Overcoming Cultural Barriers to Managing Labor Pain Among Tanzanian Women Using Non-pharmacological Interventions.

Managing labor pain effectively is crucial for ensuring positive maternal health outcomes. In Tanzania, cultural barriers often hinder the acceptance and utilization of non-pharmacological pain management interventions. This clinical consultation explored strategies for overcoming these cultural barriers to improve labor pain management among Tanzanian women using non-pharmacological interventions.

The ACTION VAD Registry: A Collective Five-Year Experience.

Background: The Advanced Cardiac Therapies Improving Outcomes Network (ACTION) began in 2018 as a collaborative learning health system committed to improving outcomes in pediatric heart failure, including children and adults with congenital heart disease, supported with ventricular assist devices (VADs). This report describes patient and device characteristics, and outcomes through 1-year post-implant.

Methods: The ACTION VAD registry report was created from data submitted to the ACTION learning network from April 2018-June 2023.

Prenatally Diagnosed Absent Septum Pellucidum and Septo-Optic Dysplasia: A Narrative Review and Practical Recommendations for Pediatric Neurologists.

Evaluation of the cavum septum pellucidum is required in standard second-trimester screening fetal anatomy ultrasound scans. The absence of septum pellucidum triggers further evaluation and referral for subspecialty counseling. Absence of septum pellucidum is linked to other midline anomalies including septo-optic dysplasia.

Scan/rescan reliability of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is increasingly used to estimate the geometric dimensions of lower lumbar vertebrae. While MRI-based measurements have demonstrated good reliability with interclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) of 0.80 or higher, many evaluations focus solely on the comparison of identical MRI images.

Longitudinal investigation of neurobiological changes across pregnancy.

Pregnancy is a period of profound biological transformation. However, we know remarkably little about pregnancy-related brain changes. To address this gap, we chart longitudinal changes in brain structure during pregnancy and explore potential mechanisms driving these changes.

International Expert-Based Consensus Definition, Classification Criteria, and Minimum Data Elements for Osteoradionecrosis of the Jaw: An Inter-Disciplinary Modified Delphi Study.

Purpose: Osteoradionecrosis of the jaw (ORNJ) is a severe iatrogenic disease characterized by bone death after radiation therapy (RT) to the head and neck. With over 9 published definitions and at least 16 classification systems, the true incidence and severity of ORNJ are obscured by lack of a standard for disease definition and severity assessment, leading to inaccurate estimation of incidence, reporting ambiguity, and likely under-diagnosis worldwide. This study aimed to achieve consensus on an explicit definition and phenotype of ORNJ and related precursor states through data standardization to facilitate effective diagnosis, monitoring, and multidisciplinary management of ORNJ.

Machine learning-based assessment of morphometric abnormalities distinguishes bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder.

Introduction: Bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) have overlapping clinical presentations which may make it difficult for clinicians to distinguish them potentially resulting in misdiagnosis. This study combined structural MRI and machine learning techniques to determine whether regional morphological differences could distinguish patients with BD and MDD.

Methods: A total of 123 participants, including BD (n = 31), MDD (n = 48), and healthy controls (HC, n = 44), underwent high-resolution 3D T1-weighted imaging.

PRMT5 Inhibition Reduces Hyperinflammation in a Murine Model of Secondary Hemophagocytic Lymphohistiocytosis (HLH).

Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) is a rare but aggressive and potentially lethal hyperinflammatory syndrome characterized by pathologic immune activation and excessive production of proinflammatory cytokines leading to tissue damage and multisystem organ failure. There is an urgent need for the discovery of novel targets and development of therapeutic strategies to treat this rare but deadly syndrome. Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) mediates T cell-based inflammatory responses, making it a potential actionable target for the treatment of HLH.

Quantifying spatial and dynamic lung abnormalities with 3D PREFUL FLORET UTE imaging: A feasibility study.

Purpose: Pulmonary MRI faces challenges due to low proton density, rapid transverse magnetization decay, and cardiac and respiratory motion. The fermat-looped orthogonally encoded trajectories (FLORET) sequence addresses these issues with high sampling efficiency, strong signal, and motion robustness, but has not yet been applied to phase-resolved functional lung (PREFUL) MRI-a contrast-free method for assessing pulmonary ventilation during free breathing. This study aims to develop a reconstruction pipeline for FLORET UTE, enhancing spatial resolution for three-dimensional (3D) PREFUL ventilation analysis.

Acid sphingomyelinase activity suggests a new antipsychotic pharmaco-treatment strategy for schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a chronic and severe mental disorder. It is currently treated with antipsychotic drugs (APD). However, APD's work only in a limited number of patients and may have cognition impairing side effects.

