552 results match your criteria: "Southern Arizona VA Health Care System; Sarver Heart Center.[Affiliation]"

Repurposing Mitochondria-Targeted Therapeutics for Kidney Diseases.

Kidney Int

January 2025

Department of Pharmacology & Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA; Southern Arizona VA Health Care System, Tucson, Arizona, USA; Southwest Environmental Health Science Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA. Electronic address:

The kidney is one of the most metabolically demanding organs in the human body and requires a large amount of energy, in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), to perform and maintain normal renal functions. To meet this energy demand, proximal tubule cells within the nephron segments of the renal cortex are mitochondrially dense with high oxygen consumption rates. Mitochondria are complex organelles involved in diverse cellular and molecular functions, including the production of ATP, calcium homeostasis, and phospholipid regulation.

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Objectives: Research supports cognitive behavioral therapies for nightmares (CBT-N) in adults. However, the nuances of implementation and unstandardized nomenclature for treatment components has created confusion in the field. To provide clarification, an expert consensus panel convened to review treatment manual components and to develop guidelines for the standardized implementation and terminology of CBT-N.

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Evolution of Lipid Metabolism in the Injured Mouse Spinal Cord.

J Neurotrauma

December 2024

Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, College of Pharmacy, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA.

Following spinal cord injury (SCI), there is a short-lived recovery phase that ultimately plateaus. Understanding changes within the spinal cord over time may facilitate targeted approaches to prevent and/or reverse this plateau and allow for continued recovery. Untargeted metabolomics revealed distinct metabolic profiles within the injured cord during recovery (7 days postinjury [DPI]) and plateau (21 DPI) periods in a mouse model of severe contusion SCI.

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Article Synopsis
  • The text discusses the importance of forecasting future health issues in the USA for effective planning and public awareness regarding disease and injury burdens.
  • It describes the methodology for predicting life expectancy, cause-specific mortality, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) from 2022 to 2050 using the Global Burden of Diseases framework.
  • The forecasting includes various scenarios to assess the potential impacts of health risks and improvements across the country, focusing on demographic trends and health-related risk factors.
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  • The opioid crisis has evolved into a global issue affecting various socioeconomic and cultural areas, with traditional treatment methods proving insufficient.
  • A narrative review was conducted using multiple databases to explore the complex factors contributing to this epidemic, acknowledging the potential for bias in article selection.
  • Despite some progress with Opioid Substitution Therapy, U.S. overdose deaths remain alarmingly high and are projected to increase; the authors suggest a need for a new treatment approach that targets brain neurotransmitter systems for better management.
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  • - Reward Deficiency Syndrome (RDS) refers to a range of addictive behaviors affecting many people, prompting research on KB220 and its variants to tackle these issues.
  • - The studies focus on various impacts of KB220, including cravings, substance abuse prevention, and mental health conditions like ADHD and eating disorders.
  • - The review posits that KB220 is more effective than GLP-1 analogs in improving brain functions related to reward and dopamine balance without negatively affecting the reward system.
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Inpatient Test Utilization and Test Volume Benchmarking: A Q-Probes Study.

Arch Pathol Lab Med

November 2024

From Pathology, Anatomy & Laboratory Medicine, West Virginia University, Morgantown (Perrotta); the Department of Biostatistics, College of American Pathologists, Northfield, Illinois (Coulter, Blond, Long); and the Department of Pathology, Southern Arizona VA Healthcare System, Tucson (Schifman).

Context.—: Test-ordering practices vary widely between and within health care organizations, and methods used to benchmark test utilization data are unstandardized.

Objective.

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Background: Headache is a pain disorder present in populations world-wide with a higher incidence in females. Specifically, the incidences of medication overuse headache (MOH) have increased worldwide. Comorbidities of MOH include photosensitivity, anxiety, "brain fog", and decreased physical activity.

