Oxygen Indications and Utilization in a Diverse, Urban Community Setting.

Purpose: Long-term oxygen therapy (LTOT) is widely used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other conditions with severe hypoxemia, imposing a large financial burden on the American health care system.

Methods: To better understand oxygen prescription and its use in a multiethnic community hospital, we completed a prospective, observational study with a survey design in our multicultural population to better recognize patient understanding of oxygen indications and utilization.

Results: The survey was conducted at three outpatient pulmonary clinics.

The Development of Best Practice Recommendations to Support the Hiring, Recruitment, and Advancement of Women Physicians in Emergency Medicine.

Background: Women in medicine continue to experience disparities in earnings, promotion, and leadership roles. There are few guidelines in place defining organization-level factors that promote a supportive workplace environment beneficial to women in emergency medicine (EM). We assembled a working group with the goal of developing specific and feasible recommendations to support women's professional development in both community and academic EM settings.

Assessing Residents' Confidence in the Context of Pharmacotherapy Competence.

Objective: We aimed to determine whether residents' confidence initiating medications increased with the number of times they prescribed individual medications and to quantify the relationship between prescription frequency and gains in confidence.

Methods: From July 2011 to June 2014, PGY-3 residents completed a survey of confidence levels at their psychopharmacology clinic orientation and then again 12 months later. The Emory Healthcare electronic medical record was used to identify all medications prescribed by each resident during their 12-month rotation and the frequency of these prescriptions.

Sites With Small Impedance Decrease During Catheter Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation Are Associated With Recovery of Pulmonary Vein Conduction.

Objective: To correlate impedance decrease during atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation with lesion durability and PV conduction recovery demonstrated during redo procedures.

Background: Markers of successful ablation beyond acute conduction block are needed to improve durability of pulmonary vein (PV) isolation (PVI). Local impedance decrease resulting from ablation is a real-time marker of tissue heating and is correlated with lesion creation.

Diffusion Imaging of White Matter In Schizophrenia: Progress and Future Directions.

Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is a powerful tool for the in-vivo assessment of white matter microstructure. The application of DTI methodologies to the study of schizophrenia has supported and advanced the hypothesis of schizophrenia as a disorder of disrupted connectivity. In the context of impaired structural connectivity, the extended time frame of white matter development may offer unique opportunities for treatment that can capitalize on the neural flexibility that is still present in the period leading up to and after disease onset.

Hydrocephalus in children.

Imaging of hydrocephalus in utero, in infants and children is critically dependent on an understanding of the pathophysiology and treatment options for this condition in this age spectrum. For this reason, this chapter deals not only with the imaging modalities used to study hydrocephalus and how they are applied but also reviews key aspects of the pathophysiology and treatment of hydrocephalus in children. Imaging techniques to establish the diagnosis of chronic hydrocephalus fall into two categories: (1) tracer-type techniques that require an injection and observation of the transit of an injected substance through the ventricular system or subarachnoid space and (2) cross-sectional imaging, which allows for direct visualization of a point of obstruction within the ventricular system or subarachnoid space.

Endoscopic Endonasal Reconstruction of Skull Base: Repair Protocol.

Background Endoscopic endonasal skull base reconstructions have been associated with postoperative cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leaks. Objective A repair protocol for endoscopic endonasal skull base reconstruction is presented with the objective of decreasing the overall leak rate. Methods A total of 180 endoscopic endonasal skull base reconstructions were reviewed.

Noninvasive Imaging to Evaluate Women With Stable Ischemic Heart Disease.

Declines in cardiovascular deaths have been dramatic for men but occur significantly less in women. Among patients with symptomatic ischemic heart disease (IHD), women experience relatively worse outcomes compared with their male counterparts. Evidence to date has failed to adequately explore unique female imaging targets and their correlative signs and symptoms of IHD as major determinants of IHD risk.

Ultrasonography evaluation during the weaning process: the heart, the diaphragm, the pleura and the lung.

