Racial Differences in Systemic Immune Parameters in Individuals With Lung Cancer.

Introduction: Racial and ethnic disparities in the presentation and outcomes of lung cancer are widely known. To evaluate potential factors contributing to these observations, we measured systemic immune parameters in Black and White patients with lung cancer.

Methods: Patients scheduled to receive cancer immunotherapy were enrolled in a multi-institutional prospective biospecimen collection registry.

Impact of Screening on Mortality for Patients Diagnosed with Hepatocellular Carcinoma in a Safety-Net Healthcare System: An Opportunity for Addressing Disparities.

We describe the impact of screening on outcomes of patients diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in an urban safety-net healthcare system compared to a non-screened cohort diagnosed with HCC. Patients diagnosed with HCC at John Peter Smith Health Network were identified by querying the hospital tumor registry and allocated to the screened cohort if they had undergone any liver imaging within one year prior to HCC diagnosis, while the remainder were allocated to the non-screened cohort. Kaplan-Meier methods and log-rank tests were used to compare 3-year survival curves from an index date of HCC diagnosis.

Prospective Randomized Pilot Study Comparing Bivalirudin Versus Heparin in Neonatal and Pediatric Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation.

Objectives: To test feasibility of a randomized controlled trial (RCT) with an endpoint of time at goal anticoagulation in children on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) randomized to receive bivalirudin vs. unfractionated heparin.

Design: Open-label pilot RCT (NCT03318393) carried out 2018-2021.

Awareness, use, motivations and methods of accessing genetic testing in 2022 in the United States.

Introduction: Awareness, access, and use of clinical and direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic tests has increased in recent years with documented disparities in these services. We provide updated data on test awareness and use, and report novel data on motivations and methods for accessing genetic tests.

Methods: Nationally representative data from the 2022 Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS 6) were used to assess awareness and use of ancestry, personal trait, specific disease, and carrier testing by sociodemographic characteristics, examine reasons for undergoing tests, and methods of accessing them.

A Retrospective Comparison Between Home and in-Office NB-UVB Efficacy for Patients With Mycosis Fungoides.

Introduction: This study addresses the gap in research comparing the effectiveness between home and in-office narrowband ultraviolet B (NB-UVB) phototherapy for the treatment of mycosis fungoides (MF). Elderly and disabled patients with this condition disproportionally lack access to home units due to insurance denial.

Materials And Methods: A retrospective review included patients diagnosed with MF or Sezary syndrome who underwent either in-office or home UVB between 2016 and 2023.

Moral foundations messaging to improve vaccine attitudes: An online randomized experiment from Argentina.

The uptake of routine childhood vaccinations has declined globally since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, due in part to increased vaccine hesitancy among parents. The Moral Foundations Theory proposes six foundations which can be targeted to increase vaccine uptake. In this study, we tested whether a post by UNICEF with a purity violation message could affect vaccine attitudes among parents in Argentina, where routine immunization coverage has been declining since 2014.

Cell Segmentation With Globally Optimized Boundaries (CSGO): A Deep Learning Pipeline for Whole-Cell Segmentation in Hematoxylin-and-Eosin-Stained Tissues.

Accurate whole-cell segmentation is essential in various biomedical applications, particularly in studying the tumor microenvironment. Despite advancements in machine learning for nuclei segmentation in hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-stained images, there remains a need for effective whole-cell segmentation methods. This study aimed to develop a deep learning-based pipeline to automatically segment cells in H&E-stained tissues, thereby advancing the capabilities of pathological image analysis.

Measuring Patient Well-Being During Whole-Person Clinical Care: Lessons From the Veterans Health Administration Well-Beings Signs Implementation Pilot.

Background: Measuring patient well-being during clinical care may enhance patient-centered communication and treatment planning. The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) piloted the use of the Well-Being Signs (WBS), a self-report measure of psychosocial well-being, in clinical care.

Objective: To understand early WBS implementation and health care team member experiences with its use before developing detailed support materials and finalizing the measure.

Virtual Coach-Guided Online Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Chronic Pain: Pilot Feasibility Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Veterans are disproportionately affected by chronic pain, with high rates of pain diagnoses (47%-56%) and a 40% higher rate of prevalence of severe pain than nonveterans. This is often accompanied by negative functional outcomes and higher mortality. Combined with research suggesting medical treatments for chronic pain are often insufficient, there is an urgent need for nonmedical pain self-management programs.

Exploring adolescent contraceptive counseling: A hypothetical daughter scenario.

Objectives: We aimed to describe contraceptive methods used by clinicians who counsel adolescents to create an aggregate perspective which could be shared with patients. We also explored which method clinicians would recommend to a hypothetical daughter to identify associations between clinicians who had used long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) and potential recommendations.

Methods: An online survey was sent to pediatric and adolescent gynecology academic societies and fellowship/division directors to share with their clinicians.

Predicting urinary stone recurrence: a joint model analysis of repeated 24-hour urine collections from the MSTONE database.

To address the limitations in existing urinary stone recurrence (USR) models, including failure to account for changes in 24-hour urine (24U) parameters over time and ignoring multiplicity of stone recurrences, we presented a novel statistical method to jointly model temporal trends in 24U parameters and multiple recurrent stone events. The MSTONE database spanning May 2001 to April 2015 was analyzed. A joint recurrent model was employed, combining a linear mixed-effects model for longitudinal 24U parameters and a recurrent event model with a dynamic first-order Autoregressive (AR(1)) structure.

Pharmacodynamics of 2 dosages of orally administered esomeprazole in client-owned, healthy dogs: A prospective, crossover study.

Background: Esomeprazole use is increasing in dogs, but the gastrointestinal adverse events associated with q12h dosing necessitate pharmacodynamic evaluation of a reduced dose and frequency of administration.

Objectives: To compare the efficacy of 2 doses of (q24h) esomeprazole in raising intragastric pH in dogs.

Animals: Nine healthy, client-owned dogs, >20 kg.

BayeSMART: Bayesian clustering of multi-sample spatially resolved transcriptomics data.

The field of spatially resolved transcriptomics (SRT) has greatly advanced our understanding of cellular microenvironments by integrating spatial information with molecular data collected from multiple tissue sections or individuals. However, methods for multi-sample spatial clustering are lacking, and existing methods primarily rely on molecular information alone. This paper introduces BayeSMART, a Bayesian statistical method designed to identify spatial domains across multiple samples.

Global genomic surveillance of monkeypox virus.

Monkeypox virus (MPXV) is endemic in western and Central Africa, and in May 2022, a clade IIb lineage (B.1) caused a global outbreak outside Africa, resulting in its detection in 116 countries and territories. To understand the global phylogenetics of MPXV, we analyzed all available MPXV sequences, including 10,670 sequences from 65 countries collected between 1958 and 2024.

What do you want to eat? Cuisine and nutrition intervention preferences among people using a large food pantry in Texas.

Objective: Nutrition interventions delivered through food pantries could reduce health disparities for people experiencing food insecurity. We identified clients' preferences for cuisines, nutrition interventions, and outcomes and whether preferences differ for subpopulations.

Methods: Cross-sectional study at a large pantry in Dallas, Texas (N = 200).