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  • Mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, fibrosis, and cell aging play significant roles in the transition from acute kidney injury (AKI) to chronic kidney disease, although the specific cellular processes involved are still being studied.
  • Recent research has identified key factors at the single-cell level that affect the repair processes in the kidneys after ischemia-reperfusion injury, with a focus on the role of the drug lasmiditan.
  • The study found that lasmiditan treatment enhances the expression of genes associated with successful kidney repair and reduces the expression of maladaptive repair genes, suggesting it could be a promising therapeutic option for improving kidney recovery after AKI.
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  • Diagnosing Alzheimer's disease is tough for doctors, which can lead to delays in getting the right care for patients.
  • Blood tests that check for signs of Alzheimer's could help doctors find the disease earlier and treat it better, but there are still some big challenges to overcome.
  • A special group of leaders in Alzheimer's research is working on solutions, like creating better guidelines, training healthcare workers, and making sure patients understand their test results.
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  • * Recent efforts to stop smoking haven't been put into action yet, and it’s important to see what could happen if smoking rates stay the same or improve.
  • * Researchers used models to predict health outcomes by 2050 based on different scenarios of smoking rates, showing that cutting smoking could greatly improve health and life expectancy.
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  • - Blood-based biomarkers are being explored to detect brain injuries from repetitive head impacts, specifically in former football players, by analyzing plasma levels of various proteins like tau and amyloid.
  • - A study involving 180 former football players and 60 control participants found that specific biomarkers (p-tau181 and p-tau231) were significantly elevated in the football players, indicating potential brain damage linked to their sport.
  • - The findings suggest that certain plasma proteins (p-tau, GFAP, NfL) could help in understanding and identifying neurological issues related to head impacts, with younger players showing more severe biomarker changes.
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  • Blood-based biomarkers (BBMs) are new tests that help doctors check for Alzheimer's disease in a simpler and cheaper way than older methods like brain scans or spinal fluid tests.! -
  • A special group called the Global CEO Initiative on Alzheimer's Disease is suggesting two ways to use these BBMs: one for initial testing and another to confirm more serious cases.! -
  • Using BBMs can make it easier for doctors to diagnose Alzheimer's, which means that patients can start getting needed treatments faster.!
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Objective: Fenestrated endovascular aortic repair (FEVAR) has demonstrated its value in the management of juxtarenal abdominal aortic aneurysms (JAAA), but data were largely derived from clinical trials and high-volume centers. Although routine imaging surveillance is recommended following endovascular interventions, little is known regarding follow-up compliance post-FEVAR. We examined the real-world treatment outcomes and adherence to the postoperative follow-up protocol after elective interventions for JAAA at Veteran Affairs (VA) health care facilities, the largest integrated health care system in the United State.

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  • Researchers studied strokes from 1990 to 2021 to understand how many people get them and how they are affected around the world.
  • In 2021, strokes caused about 7.3 million deaths and were a major cause of health problems, especially in specific regions like Southeast Asia and Oceania.
  • There are differences in stroke risks based on where people live and their age, and some areas actually saw more strokes happening since 2015.
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Repetitive Head Impacts and Perivascular Space Volume in Former American Football Players.

JAMA Netw Open

August 2024

Psychiatry Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts.

Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates the relationship between perivascular space (PVS) volume in the brain and lifetime exposure to repetitive head impacts (RHI) in individuals at risk for neurodegenerative diseases, particularly focusing on former American football players.
  • Conducted across four US study sites from 2016 to 2020, the research involved 224 participants, including 170 former football players and 54 control participants, with analyses exploring how PVS volume correlates with cognitive impairment.
  • Results showed that former football players exhibited larger PVS volumes compared to the control group, suggesting that RHI exposure could contribute to changes in brain structure associated with neurodegeneration.
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Importance: Black or African American (hereinafter, Black) and Hispanic or Latino/a/x (hereinafter, Latinx) adults are disproportionally affected by Alzheimer disease, but most research studies do not enroll adequate numbers of both of these populations. The Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative-3 (ADNI3) launched a diversity taskforce to pilot a multipronged effort to increase the study inclusion of Black and Latinx older adults.

Objective: To describe and evaluate the culturally informed and community-engaged inclusion efforts to increase the screening and enrollment of Black and Latinx older adults in ADNI3.

