Publications by authors named "Vallejo A"

Introduction: Chronic low back pain (cLBP) is a leading cause of disability with disproportionately high impacts on marginalized populations, including non-English-preferring patients. These patients face significant barriers to accessing care and adhering to self-management strategies due to language barriers, socioeconomic challenges, and cultural differences. Despite the emphasis on self-management for cLBP, limited research has focused on understanding the specific needs and preferences of Spanish- and Cantonese-preferring patients.

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Background: Different approaches to the obturator nerve have been described. However, few have focused on the injection point inferior the iliopubic ramus, specifically at the exit of the obturator canal. This study aims to anatomically evaluate the ultrasound-guided obturator nerve block at the exit of the obturator canal, detailing anatomical landmarks and solution distribution.

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  • The study investigated how 6 months of intermittent exercise affects cognitive function in older adults, comparing low-intensity movement (LIM) and moderate-intensity aerobic exercise (AE).
  • Results showed that LIM improved learning and memory, while AE enhanced executive functioning, indicating different cognitive benefits from each type of exercise.
  • Neuroimaging revealed that changes in brain structure and certain inflammatory markers correlated with cognitive improvements, underlining the distinct advantages of both LIM and AE in older populations.
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Formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples are valuable but underutilized in single-cell omics research due to their low RNA quality. In this study, leveraging a recent advance in single-cell genomic technology, we introduce snPATHO-seq, a versatile method to derive high-quality single-nucleus transcriptomic data from FFPE samples. We benchmarked the performance of the snPATHO-seq workflow against existing 10x 3' and Flex assays designed for frozen or fresh samples and highlighted the consistency in snRNA-seq data produced by all workflows.

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Langerhans cells (LCs) are distinct among phagocytes, functioning both as embryo-derived, tissue-resident macrophages in skin innervation and repair and as migrating professional antigen-presenting cells, a function classically assigned to dendritic cells (DCs). Here, we demonstrate that both intrinsic and extrinsic factors imprint this dual identity. Using ablation of embryo-derived LCs in the murine adult skin and tracking differentiation of incoming monocyte-derived replacements, we found intrinsic intraepidermal heterogeneity.

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Matrix stiffening by lysyl oxidase-like 2 (LOXL2)-mediated collagen cross-linking is proposed as a core feedforward mechanism that promotes fibrogenesis. Failure in clinical trials of simtuzumab (the humanized version of AB0023, a monoclonal antibody against human LOXL2) suggested that targeting LOXL2 may not have disease relevance; however, target engagement was not directly evaluated. We compare the spatial transcriptome of active human lung fibrogenesis sites with different human cell culture models to identify a disease-relevant model.

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Background: A study to assess the glucose levels of people with type 1 diabetes (T1D) overnight, based on the insulin type and timing.

Methods: A real-world, retrospective study of T1D, using multiple daily insulin injections. Continuous glucose monitoring and insulin injection data were collected for ten hours after dinner using the connected cap.

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Exercise leads to robust cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, and psychological benefits that improve quality of life and longevity for older adults, but accompanying improvements in athletic parameters are less well explored. The aim of this review is to summarize some of the most common exercise modalities, namely, Pilates, martial arts (tai chi, Japanese-style karate, hard martial arts), locomotion (brisk walking/jogging and running), Masters sports, resistance training, and high-intensity interval training, in improving athletic performance for older adults. Regular participation in these activities can have robust yet unique impacts on physical performance that prolong exercise participation.

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Intensive Care to facilitate Organ Donation (ICOD) consists of the initiation or continuation of intensive care measures in patients with a devastating brain injury (DBI) in whom curative treatment is deemed futile and death by neurological criteria (DNC) is foreseen, to incorporate organ donation into their end-of-life plans. In this study we evaluate the outcomes of patients subject to ICOD and identify radiological and clinical factors associated with progression to DNC. In this first prospective multicenter study we tested by multivariate regression the association of clinical and radiological severity features with progression to DNC.

