Economic Evaluation in Kidney Transplantation: A Scoping Review and Novel PESTLE Stakeholder Gaps Analysis.

Aim: The objective of this study was to systematically review the literature related to the economic evaluation of kidney transplantation to determine the extent of current research and identify gaps for future research.

Subject And Methods: We searched 4 medical and 2 economic electronic databases as well as hand-searching reference lists of review articles and other pertinent articles. Exclusion criteria included articles that did not include original work (ie, reviews), were not in English, and were not journal articles or economic working papers (eg, commentaries, theses, abstracts).

Evaluating Cost-Effectiveness in Using High-Kidney Donor Profile Index Organs.

A more granular donor kidney grading scale, the kidney donor profile index (KDPI), has recently emerged in contradistinction to the standard criteria donor/expanded criteria donor framework. In this paper, we built a Markov decision process model to evaluate the survival, quality-adjusted life years (QALY), and cost advantages of using high-KDPI kidneys based on multiple KDPI strata over a 60-month time horizon as opposed to remaining on the waiting list waiting for a lower-KDPI kidney. Data for the model were gathered from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients and the United States Renal Data System Medicare parts A, B, and D databases.

Portable Chest Radiography as an Exclusionary Test for Adverse Clinical Outcomes During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Background: Chest radiography (CXR) often is performed in the acute setting to help understand the extent of respiratory disease in patients with COVID-19, but a clearly defined role for negative chest radiograph results in assessing patients has not been described.

Research Question: Is portable CXR an effective exclusionary test for future adverse clinical outcomes in patients suspected of having COVID-19?

Study Design And Methods: Charts of consecutive patients suspected of having COVID-19 at five EDs in New York City between March 19, 2020, and April 23, 2020, were reviewed. Patients were categorized based on absence of findings on initial CXR.

Nrf2-activating Therapy Accelerates Wound Healing in a Model of Cutaneous Chronic Venous Insufficiency.

Unlabelled: Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI) stems from venous hypertension, extravasation of blood, and iron-rich skin deposits. The latter is central to ulcer development through generating reactive oxygen species (ROS) that drive persistent local inflammation and the development of lipodermatosclerosis. The ability to study CVI cutaneous inflammation is fundamental to advancing therapies.

Potential Unintended Consequences of National Infectious Disease Screening Strategies in Deceased Donor Kidney Transplantation: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.

Background: In order to counter the lack of sufficient kidney donors, there has been interest in expanding the utilization of organs from increased infectious-risk donors. Negative nucleic acid testing of increased infectious-risk organs has been shown to increase their use as compared to only enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay negativity. However, it is not known how the expanded use of nucleic acid testing on a national scale might affect total donor utilization.

Topical inhibition of PUMA signaling mitigates radiation injury.

Radiation therapy is an effective treatment strategy for many types of cancer but is limited by its side effects on normal tissues, particularly the skin, where persistent and progressive fibrotic changes occur and can impair wound healing. In this study, we attempted to mitigate the effects of irradiation on skin using a novel transcutaneous topical delivery system to locally inhibit p53 up-regulated modulator of apoptosis (PUMA) gene expression with small interfering RNA (siRNA). In an isolated skin irradiation model, the dorsal skin of C57 wild-type mice was irradiated.

Targeted Nrf2 activation therapy with RTA 408 enhances regenerative capacity of diabetic wounds.

Aims: Though unmitigated oxidative stress in diabetic chronic non-healing wounds poses a major therapeutic challenge, currently, there are no effective pharmacological agents. We targeted the cytoprotective Nrf2/Keap1 pathway, which is dysfunctional in diabetic skin and the regenerative environment in the diabetic wound. We assessed the efficacy of a potent Nrf2-activator, RTA 408, a semi-synthetic oleanane triterpenoid, on accelerating diabetic wound healing.

Staphylococcus Aureus Prevention Strategies in Cardiac Surgery: A Cost-Effectiveness Analysis.

Background: Cardiac surgery patients colonized with Staphylococcus aureus have a greater risk of surgical site infection (SSI). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of decolonization strategies to prevent SSIs.

Methods: We compared three decolonization strategies: universal decolonization (UD), all subjects treated; targeted decolonization (TD), only S aureus carriers treated; and no decolonization (ND).

Individualized Performance Feedback to Surgical Residents Improves Appropriate Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis Prescription and Reduces Potentially Preventable VTE: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Objective: To investigate the effect of providing personal clinical effectiveness performance feedback to general surgery residents regarding prescription of appropriate venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis.

Background: Residents are frequently charged with prescribing medications for patients, including VTE prophylaxis, but rarely receive individual performance feedback regarding these practice habits.

Methods: This prospective cohort study at the Johns Hopkins Hospital compared outcomes across 3 study periods: (1) baseline, (2) scorecard alone, and (3) scorecard plus coaching.

Restoration of Nrf2 Signaling Normalizes the Regenerative Niche.

Chronic hyperglycemia impairs intracellular redox homeostasis and contributes to impaired diabetic tissue regeneration. The Keap1/Nrf2 pathway is a critical regulator of the endogenous antioxidant response system, and its dysfunction has been implicated in numerous pathologies. Here we characterize the effect of chronic hyperglycemia on Nrf2 signaling within a diabetic cutaneous regeneration model.