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Background: Shared medical appointments (SMAs) in heart failure (HF) are medical visits where several patients with HF meet with multidisciplinary providers at the same time for efficient and comprehensive care. It is unknown whether HF-SMAs can improve overall and cardiac health status for high-risk patients with HF discharged from acute care.

Methods And Results: A 3-site, open-label, randomized-controlled-trial was conducted.

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Impact of a Delirium Protocol on Deliriogenic Medication Use in Hospitalized Older Veterans.

Sr Care Pharm

August 2024

Southern Arizona VA Health Care System, Pharmacy Service, Tucson, Arizona.

Article Synopsis
  • The Southern Arizona VA Health Care System introduced a delirium prevention and treatment protocol in 2019 to assess its impact on medication use among hospitalized elderly veterans.
  • A study analyzed data from 5,491 veterans aged 65 and older, comparing their experiences before and after the protocol's implementation across several metrics, including medication use and delirium diagnosis rates.
  • Results showed no significant differences in deliriogenic medication usage, delirium diagnosis rates, or hospital length-of-stay before and after the protocol, suggesting its limited effectiveness on these outcomes.
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Objective: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) targeting the globus pallidus interna (GPi) has been shown to significantly improve motor symptoms for the treatment of medication-refractory Parkinson's disease. Yet, heterogeneity in clinical outcomes persists, possibly due to suboptimal target identification within the GPi. By leveraging robust sampling of the GPi and 6-month postsurgical outcomes, this study aims to determine optimal symptom-specific GPi DBS targets.

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  • * The multidisciplinary panel of experts evaluated the roles of oral appliance therapy and hypoglossal nerve stimulation, emphasizing the challenges and advantages of implementing these treatments in the U.S. healthcare system.
  • * The discussion also addressed barriers to non-PAP treatment adoption, including access to care, reimbursement issues, and regulatory challenges, while contextualizing these factors with recent events like the PAP device recall and the impact of the pandemic.
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  • Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified genes linked to telomere length, but previous research hadn't validated these findings until now.
  • In a large analysis involving over 211,000 people, the study discovered five new signals linked to telomere length and highlighted the importance of blood/immune cells in this area.
  • The researchers confirmed that the genes KBTBD6 and POP5 truly affect telomere length by demonstrating that manipulating these genes can lengthen telomeres and that their regulation is crucial for understanding telomere biology.
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Exploring the Roles, Functions, and Work Experiences of Nurse Scientists in the Veterans Health Administration.

J Nurs Adm

June 2024

Author Affiliations: Nurse Scientist (Dr Mu), Nursing Education, Research & Simulation Division, Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Nurse Practitioner (Dr Guzman-Clark), Home Telehealth/Primary Care & Community Clinics Service, Southern Arizona VA Healthcare System, Tucson; Nurse Specialist (Dr Etchin), Quality Management, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, Massachusetts; Director of Research, EBP & Analytics (Dr Sullivan), Office of Nursing Services, Department of Veterans Affairs, Washington, DC; Nurse Scientist (Dr Battaglia), Nursing, VA Eastern Colorado Healthcare System, Aurora; and Professor (Dr Battaglia), Colorado School of Public Health, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora.

Objective: The aim of this project was to describe nurse scientists' roles, functions, and work experiences in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

Background: Nurse scientists play a critical role in shaping the culture of clinical inquiry and closing the gap between knowledge and practice.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was used to collect information on sociodemographics, workload, research, clinical practice, education, and time/effort.

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The PARADIGM HF trial showed sacubitril/valsartan (SV) to be superior to enalapril in patients with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Since its publication, several other randomized trials have compared SV to either an angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) in HFrEF which showed conflicting results regarding mortality, hospitalizations, and quality of life scoring. To review randomized comparative trials of SV to either ACEI or ARB in patients with HFrEF.

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Racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities exist in the prevalence and natural history of chronic liver disease, access to care, and clinical outcomes. Solutions to improve health equity range widely, from digital health tools to policy changes. The current review outlines the disparities along the chronic liver disease health care continuum from screening and diagnosis to the management of cirrhosis and considerations of pre-liver and post-liver transplantation.

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