Atrial Fibrillation Occurring During Acute Hospitalization: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

Acute atrial fibrillation is defined as atrial fibrillation detected in the setting of acute care or acute illness; atrial fibrillation may be detected or managed for the first time during acute hospitalization for another condition. Atrial fibrillation after cardiothoracic surgery is a distinct type of acute atrial fibrillation. Acute atrial fibrillation is associated with high risk of long-term atrial fibrillation recurrence, warranting clinical attention during acute hospitalization and over long-term follow-up.

Developing an Effective Peptide-Based Vaccine for COVID-19: Preliminary Studies in Mice Models.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused massive health and economic disasters worldwide. Although several vaccines have effectively slowed the spread of the virus, their long-term protection and effectiveness against viral variants are still uncertain. To address these potential shortcomings, this study proposes a peptide-based vaccine to prevent COVID-19.

Stimulant Therapy Utilization for Neurocognitive Deficits in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

Context: There are 3.8 million mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs) that occur each year in the United States. Many are left with prolonged life-altering neurocognitive deficits, including difficulties in attention, concentration, mental fatigue, and distractibility.

The Report of the 2019-2020 Professional Affairs Standing Committee: Pharmacist Integration with Primary Care Practices.

The 2019-2020 Professional Affairs Committee was charged to (1) Describe the leadership role of schools of pharmacy in advancing interprofessional practice, with an emphasis on physician-pharmacist collaborative relationships; (2) Establish an inventory of resources that can support school efforts to grow collaborative partnerships between pharmacists and physicians; (3) Determine gaps that exist in the resources required to support schools in efforts to facilitate expansion of interprofessional partnerships; and (4) Define strategies and draft an action plan for AACP's role in facilitating member school efforts to accelerate the development of interprofessional practices within their geography of influence. This report provides information on the committee's process to address the committee charges as well as background and resources pertaining to the charges, describes the rationale for and the results from the focus groups conducted at the 2020 AACP Interim Meeting, communicates the results of an initial inventory of models that integrate pharmacists with primary care practices, and provides an overview on issues to continue the work to integrate pharmacists with primary care practices. The committee offered several revisions to current association policy statements and provided a proposed policy statement and several recommendations to AACP pertaining to the committee charges.

Pharmacists interventions using Bluetooth technology and telehealth to improve blood pressure-A pilot study.

Objectives: To assess patients' knowledge of blood pressure (BP) and their comfort level with using technology, including a Bluetooth-enabled BP device and pharmacist telemonitoring. The secondary objective was to discover if pharmacist interventions improved BP readings.

Setting: The study took place in Pharmacy Plus and the Family Medicine Department at the University of South Florida in Tampa, FL.

Voice of the Clergy Wife: A Phenomenological Study.

The clergy wife is an understudied and silenced population. While the minister himself is well represented in the literature concerning burnout, psychological distress, and diminishing years of service, his wife remains unheard and desperate for her needs to be understood and addressed. The lived experience of nine Wesleyan pastors' wives was investigated using a qualitative methodology and phenomenological approach.

Postconcussive Syndrome Following Sports-related Concussion: A Treatment Overview for Primary Care Physicians.

Postconcussive syndrome is an increasingly recognized outcome of sports-related concussion (SRC), characterized by a constellation of poorly defined symptoms. Treatment of PCS is significantly different from that of SRC alone. Primary care physicians often are the first to evaluate these patients, but some are unfamiliar with the available therapeutic approaches.

Clinical association between pharmacogenomics and adverse drug reactions.

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are a major public health concern and cause significant patient morbidity and mortality. Pharmacogenomics is the study of how genetic polymorphisms affect an individual's response to pharmacotherapy at the level of a whole genome. This article updates our knowledge on how genetic polymorphisms of important genes alter the risk of ADR occurrence after an extensive literature search.

Pharmacogenomics of cardiovascular complications in diabetes and obesity.

Heart disease is a major cause of death in US and worldwide. The complex interplay of the mechanisms between diabetes, obesity and inflammation raises concerns for therapeutic understanding and developing treatment options for patients. Recent advances utilizing pharmacogenomics has helped researchers to probe in to disease pathophysiology and physicians to detect and, diagnose the disease in patients.

Plasma and Brain Pharmacokinetics of Previously Unexplored Lithium Salts.

Despite its narrow therapeutic window, lithium is still regarded as the gold standard comparator and benchmark treatment for mania. Recent attempts to find new drugs with similar therapeutic activities have yielded new chemical entities. However, these potential new drugs have yet to match the many bioactivities attributable to lithium's efficacy for the treatment of neuropsychiatric diseases.

Hyperoxia-induced hypertrophy and ion channel remodeling in left ventricle.

Ventricular arrhythmias account for high mortality in cardiopulmonary patients in intensive care units. Cardiovascular alterations and molecular-level changes in response to the commonly used oxygen treatment remains unknown. In the present study we investigated cardiac hypertrophy and cardiac complications in mice subjected to hyperoxia.

An Innovative Approach for Community Engagement: Using an Audience Response System.

