Unexpectedly high incidence of Kawasaki Disease in a Canadian Atlantic Province- an 11-year retrospective descriptive study.

Background: Kawasaki Disease (KD) is the leading cause of acquired heart disease in children in developed countries with a variable incidence worldwide. Previous studies reported an unexpectedly high incidence of KD in the Canadian Atlantic Provinces. The goals of our study were to validate this finding in the province of Nova Scotia and to carefully review patients' characteristics and disease outcomes.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Oncology Workload: A Provincial Review.

(1) Background: Cancer is the leading cause of death in Canada, with significant resource limitation impacting the delivery of cancer care nationwide. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic forced additional resource restriction and diversion, further impacting care delivery. Our intention is to analyze the impact COVID-19 on a provincial medical oncology workload and bring attention to the limitations of the current workload metric for oncologists.

Metastatic Mammary Carcinoma Presenting as a Large Cystic Axillary Mass: A Report of an Unusual Case.

The differential diagnosis of cystic axillary masses is broad and includes intranodal lesions. Cystic metastatic tumor deposits are rare, and have been reported in a few tumor types, most commonly in the head and neck region, but rarely described with metastatic mammary carcinoma. We report a case of a 61-year-old female who presented with a large right axillary mass.

Building leadership and managerial capacity for maternal and newborn health services.

Background: Strengthening leadership and management is important for building an effective and efficient health system. This paper presents the findings from a L&M capacity building initiative which was implemented as part of a larger study aimed at improving maternal and newborn outcomes within primary health facilities in the Morogoro, Tanzania.

Methods: The initiative, involving 30 stakeholders from 20 primary health facilities, 4 council health management teams and the regional health management team in the Morogoro region, provided leadership and managerial training through two 5-day in-person workshops, onsite mentoring, and e-learning modules.

Vaccine regulation should require and enforce the inclusion of pregnant and breastfeeding women in prelicensure clinical trials.

Exclusion of pregnant and breastfeeding women from the pivotal randomized controlled trials for COVID-19 vaccines that led to emergency regulatory approval created gaps in data needed for vaccine policy, healthcare provider recommendations, and women's decisions about vaccination. We argue that such knowledge gaps increase potential for vaccine hesitancy and misinformation relating to the health of women and infants, and that these gaps in evidence are avoidable. Over several decades, ethical and scientific guidance, scholarship, and advocacy in favor of pregnant and breastfeeding women's participation in clinical development of vaccines has accumulated.

Investigating the contribution of white matter hyperintensities and cortical thickness to empathy in neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases.

Change in empathy is an increasingly recognised symptom of neurodegenerative diseases and contributes to caregiver burden and patient distress. Empathy impairment has been associated with brain atrophy but its relationship to white matter hyperintensities (WMH) is unknown. We aimed to investigate the relationships amongst WMH, brain atrophy, and empathy deficits in neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular diseases.

Diagnostic performance and radiation dose of reduced vs. standard scan range abdominopelvic CT for evaluation of appendicitis.

Objective: To compare the diagnostic performance and radiation dose of reduced vs. standard scan range CT in diagnosing appendicitis.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 531 consecutive adults who underwent emergency contrast-enhanced CT for abdominal pain or suspected appendicitis between July 2018 and March 2019.