Choosing the order of deceased donor and living donor kidney transplantation in pediatric recipients: a Markov decision process model.

Background: Most pediatric kidney transplant recipients eventually require retransplantation, and the most advantageous timing strategy regarding deceased and living donor transplantation in candidates with only 1 living donor remains unclear.

Methods: A patient-oriented Markov decision process model was designed to compare, for a given patient with 1 living donor, living-donor-first followed if necessary by deceased donor retransplantation versus deceased-donor-first followed if necessary by living donor (if still able to donate) or deceased donor (if not) retransplantation. Based on Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients data, the model was designed to account for waitlist, graft, and patient survival, sensitization, increased risk of graft failure seen during late adolescence, and differential deceased donor waiting times based on pediatric priority allocation policies.

Grading of well-differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors is improved by the inclusion of both Ki67 proliferative index and mitotic rate.

The grading system for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs) adopted in 2010 by the World Health Organization (WHO) mandates the use of both mitotic rate and Ki67/MIB-1 index in defining the proliferative rate and assigning the grade. In cases when these measures are not concordant for grade, it is recommended to assign the higher grade, but specific data justifying this approach do not exist. Thus, we counted mitotic figures and immunolabeled, using the Ki67 antibody, 297 WHO mitotic grade 1 and 2 PanNETs surgically resected at a single institution.

A single institution's 26-year experience with nonfunctional pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors: a validation of current staging systems and a new prognostic nomogram.

Objective: To validate the 2010 American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and 2006 European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (ENETS) tumor staging systems for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs) using the largest, single-institution series of surgically resected patients in the literature.

Background: The natural history and prognosis of PanNETs have been poorly defined because of the rarity and heterogeneity of these neoplasms. Currently, there are 2 main staging systems for PanNETs, which can complicate comparisons of reports in the literature and thereby hinder progress against this disease.

Cystic pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors: a clinicopathologic study.

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs) are typically solid neoplasms but in rare instances may present as cystic lesions. This unusual presentation can make clinical diagnosis challenging. In addition, the clinical and histopathologic characteristics of cystic PanNETs are poorly defined.

The current management of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.

PanNETs constitute a rare and heterogeneous group of pancreatic neoplasms whose overall prognosis is better than the more common pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Although surgery is the only treatment that provides a cure, many adjuvant therapies have been explored with some new, exciting, targeted therapies just approved for PanNETs. With growing interest in this type of neoplasm, an increasing number of clinical trials and natural history studies should shed light on the best management for these patients.

Loss of ATRX or DAXX expression and concomitant acquisition of the alternative lengthening of telomeres phenotype are late events in a small subset of MEN-1 syndrome pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.

Approximately 45% of sporadic well-differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors harbor mutations in either ATRX (alpha thalassemia/mental retardation X-linked) or DAXX (death domain-associated protein). These novel tumor suppressor genes encode nuclear proteins that interact with one another and function in chromatin remodeling at telomeric and peri-centromeric regions. Mutations in these genes are associated with loss of their protein expression and correlate with the alternative lengthening of telomeres phenotype.

Serotonin expression in pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors correlates with a trabecular histologic pattern and large duct involvement.

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors with prominent stromal fibrosis are often clinically, radiographically, and grossly indistinguishable from ductal adenocarcinoma. We recently described a small series of fibrotic pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors that express serotonin. To understand better the relationship between histopathologic patterns and serotonin expression, we reviewed 361 pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors to identify those with prominent stromal fibrosis exceeding 30% of total tumor area.

Hyaline globules in neuroendocrine and solid-pseudopapillary neoplasms of the pancreas: a clue to the diagnosis.

Distinguishing between solid-pseudopapillary neoplasms (SPNs) and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs) may pose a diagnostic dilemma. Both can demonstrate solid growth patterns, and both can be immunoreactive with neuroendocrine markers such as synaptophysin and CD56. One well-established feature of SPNs is the presence of hyaline globules, which in contrast has only rarely been reported in PanNETs.

The top 10 list for a safe and effective sign-out.

With the advent of the 80-hour workweek, much attention has been focused on the benefits of shorter work hours regarding resident fatigue and reduced medical errors. Along with this change, however, there has been more reliance on multiple teams of residents who assume the care of inpatients at different times. In this new paradigm, a safe and effective sign-out process is needed to ensure a seamless transition of care from one resident to another.

Subclavian flap aortoplasty: still a safe, reproducible, and effective treatment for infant coarctation.

Objective: Subclavian flap repair of infant coarctation has been criticized and in many centers abandoned in favor of resection with end-to-end anastomosis. The goal of this study was to examine intermediate and long-term results of infant subclavian flap aortoplasty, which has been the preferred technique at our institution over the last two decades.

Methods: Our patient database identified all infants (age<1 year) who underwent repair of isthmic coarctation via thoracotomy between January 1984 and December 2004.

Adjacent DNA sequences modulate Sox9 transcriptional activation at paired Sox sites in three chondrocyte-specific enhancer elements.

Expression of the type XI collagen gene Col11a2 is directed to cartilage by at least three chondrocyte-specific enhancer elements, two in the 5' region and one in the first intron of the gene. The three enhancers each contain two heptameric sites with homology to the Sox protein-binding consensus sequence. The two sites are separated by 3 or 4 bp and arranged in opposite orientation to each other.