Cardiovascular Disease Biomarkers and suPAR in Predicting Decline in Renal Function: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Introduction: Soluble urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) strongly predicts outcomes and incident chronic kidney disease (CKD) in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD). Whether the association between suPAR and CKD is a reflection of its overall association with chronic inflammation and poor CVD outcomes is unclear. We examined whether CVD biomarkers, including high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), fibrin-degradation products (FDPs), heat-shock protein 70 (HSP-70), and high-sensitivity troponin I (hs-TnI) were associated with a decline in kidney function in the Emory Cardiovascular Biobank cohort, in which suPAR levels were shown to be predictive of both incident CKD and CVD outcomes.

Part II: The Effects of Aromatherapy and Guided Imagery for the Symptom Management of Anxiety, Pain, and Insomnia in Critically Ill Patients: An Integrative Review of Current Literature.

This review is part II of a 2-part series that presents evidence on the effectiveness of aromatherapy and guided imagery for the symptom management of anxiety, pain, and insomnia in adult critically ill patients. Evidence from this review supports the use of aromatherapy for management of pain, insomnia, and anxiety in critically ill patients. Evidence also supports the use of guided imagery for managing these symptoms in critical care; however, the evidence is sparse, mixed, and weak.

The mitigating effects of maternal social support and paternal involvement on the intergenerational transmission of violence.

Childhood maltreatment is a strong risk factor for subsequent violence, including violent behaviors in young adulthood and offspring maltreatment after becoming a parent. Little is known about the specific circumstances under which supportive relationships may help disrupt this cycle of violence throughout the life course. We conducted two complementary analyses to assess whether maternal social support in early childhood, and also paternal involvement in middle childhood, could prevent the intergenerational transmission of violence, using data from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (n=11,384).

Continuity of midwifery carer moderates the effects of prenatal maternal stress on postnatal maternal wellbeing: the Queensland flood study.

Poor postnatal mental health is a major public health issue, and risk factors include experiencing adverse life events during pregnancy. We assessed whether midwifery group practice, compared to standard hospital care, would protect women from the negative impact of a sudden-onset flood on postnatal depression and anxiety. Women either received midwifery group practice care in pregnancy, in which they were allocated a primary midwife who provided continuity of care, or they received standard hospital care provided by various on-call and rostered medical staff.

Reducing Urban Violence: A Contrast of Public Health and Criminal Justice Approaches.

Background: Cities are investing millions in Cure Violence, a public health approach to reduce urban violence by targeting at-risk youth and redirecting conflict to nonviolent responses. The impact of such a program compared with criminal justice responses is unknown because experiments directly comparing criminal justice and public health approaches to violence prevention are infeasible with observational data. We simulated experiments to test the influence of two interventions on violence: (1) Cure Violence and (2) directed police patrol in violence hot spots.

Association of Serum Soluble Urokinase Receptor Levels With Progression of Kidney Disease in Children.

Importance: Conventional methods to diagnose and monitor chronic kidney disease (CKD) in children, such as creatinine level and cystatin C-derived estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) and assessment of proteinuria in spot or timed urine samples, are of limited value in identifying patients at risk of progressive kidney function loss. Serum soluble urokinase receptor (suPAR) levels strongly predict incident CKD stage 3 in adults.

Objective: To determine whether elevated suPAR levels are associated with renal disease progression in children with CKD.

Advanced analyses of physiological signals in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Management and monitoring of infants within the neonatal intensive care unit represents a unique challenge. It involves an array of life-threatening diseases, procedures with potentially lifelong impacts, co-morbidities associated with preterm birth and risk of infection from prolonged exposure to the hospital environment. With the integration of monitoring systems and increasing accessibility of high-resolution data, there is a growing interest in the utility of advanced data analyses in predictive monitoring and characterising patterns of disease.

Evaluating Maternity Units: a prospective cohort study of freestanding midwife-led primary maternity units in New Zealand-clinical outcomes.

Objective: To compare maternal and neonatal birth outcomes and morbidities associated with the intention to give birth in a freestanding primary level midwife-led maternity unit (PMU) or tertiary level obstetric-led maternity hospital (TMH) in Canterbury, Aotearoa/New Zealand.

Design: Prospective cohort study.

Participants: 407 women who intended to give birth in a PMU and 285 women who intended to give birth at the TMH in 2010-2011.

How do different brands of size 1 laryngeal mask airway compare with face mask ventilation in a dedicated laryngeal mask airway teaching manikin?

Background: International neonatal resuscitation guidelines recommend the use of laryngeal mask airway (LMA) with newborn infants (≥34 weeks' gestation or >2 kg weight) when bag-mask ventilation (BMV) or tracheal intubation is unsuccessful. Previous publications do not allow broad LMA device comparison.

Objective: To compare delivered ventilation of seven brands of size 1 LMA devices with two brands of face mask using self-inflating bag (SIB).

Neopuff T-piece resuscitator mask ventilation: Does mask leak vary with different peak inspiratory pressures in a manikin model?

