Area Deprivation, Fragmented Care, and Colectomy Case Acuity in the Veterans Health Administration.

Background: Colectomy for benign or malignant disease may be elective, urgent, or emergent. Data suggest successively worse outcomes for non-elective colectomy. Few data exist on the contribution of high area deprivation index and care fragmentation to non-elective colectomy.

Machine Learning-Assisted High-Throughput Screening of Nanozymes for Ulcerative Colitis.

Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic gastrointestinal inflammatory disorder with rising prevalence. Due to the recurrent and difficult-to-treat nature of UC symptoms, current pharmacological treatments fail to meet patients' expectations. This study presents a machine learning-assisted high-throughput screening strategy to expedite the discovery of efficient nanozymes for UC treatment.

Private-Sector Readmissions for Inpatient Surgery in Veterans Health Administration Hospitals.

Importance: The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) reports multiple indicators of hospital surgical performance, including hospital risk-standardized 30-day readmission rates (RSRRs). Currently, most routinely reported measures do not include readmissions that occur outside VHA hospitals. The impact of readmissions outside the VHA on hospital RSRR is not known.

Sodium Butyrate Ameliorates Postoperative Delirium by Regulating Gut Microbiota Dysbiosis to Inhibit Astrocyte Activation in Aged Mice.

Postoperative delirium (POD) is a common complication in elderly surgical patients, with limited targeted interventions due to incomplete understanding of its pathophysiological mechanisms. Central nervous system (CNS) inflammation, involving glial cell activation, particularly astrocytes, is considered crucial in POD development. Butyrate, a four-carbon fatty acid, has shown protective effects in CNS diseases, but its potential in mitigating POD remains unclear.

Spinal PTP1B Regulated NMDA Receptor-mediated Nociceptive Transmission and Peripheral Inflammation-induced Pain Sensitization.

Protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) catalyze the dephosphorylation of several pain-related substrates in spinal cord dorsal horn and are critically involved in the modification of pain transmission. The current study demonstrated that protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B (PTP1B), a unique endoplasmic reticulum-resident member of PTP family, displayed an activity-dependent increase in its protein expression and synaptic localization in spinal dorsal horn of adult male rats. PTP1B interacted with the Src Homology 3 (SH3) domain of Synapse-Associated Protein 102 (SAP102), one of the postsynaptic scaffolding proteins that anchored PTP1B at postsynaptic sites.

Social Determinants of Health and Surgical Desirability of Outcome Ranking in Older Veterans.

Importance: Evaluating how social determinants of health (SDOH) influence veteran outcomes is crucial, particularly for quality improvement.

Objective: To measure associations between SDOH, care fragmentation, and surgical outcomes using a Desirability of Outcome Ranking (DOOR).

Design, Setting, And Participants: This was a cohort study of US veterans using data from the Veterans Affairs (VA) Surgical Quality Improvement Program (VASQIP; 2013-2019) limited to patients aged 65 years or older with inpatient stays between 2 and 30 days, merged with multiple data sources, including Medicare.

Care Fragmentation, Social Determinants of Health, and Postoperative Mortality in Older Veterans.

Introduction: Veterans Affairs Surgical Quality Improvement Program (VASQIP) benchmarking algorithms helped the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) reduce postoperative mortality. Despite calls to consider social risk factors, these algorithms do not adjust for social determinants of health (SDoH) or account for services fragmented between the VHA and the private sector. This investigation examines how the addition of SDoH change model performance and quantifies associations between SDoH and 30-d postoperative mortality.

Machine learning in nanozymes: from design to application.

Nanozymes, a distinctive class of nanomaterials endowed with enzyme-like activity and kinetics akin to enzyme-catalysed reactions, present several advantages over natural enzymes, including cost-effectiveness, heightened stability, and adjustable activity. However, the conventional trial-and-error methodology for developing novel nanozymes encounters growing challenges as research progresses. The advent of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly machine learning (ML), has ushered in innovative design approaches for researchers in this domain.

The activation impact of lactobacillus-derived extracellular vesicles on lipopolysaccharide-induced microglial cell.

Perioperative neurocognitive dysfunction (PND) emerges as a common postoperative complication among elderly patients. Currently, the mechanism of PND remains unclear, but there exists a tendency to believe that inflammation plays a significant role in PND. Alterations in the abundance of intestinal microbiota can increase the permeability of the intestinal mucosal barrier and incite extraintestinal inflammatory responses.

Palliative Care Utilization and Hospital Transfers in Veterans Treated in Telecritical Care-Supported Intensive Care Units Versus Non-Telecritical Care Intensive Care Units.

Although telecritical care (TCC) implementation is associated with reduced mortality and interhospital transfer rates, its impact on goal-concordant care delivery in critical illness is unknown. We hypothesized that implementation of TCC across the Veterans' Health Administration system resulted in increased palliative care consultation and goals of care evaluation, yielding reduced transfer rates. We included veterans admitted to intensive care units between 2008 and 2022.

Association of preoperative neutrophil-lymphocyte ratios with the emergence delirium in pediatric patients after tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy: an observational prospective study.

Purpose: The study aimed to investigate potential risk factors for emergence delirium (ED) in pediatric patients after tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy (T&A).

Methods: This prospective, single-center observational study enrolled children aged 3-7 years who underwent T&A under general anesthesia. ED was assessed according to DSM-IV or V criteria.

