Repurposing diflunisal for familial amyloid polyneuropathy: a randomized clinical trial.

Importance: Familial amyloid polyneuropathy, a lethal genetic disease caused by aggregation of variant transthyretin, induces progressive peripheral nerve deficits and disability. Diflunisal, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agent, stabilizes transthyretin tetramers and prevents amyloid fibril formation in vitro.

Objective: To determine the effect of diflunisal on polyneuropathy progression in patients with familial amyloid polyneuropathy.

Relationship between sleep position and risk of extreme cardiorespiratory events.

Objective: To determine whether infants at sleep in the prone side positions are at higher risk for an extreme cardiorespiratory event compared with infants at sleep in the supine position.

Study Design: We used a case-control study to compare sleep position, determined with an accelerometer, in 116 infants during an extreme cardiorespiratory event with that in 231 matched control subjects (2 per case) who did not experience any extreme events during monitoring.

Results: From calculation of adjusted ORs and 95% CIs, infants placed in the prone or side position were no more likely to experience an extreme cardiorespiratory event compared with infants at sleep in the supine position.

Adverse health outcomes in women exposed in utero to diethylstilbestrol.

Background: Before 1971, several million women were exposed in utero to diethylstilbestrol (DES) given to their mothers to prevent pregnancy complications. Several adverse outcomes have been linked to such exposure, but their cumulative effects are not well understood.

Methods: We combined data from three studies initiated in the 1970s with continued long-term follow-up of 4653 women exposed in utero to DES and 1927 unexposed controls.

Maternal assessment of physician qualification to give advice on AAP-recommended infant sleep practices related to SIDS.

Objective: The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) strongly recommends the supine-only sleep position for infants and issued 2 more sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) reduction recommendations: avoid bed sharing and use pacifiers during sleep. In this study, we investigated the following: 1) if mothers from at risk populations rate physicians as qualified to give advice about sleep practices and 2) if these ratings were associated with reports of recommended practice.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of mothers (N=2355) of infants aged <8 months was conducted at Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program centers in 6 cities from 2006 to 2008.

Trends and factors associated with infant sleeping position: the national infant sleep position study, 1993-2007.

Objective: To determine trends and factors associated with choice of infant sleeping position.

Design: Annual nationally representative telephone surveys from 1993 through 2007.

Setting: Forty-eight contiguous states of the United States.

Six-month follow-up of a brief intervention on self-reported safety belt use among emergency department patients.

Objectives: Safety belt use (SBU) reduces motor vehicle deaths by 45%. We previously reported that a brief intervention improved self-reported SBU among emergency department (ED) patients at 3 months. We sought to determine if these effects were sustained at 6 months postenrollment.

Barriers to following the supine sleep recommendation among mothers at four centers for the Women, Infants, and Children Program.

Objectives: The risk for sudden infant death syndrome in black infants is twice that of white infants, and their parents are less likely to place them in the supine position for sleep. We previously identified barriers for parents to follow recommendations for sleep position. Our objective with this study was to quantify these barriers, particularly among low-income, primarily black mothers.

Barriers to following the back-to-sleep recommendations: insights from focus groups with inner-city caregivers.

Background: African American infants have a higher incidence of SIDS and increased risk of being placed in the prone position for sleep.

Objective: To determine new barriers and more information about previously identified barriers that interfere with adherence to the Back-to-Sleep recommendations among inner-city, primarily African Americans.

Design/methods: We conducted 9 focus groups with caregivers of infants and young children from women, infants, and children centers and clinics in New Haven and Boston.

Risk of connective tissue disorders among breast implant patients.

In a US retrospective cohort study (1960-1996), 351 (4.8%) of 7,234 patients with breast implants and 62 (2.9%) of 2,138 patients who had undergone other types of plastic surgery reported subsequent rheumatoid arthritis (RA), scleroderma, systemic lupus erythematosus, or Sjögren's syndrome (relative risk = 2.

Efficacy of recombinant human erythropoietin in critically ill patients: a randomized controlled trial.

Context: Anemia is common in critically ill patients and results in a large number of red blood cell (RBC) transfusions. Recent data have raised the concern that RBC transfusions may be associated with worse clinical outcomes in some patients.

Objective: To assess the efficacy in critically ill patients of a weekly dosing schedule of recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) to decrease the occurrence of RBC transfusion.

Risk of breast cancer in women exposed to diethylstilbestrol in utero: prelimiinary results (United States).

Background: A synthetic estrogen, diethylstilbestrol (DES), was widely prescribed to pregnant women during the 1950s and 1960s but was later discovered to be associated with an increased risk of clear-cell carcinoma of the vagina and cervix in female offspring. DES has not been linked to other cancers in female offspring, but studies of other prenatal factors such as twin gestation and pre-eclampsia have indicated that in-utero estrogen levels may influence breast cancer risk. We evaluated the relation of in-utero DES exposure to the risk of adult breast cancer.