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  • The 3-2-1 approach is a surgical method proposed to manage cesarean hysterectomy for placenta accreta spectrum (PAS) with the goal of reducing complications and improving outcomes.
  • It involves three main steps: first, identifying three anatomical landmarks to create a safe surgical site; second, utilizing a two-hand technique to gently elevate the uterus and placenta; and third, considering a supracervical hysterectomy to better handle the situation.
  • The overall aim is to enhance safety and efficiency during surgery by following this structured approach.
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  • The study aimed to evaluate clinical and pregnancy characteristics, surgical practices, and complications from cesarean hysterectomy performed due to placenta accreta spectrum, focusing on the surgeon's specialty.
  • Data were analyzed from the Premier Healthcare Database for patients who had cesarean deliveries and hysterectomies between 2016 and 2020, comparing outcomes based on different types of surgeons: general obstetricians, maternal-fetal medicine specialists, and gynecologic oncologists.
  • Results showed that while the types of surgeons varied, surgical complications such as hemorrhage and bladder injuries were comparable across the groups, but gynecologic oncologists had patients with more severe cases (placenta increta/percreta) and specific surgical
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BACKGROUNDNovel biomarkers to identify infectious patients transmitting Mycobacterium tuberculosis are urgently needed to control the global tuberculosis (TB) pandemic. We hypothesized that proteins released into the plasma in active pulmonary TB are clinically useful biomarkers to distinguish TB cases from healthy individuals and patients with other respiratory infections.METHODSWe applied a highly sensitive non-depletion tandem mass spectrometry discovery approach to investigate plasma protein expression in pulmonary TB cases compared to healthy controls in South African and Peruvian cohorts.

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  • The study investigates early death rates among patients with gynecologic cancers in the U.S., focusing on racial and ethnic differences, using data from 461,300 patients between 2000 and 2020.
  • Findings reveal that 4.7% of the cohort experienced early death, with notably higher rates in non-Hispanic Black patients for tubo-ovarian cancer (14.5%).
  • Overall, while early death rates decreased for both non-Hispanic Black and White patients over time, significant racial disparities persisted, particularly in tubo-ovarian and uterine cancers.
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The molecular explanation about why some pancreatic cancer (PaCa) patients die early and others die later is poorly understood. This study aimed to discover potential novel markers and drug targets that could be useful to stratify and extend expected survival in prospective early-death patients. We deployed a deep learning algorithm and analyzed the gene copy number, gene expression, and protein expression data of death versus alive PaCa patients from the GDC cohort.

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Background & Aims: Acinar cells produce digestive enzymes that impede transcriptomic characterization of the exocrine pancreas. Thus, single-cell RNA-sequencing studies of the pancreas underrepresent acinar cells relative to histological expectations, and a robust approach to capture pancreatic cell responses in disease states is needed. We sought to innovate a method that overcomes these challenges to accelerate study of the pancreas in health and disease.

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The gastrointestinal (GI) mucosal barrier is often exposed to inflammatory and erosive insults, resulting in gastric lesions. Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), such as hyaluronic acid (HA), chondroitin sulfate (CS), and N-acetylglucosamine (NAG) have shown potential beneficial effects as GI protectants. This study aimed to evaluate the gastroprotective effects of oral GAGs in rats with indomethacin-induced GI lesions.

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Objectives: A lack of diversity amongst participants in cancer clinical trials has raised scrutiny over the past decade. Patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) are further excluded. One modifiable reason for low LEP participation is a lack of non-English consent forms.

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Deep-brain stimulation (DBS) is a potential novel treatment for memory dysfunction. Current attempts to enhance memory focus on stimulating human hippocampus or entorhinal cortex. However, an alternative strategy is to stimulate brain areas providing modulatory inputs to medial temporal memory-related structures, such as the nucleus accumbens (NAc), which is implicated in enhancing episodic memory encoding.

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Background: The prevalence of post-COVID-19 Syndrome (PCS) is estimated to be between 10% and 20%. The main reported symptoms are fatigue, memory alterations, dyspnea, sleep disorders, arthralgia, anxiety, taste alterations, coughing and depression. This study aims to determine the prevalence of post-COVID-19 symptoms in a group of Colombian patients who were recruited during their outpatient appointments.

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In this cross-sectional study including 1,722,479 women who underwent laparoscopic cholecystectomy between January 2016 and December 2019 identified in the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project's Nationwide Ambulatory Surgery Sample, the prevalence rate of gynecologic diagnoses was 11.3 per 1,000. Among presumed elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy, the highest performance rate of concurrent gynecologic procedure per gynecologic diagnosis was laparoscopic adnexectomy among patients with benign ovarian tumor (652/1,000 diagnoses), followed by laparoscopic adnexectomy for endometrioma (386/1,000 diagnoses) and cervical conization for cervical carcinoma in situ (304/1,000 diagnoses).

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Objective: Failure-to-rescue, defined as mortality following a perioperative complication, is a perioperative quality indicator studied in various surgeries, but not in vulvar cancer surgery. The objective of this study was to assess failure-to-rescue in patients undergoing surgical therapy for vulvar cancer.

Methods: This cross-section study queried the National Inpatient Sample.

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