Aim: The aim of this study was to compare mask leak with three different peak inspiratory pressure (PIP) settings during T-piece resuscitator (TPR; Neopuff) mask ventilation on a neonatal manikin model.

Methods: Participants were neonatal unit staff members. They were instructed to provide mask ventilation with a TPR with three PIP settings (20, 30, 40 cm H O) chosen in a random order.

Invited Commentary: Agent-Based Models-Bias in the Face of Discovery.

Agent-based models (ABMs) have grown in popularity in epidemiologic applications, but the assumptions necessary for valid inference have only partially been articulated. In this issue, Murray et al. (Am J Epidemiol.

Safety and Acceptability of Patient-Administered Sedatives During Mechanical Ventilation.

Background: Safety and acceptability of sedative self-administration by patients receiving mechanical ventilation is unknown.

Objectives: To determine if self-administration of dexmedetomidine by patients is safe and acceptable for self-management of anxiety during ventilatory support.

Methods: In a pilot trial in 3 intensive care units, 17 intubated patients were randomly assigned to dexmedetomidine and 20 to usual care.

A tripartite complex of suPAR, APOL1 risk variants and αβ integrin on podocytes mediates chronic kidney disease.

Soluble urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR) independently predicts chronic kidney disease (CKD) incidence and progression. Apolipoprotein L1 (APOL1) gene variants G1 and G2, but not the reference allele (G0), are associated with an increased risk of CKD in individuals of recent African ancestry. Here we show in two large, unrelated cohorts that decline in kidney function associated with APOL1 risk variants was dependent on plasma suPAR levels: APOL1-related risk was attenuated in patients with lower suPAR, and strengthened in those with higher suPAR levels.

Part I: The Effects of Music for the Symptom Management of Anxiety, Pain, and Insomnia in Critically Ill Patients: An Integrative Review of Current Literature.

Critical care environments are known for provoking anxiety, pain, and sleeplessness. Often, these symptoms are attributed to patients' underlying physiological conditions; life-sustaining or life-prolonging treatments such as ventilators, invasive procedures, tubes, and monitoring lines; and noise and the fast-paced technological nature of the critical care environment. This, in turn, possibly increases length of stay and morbidity and challenges the recovery and healing of critically ill patients.

The motivation and capacity to go 'above and beyond': Qualitative analysis of free-text survey responses in the M@NGO randomised controlled trial of caseload midwifery.

Objective: to explore whether women allocated to caseload care characterise their midwife differently to those allocated to standard care.

Design: multi-site unblinded, randomised, controlled, parallel-group trial.

Setting: the study was conducted in two metropolitan teaching hospitals across two Australian cities.

Prediction of intraventricular haemorrhage in preterm infants using time series analysis of blood pressure and respiratory signals.

Despite the decline in mortality rates of extremely preterm infants, intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH) remains common in survivors. The need for resuscitation and cardiorespiratory management, particularly within the first 24 hours of life, are important factors in the incidence and timing of IVH. Variability analyses of heart rate and blood pressure data has demonstrated potential approaches to predictive monitoring.

The year's new drugs & biologics 2016: Part II - Trends and highlights of an unforgettable year.

This eagle's-eye overview of the drug industry in 2016 provides insight into some of last year's top stories, including disease outbreaks that drove R&D, orphan drug development, pipeline attrition, drug pricing, and the ongoing movement in M&A. We also consider recent political events in the U.S.

Multiple Cardioembolic Strokes Caused by Caseous Calcification of the Mitral Annulus.

• Mitral annular calcification (MAC) is a common echocardiographic finding, estimated at around 14%, and occurs especially in elderly women. • Caseous calcification of the mitral annulus (CCMA) is a rare subvariant of MAC, with an echocardiographic prevalence of 0.6% and necropsy prevalence of about 2.

Freestanding midwifery units: Maternal and neonatal outcomes following transfer.

Background: the viability of freestanding midwifery units in Australia is restricted, due to concerns over their safety, particularly for women and babies who, require transfer.

Aim: to compare the maternal and neonatal birth outcomes of women who planned, to give birth at freestanding midwifery units and subsequently, transferred to a tertiary maternity unit to the maternal and neonatal, outcomes of a low-risk cohort of women who planned to give birth in, tertiary maternity unit.

Methods: a descriptive study compared two groups of women with low-risk singleton, pregnancies who were less than 28 weeks pregnant at booking: women who, planned to give birth at a freestanding midwifery unit (n=494) who, transferred to a tertiary maternity unit during the antenatal, intrapartum or postnatal periods (n=260) and women who planned to give, birth at a tertiary maternity unit (n=3157).

Non-medical use of prescription drugs and its association with heroin use among high school students.

Introduction: There is an established link between non-medical use of prescription drugs (NMUPD) and heroin use among adults; however, little is known about this relationship among adolescents. We investigate this association among a nationally-representative sample of U.S.