cisplatin.

Design: Basic science. Two HNSCC cell lines, UM-SCC-29 and UM-SCC-74B, were characterized for cisplatin [cis-diammineplatinum(II) dichloride] sensitivity.

Vocational interests after recent spinal cord injury: comparisons related to sex and race.

Objective: To compare vocational interests as a function of sex and race among persons with recent spinal cord injury (SCI), because previous research used almost exclusively white men. Limited research from nearly 2 decades ago suggested SCI selectively occurs to men whose vocational interests are consistent with the Realistic theme of the Holland typology, indicative of a preference for activities and occupations requiring physical strength and dexterity.

Design: The Strong Interest Inventory (SII) was completed an average of 50 days after SCI onset.

Bicycle helmet use four years after the introduction of helmet legislation in Alberta, Canada.

Background: Bicycle helmets reduce fatal and non-fatal head and face injuries. This study evaluated the effect of mandatory bicycle helmet legislation targeted at those less than 18 years old on helmet use for all ages in Alberta.

Methods: Two comparable studies were conducted two years before and four years after the introduction of helmet legislation in Alberta in 2002.

Income and risk of mortality after spinal cord injury.

Objective: To evaluate the association of household income and formal education with risk of mortality after spinal cord injury (SCI).

Design: Cohort study.

Setting: Twenty hospitals designated as Model SCI Systems of care in the United States.

Rates of initial virological suppression and subsequent virological failure after initiating highly active antiretroviral therapy: the impact of aboriginal ethnicity and injection drug use.

Objectives: To compare rates of initial virological suppression and subsequent virological failure by Aboriginal ethnicity after starting highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART).

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of antiretroviral-naïve HIV-patients starting HAART in January 1999-June 2005 (baseline), followed until December 31, 2005 in Alberta, Canada. We compared the odds of achieving initial virological suppression (viral load <500 copies/mL) by Aboriginal ethnicity using logistic regression and, among those achieving suppression, rates of virological failure (the first of two consecutive viral loads >1000 copies/mL) by Aboriginal ethnicity using cumulative incidence curves and Cox proportional hazards models.

Breastfeeding practices of HIV-positive and HIV-negative women in Kabarole district, Uganda.

Ugandan policy regarding infant feeding for HIV-positive mothers is replacement feeding (RF), if feasible; otherwise, exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) for 3 months is advised (or EBF for 6 months, if RF is still not feasible). HIV-negative mothers should practise EBF for 6 months. The study objective was to explore the association between maternal HIV status and breastfeeding practices in Kabarole, Uganda.

Psychological factors affecting alcohol use after spinal cord injury.

Study Design: Cross-sectional.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess risk factors, including personality and socioeconomic indicators, with alcohol use among persons with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Setting: A large rehabilitation hospital in the Southeastern United States.

Gender-related mortality for HIV-infected patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) in rural Uganda.

The purpose of this study was to examine gender differences in mortality for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients in rural Western Uganda after six months of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART). Three hundred eighty five patients were followed up for six months after initiating HAART. Statistical analysis included descriptive, univariate and multivariate methods, using Kaplan-Meier estimates of survival distribution and Cox proportional hazards regression.