Purpose: On a regular basis, the intensivist encounters the patient who is difficult to wean from mechanical ventilatory support. The causes for failure to wean from mechanical ventilatory support are often multifactorial and involve a complex interplay between cardiac and pulmonary dysfunction. A potential application of point of care ultrasonography relates to its utility in the process of weaning the patient from mechanical ventilatory support.

Prevention of Influenza in Children.

Influenza infects 5% to 20% of school-age children annually. Although universal influenza vaccine is recommended for children and adults 6 months of age and older, uptake is below national targets. Influenza immunization of the child and the family is the key to decreasing annual disease burden.

The accumbofrontal tract: Diffusion tensor imaging characterization and developmental change from childhood to adulthood.

The presence of an anatomical connection between the orbitofrontal cortex and ventral striatum, forming a so-called reward network, is well established across species. This connection has important implications for reward processing and is relevant to a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. Moreover, white matter (WM) is known to continue to mature across adolescence and into early adulthood, and developmental change in the reward network is an important component of models of decision making and risk taking.

Examining the Psychosis Continuum.

The notion that psychosis may exist on a continuum with normal experience has been proposed in multiple forms throughout the history of psychiatry. However, in recent years there has been an exponential increase in efforts aimed at elucidating what has been termed the 'psychosis continuum'. The present review seeks to summarize some of the more basic characteristics of this continuum and to present some of the recent findings that provide support for its validity.

Malignant tracheal tumors: a review of current diagnostic and management strategies.

Purpose Of Review: This article reviews the current literature for the purpose of developing a practical approach for the diagnosis and management of primary tracheal tumors.

Recent Findings: Because of nonspecific symptoms, tracheal tumors remain a diagnostic challenge. Currently available management strategies are not being optimally utilized due to lack of physician awareness and knowledge.

Phase II double-blind placebo-controlled randomized study of armodafinil for brain radiation-induced fatigue.

Background: Common acute-term side effects of brain radiotherapy (RT) include fatigue, drowsiness, decreased physical functioning, and decreased quality of life (QOL). We hypothesized that armodafinil (a wakefulness-promoting drug known to reduce fatigue and increase cognitive function in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy) would result in reduced fatigue and sleepiness for patients receiving brain RT.

Methods: A phase II, multi-institutional, placebo-controlled randomized trial assessed feasibility of armodafinil 150 mg/day in participants receiving brain RT, from whom we obtained estimates of variability for fatigue, sleepiness, QOL, cognitive function, and treatment effect.

Arterial stiffness in childhood cancer survivors.

Background: Cardiovascular disease is prevalent among childhood cancer survivors (CCS). Arterial stiffness measured by pulse wave velocity (PWV) may be predictive of cardiovascular morbidity. Increased PWV has been seen in adults following chemotherapy.

White matter microstructure in the executive network associated with aggression in healthy adolescents and young adults.

Predicting which individuals may engage in aggressive behavior is of interest in today's society; however, there is little data on the neural basis of aggression in healthy individuals. Here, we tested whether regional differences in white matter (WM) microstructure were associated with later reports of aggressive tendencies. We recontacted healthy young adults an average of 3 years after they underwent research MRI scans.

Surgical treatment of a large ruptured internal carotid artery bifurcation aneurysm.

Ruptured aneurysms with intraparenchymal hematoma and mass effect are primarily treated by surgical clipping. In this video presentation, a 68 year old male with a large ruptured right ICA bifurcation aneurysm is presented. Patient's neurological exam was rapidly deteriorating, therefore the patient was transferred to the operating theater after initial evaluation by CT and CT angiogram.

Altered white matter microstructure is associated with social cognition and psychotic symptoms in 22q11.2 microdeletion syndrome.

22q11.2 Microdeletion Syndrome (22q11DS) is a highly penetrant genetic mutation associated with a significantly increased risk for psychosis. Aberrant neurodevelopment may lead to inappropriate neural circuit formation and cerebral dysconnectivity in 22q11DS, which may contribute to symptom development.