Application of exosomal miRNA mediated macrophage polarization in colorectal cancer: Current progress and challenges.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major global health problem with high morbidity and mortality rates. Surgical resection is the main treatment for early-stage CRC, but detecting it early is challenging. Therefore, effective therapeutic targets for advanced patients are still lacking.

Anesthesia and surgery induce changes in endogenous brain protective protein (RNF146) and delirium-like behavior in aged rats.

Background: Postoperative delirium (POD) is a common complication after anesthesia and surgery, especially in the elderly. RNF146 has neuroprotective effects in cerebral ischemia, hypoxia, and chronic neurological diseases. However, whether RNF146 expression is related to the occurrence and development of POD remains unclear.

Home noninvasive ventilation use in patients hospitalized with COPD.

Introduction: The study objective was to estimate the prevalence of chronic hypercapnic respiratory failure (CHRF) and home noninvasive ventilation (NIV) use in a high-risk population, individuals with a history of at least one COPD-related hospitalizations.

Methods: We retrospectively analyzed electronic medical record data of patients with at least one COPD-related hospitalization between October 1, 2011, and September 30, 2017, to the Iowa City VA Medical Center. We excluded individuals with no obstructive ventilatory defect.

Hydroxychloroquine use is associated with reduced mortality risk in older adults with rheumatoid arthritis.

Background: There is little robust data about the cardiovascular safety of hydroxychloroquine in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), who often have cardiovascular comorbidities. We examined the association between use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in patients with RA and major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE).

Methods: In a retrospective cohort of Medicare beneficiaries aged ≥ 65 years with RA, we identified patients who initiated HCQ (users) and who did not initiate HCQ (non-users) between January 2015-June 2017.

The impact of COVID-19 lockdown on the quality of life of Chinese football referees: the chain mediating role of occupational stress and job burnout.

Background: COVID-19 lockdown measures have had a great negative impact on the development of sports competition in China, as well as on the quality of life of football referees. This study aims to explore the impact of lockdown measures implemented in response to the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of life of football referees in China and its mechanism of action.

Methods: The Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), the Effort-Reward Imbalance Scale (ERI), the Maslach Burnout Inventory General Survey (MBI-GS), and the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief Version (WHOQOL-BREF).

Association of rural living with COPD-related hospitalizations and deaths in US veterans.

It is unclear whether the high burden of COPD in rural areas is related to worse outcomes in patients with COPD or is because the prevalence of COPD is higher in rural areas. We assessed the association of rural living with acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPDs)-related hospitalization and mortality. We retrospectively analyzed Veterans Affairs (VA) and Medicare data of a nationwide cohort of veterans with COPD aged ≥ 65 years with COPD diagnosis between 2011 and 2014 that had follow-up data until 2017.

Maresin1 ameliorates postoperative cognitive dysfunction in aged rats by potentially regulating the NF-κB pathway to inhibit astrocyte activation.

Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is one of the most serious postoperative complications in the elderly population. Perioperative central neuroinflammation is considered to be an important pathological mechanism of POCD, with the activation of astrocytes playing a key role in central neuroinflammation. Maresin1 (MaR1) is a specific pro-resolving mediator synthesized by macrophages in the resolution stage of inflammation, and provides unique anti-inflammatory and pro-resolution effects by limiting excessive neuroinflammation and promoting postoperative recovery.

Neuroprotective effects of different doses of Maresin1 pretreatment in aged rats after anesthesia/surgery.

Objective: The study is to investigate the neuroprotective effect of different doses of Maresin1 pretreatment in aged rats after anesthesia/surgery and the related mechanisms.

Methods: Aged male rats were randomly divided into a control group, an anesthesia/surgery group, and low, medium, and high-dose Maresin1 pretreatment groups, and the hippocampus was taken for study. The Morris water maze was performed to detect the cognitive ability of rats.

The Association between Occupational Stress and Mental Health among Chinese Soccer Referees in the Early Stage of Reopening Soccer Matches during the COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak: A Moderated Mediation Model.

Background: The sudden and unpredictable changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are a serious threat to the occupational stress and mental health of referees worldwide, which has not attracted widespread attention. The mental health of football referees has a certain influence on their job satisfaction or the accuracy of judgments.

Methods: This study constructed a moderated mediation model to explore the buffer factors between occupational stress and mental health in Chinese soccer referees in the early stage of reopening soccer matches during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak.

Epidemiology of irritable bowel syndrome in hospitalized patients with inflammatory bowel disease: Nationwide Inpatient Sample analysis from 2007-2016.

Background: Despite effective treatments for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), patients in remission may still suffer from gastrointestinal symptoms attributable to overlying irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). In this population-based cohort study, we investigated the epidemiology of IBS in hospitalized IBD patients and explored the differences between hospitalized IBD-IBS vs. IBD patients to distinguish this patient population.

The detection of urinary viruses is associated with aggravated symptoms and altered bacteriome in female with overactive bladder.

Although it is known that changes in bacterial components of the urinary microbiome are associated with overactive bladder (OAB), the specific role of viruses is still insufficiently investigated. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the role of urinary viruses in woman with OAB, and analyze the potential relationship between viruses, bacteria and disease. Catheterized urine samples were collected from 55 women with OAB and 18 control individuals.