Community-based participatory research methods allow for community engagement in the effort to reduce cancer health disparities. Community engagement involves health professionals becoming a part of the community in order to build trust, learn from the community and empower them to reduce disparities through their own initiatives and ideas. Audience Response Systems (ARS) are an innovative and engaging way to involve the community and obtain data for research purposes using keypads to report results via power point.

Gene Network Analysis in Amygdala following Taste Aversion Learning in Rats.

Conditioned taste aversion (CTA) is an adaptive behavior that benefits survival of animals including humans and also serves as a powerful model to study the neural mechanisms of learning. Memory formation is a necessary component of CTA learning and involves neural processing and regulation of gene expression in the amygdala. Many studies have been focused on the identification of intracellular signaling cascades involved in CTA, but not late responsive genes underlying the long-lasting behavioral plasticity.

Proteomic response to acupuncture treatment in spontaneously hypertensive rats.

Previous animal and clinical studies have shown that acupuncture is an effective alternative treatment in the management of hypertension, but the mechanism is unclear. This study investigated the proteomic response in the nervous system to treatment at the Taichong (LR3) acupoint in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs). Unanesthetized rats were subject to 5-min daily acupuncture treatment for 7 days.

Designing a community-based lay health advisor training curriculum to address cancer health disparities.

Introduction: Racial and ethnic minorities have disproportionately higher cancer incidence and mortality than their White counterparts. In response to this inequity in cancer prevention and care, community-based lay health advisors (LHAs) may be suited to deliver effective, culturally relevant, quality cancer education, prevention/screening, and early detection services for underserved populations. APPROACH AND STRATEGIES: Consistent with key tenets of community-based participatory research (CBPR), this project engaged community partners to develop and implement a unique LHA training curriculum to address cancer health disparities among medically underserved communities in a tricounty area.

Herb-drug interactions and mechanistic and clinical considerations.

Herbal medicines are often used in combination with conventional drugs, and this may give rise to the potential of harmful herb-drug interactions. This paper updates our knowledge on clinical herb-drug interactions with an emphasis of the mechanistic and clinical consideration. In silico, in vitro, animal and human studies are often used to predict and/or identify drug interactions with herbal remedies.

Computational and in vitro studies on the inhibitory effects of herbal compounds on human cytochrome P450 1A2.

Human CYP1A2 is an important enzyme for drug metabolism and procarcinogen activation. This study aimed to explore the binding mode of ligands with CYP1A2 and to screen potential inhibitors from a library of herbal compounds using computational and in vitro approaches. The heme prosthetic group and six residues (Thr124, Phe125, Phe226, Phe260, Gly316, and Ala317) in the active site of CYP1A2 were identified as important residues for ligand binding using the LIGPLOT program.

Clinical herbal interactions with conventional drugs: from molecules to maladies.

Clinical studies and case reports have identified a number of herb-drug interactions potentiated by the concurrent use of herbal medicines with prescription drugs. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the mechanisms and clinical implications of such herb-drug interactions by reviewing published human studies. Both pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic components may be involved in herbdrug interactions, although metabolic induction or inhibition is a common underlying mechanism for many herb-drug interactions.

Ligand- and protein-based modeling studies of the inhibitors of human cytochrome P450 2D6 and a virtual screening for potential inhibitors from the Chinese herbal medicine, Scutellaria baicalensis (Huangqin,Baikal Skullcap).

We have previously examined the binding patterns of various substrates to human cytochrome P450 2D6 (CYP2D6) using a series of molecular modeling methods. In this study, we further explored the binding modes of various types of inhibitors to CYP2D6 using a combination of ligand- and protein-based modeling approaches. Firstly, we developed and validated a pharmacophore model for CYP2D6 inhibitors, which consisted of two hydrophobic features and one hydrogen bond acceptor feature.

Pharmacokinetic profiles of anticancer herbal medicines in humans and the clinical implications.

A number of herbal medicines are increasingly used by cancer patients worldwide, despite the fact that the clinical evidence that supports their use to fight cancer is weak or lacking. Pharmacokinetic studies have been integrated into modern drug development, but they are generally not needed for herbal remedies. To update our knowledge in this field, this paper highlights the pharmacokinetic properties of anticancer herbal medicines and the clinical relevance.

Herbal bioactivation, molecular targets and the toxicity relevance.

There have been increasing reports on the adverse reactions associated with herbal consumption. For many of these adverse reactions, the underlying biochemical mechanisms are unknown, but bioactivation of herbal compounds to generate reactive intermediates have been implicated. This minireview updates our knowledge on metabolic activation of herbal compounds, molecular targets and the toxicity relevance.

Combination antibiotics as a treatment for chronic Chlamydia-induced reactive arthritis: a double-blind, placebo-controlled, prospective trial.

Objective: Chlamydia trachomatis and Chlamydophila (Chlamydia) pneumoniae are known triggers of reactive arthritis (ReA) and exist in a persistent metabolically active infection state in the synovium, suggesting that they may be susceptible to antimicrobial agents. The goal of this study was to investigate whether a 6-month course of combination antibiotics is an effective treatment for patients with chronic Chlamydia-induced ReA.

Methods: This study was a 9-month, prospective, double-blind, triple-placebo trial assessing a 6-month course of combination antibiotics as a treatment for Chlamydia-induced ReA.