The widely used Ucp1-Cre transgene elicits complex developmental and metabolic phenotypes.

Bacterial artificial chromosome transgenic models, including most Cre-recombinases, enable potent interrogation of gene function in vivo but require rigorous validation as limitations emerge. Due to its high relevance to metabolic studies, we perform comprehensive analysis of the Ucp1-Cre line which is widely used for brown fat research. Hemizygotes exhibit major brown and white fat transcriptomic dysregulation, indicating potential altered tissue function.

DEC1 deficiency promotes osteoclastic activity by augmenting NFATc1 signaling via transactivation and the Ca/calcineurin pathway.

We have previously demonstrated that DEC1 promotes osteoblast differentiation. This study aims to evaluate the impact of DEC1 knockout on osteopenic activities, such as osteoclast differentiation and the expression of bone-degrading genes. To gain mechanistic insights, we employed both in vivo and in vitro experiments, utilizing cellular and molecular approaches, including osteoclast differentiation assays and RNA-seq in combination with ChIP-seq.

Endoscopy and Anesthesia Outcomes Associated with Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonist use in Patients Undergoing Outpatient Upper Endoscopy.

Background And Aims: Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP1RAs) can cause delayed gastric emptying, raising concern for retained gastric contents (RGCs) during endoscopy and adverse anesthesia events. We aimed to determine associations between GLP1RA and endoscopy and anesthesia outcomes.

Methods: This single-center retrospective cohort study examined patients prescribed GLP1RA who underwent outpatient endoscopy stratified by exposure at the time of endoscopy.

Assessing Surgical Competency Among Fellows in Vitreoretinal Surgery: A Survey of Fellowship Program Directors and Fellows.

Purpose: We surveyed vitreoretinal (VR) fellowship program directors (PDs) to elucidate how they assess surgical competency among VR fellows. In addition, we also surveyed fellowship program graduates for the years 2022 and 2023 regarding assessment metrics and tools used during VR fellowship training.

Design: Web-based, cross-sectional descriptive study.

Development and Evaluation of a Presenter Coaching Program at an Academic Surgical Conference.

Objective: Presenting at academic conferences is an important means of disseminating research, networking, and building a professional reputation, but the quality of presentations at conferences is often suboptimal. This project describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of a presentation coaching program offered by an academic surgical society to presenters at its annual meeting.

Design: Oral presenters were paired with a coach and encouraged to meet independently, yet coaching was unstructured.

Development and Validation of a Minimally Invasive Transuterine Experimental Model of Gastroschisis.

Introduction: Perinatal management of gastroschisis remains a subject of substantial research. Current models, including teratogenic, genetic, and surgical approaches, often fail to accurately replicate gastroschisis, exhibiting limitations such as inaccurate phenotyping, low success rates, high mortality, lack of scientific validation, and significant technical challenges. Refined disease models are essential for improving the understanding of GS.

Brain Transcriptome Changes Associated With an Acute Increase of Protein O-GlcNAcylation and Implications for Neurodegenerative Disease.

Enhancing protein O-GlcNAcylation by pharmacological inhibition of the enzyme O-GlcNAcase (OGA) has been considered as a strategy to decrease tau and amyloid-beta phosphorylation, aggregation, and pathology in Alzheimer's disease (AD). There is still more to be learned about the impact of enhancing global protein O-GlcNAcylation, which is important for understanding the potential of using OGA inhibition to treat neurodegenerative diseases. In this study, we investigated the acute effect of pharmacologically increasing O-GlcNAc levels, using the OGA inhibitor Thiamet G (TG), in normal mouse brains.

is overexpressed in keloid keratinocytes and its inhibition alters profibrotic gene expression.

Background: Keloids are disfiguring, fibrotic scar-like lesions that are challenging to treat and commonly recur after therapy. A deeper understanding of the mechanisms driving keloid formation is necessary for the development of more effective therapies. Reduced vitamin D receptor (VDR) expression has been observed in keloids, implicating vitamin D signaling in keloid pathology.

Improving Collaborative Management of Multiple Mental and Physical Health Conditions: A Qualitative Inquiry into Designing Technology-Enabled Services for Eliciting Patients' Values.

People with multiple chronic conditions (MCC) face challenges planning health care collaboratively with primary care clinicians, particularly when their priorities conflict. These challenges intensify with symptoms of anxiety or depression. Elicitation of patients' values is promoted as a means to aligning patient and clinician priorities in primary care, and as a component of psychotherapy for anxiety and depression.