Ethnic Minority Status and Experiences of Infertility in Female Veterans.

Background: In the general population, infertility is increasingly prevalent in ethnic minority women; these women suffer longer and are less likely to access care. There is a paucity of data regarding the issue of race and infertility in the growing female military veteran population.

Materials And Methods: This cross-sectional observational study involved computer-assisted telephone interviews of 1,004 Veterans Administration (VA)-enrolled women aged ≤52 years.

A companion to the preclinical common data elements for physiologic data in rodent epilepsy models. A report of the TASK3 Physiology Working Group of the ILAE/AES Joint Translational Task Force.

The International League Against Epilepsy/American Epilepsy Society (ILAE/AES) Joint Translational Task Force created the TASK3 working groups to create for various aspects of preclinical epilepsy research studies, which could help improve standardization of experimental designs

Genetics of Atrial Fibrillation.

Background Atrial fibrillation ( AF ) is a common arrhythmia seen in clinical practice. Occasionally, no common risk factors are present in patients with this arrhythmia. This suggests the potential underlying role of genetic factors associated with predisposition to developing AF .

Emergency Medicine Residency Selection Criteria: An Update and Comparison.

Objective: The primary objective was to describe emergency medicine (EM) residency selection criteria.

Methods: A survey was sent to the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors listserv. Respondents were asked to rank order the various components of the application on a Likert scale from 1 (minimally important) to 10 (highly important).

Quality of life among men with low-risk prostate cancer during the first year following diagnosis: the PREPARE prospective cohort study.

As many as 40% of men diagnosed with prostate cancer have low-risk disease, which results in the need to decide whether to undergo active treatment (AT) or active surveillance (AS). The treatment decision can have a significant effect on general and prostate-specific quality of life (QOL). The purpose of this study was to assess the QOL among men with low-risk prostate cancer during the first year following diagnosis.

Impact of diabetes in the Friedreich ataxia clinical outcome measures study.

Objective: Friedreich ataxia (FA) is a progressive neuromuscular disorder caused by GAA triplet repeat expansions or point mutations in the gene. FA is associated with increased risk of diabetes mellitus (DM). This study assessed the age-specific prevalence of FA-associated DM and its impact on neurologic outcomes.

Physicians' Perceptions of Factors Influencing the Treatment Decision-making Process for Men With Low-risk Prostate Cancer.

Objective: To assess physicians' attitudes regarding multiple factors that may influence recommendations for active surveillance (AS) vs active treatment (AT) given the central role physicians play in the treatment decision-making process.

Materials And Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews to assess factors that physicians consider important when recommending AS vs AT, as well as physicians' perceptions of what their patients consider important in the decision. Participants included urologists (N = 11), radiation oncologists (N = 12), and primary care physicians (N = 10) from both integrated and fee-for-service healthcare settings.

Physicians' perspectives on the informational needs of low-risk prostate cancer patients.

Despite the evidence indicating that decision aids (DA) improve informed treatment decision making for prostate cancer (PCa), physicians do not routinely recommend DAs to their patients. We conducted semi-structured interviews with urologists (n = 11), radiation oncologists (n = 12) and primary care physicians (n = 10) about their methods of educating low-risk PCa patients regarding the treatment decision, their concerns about recommending DAs, and the essential content and format considerations that need to be addressed. Physicians stressed the need for providing comprehensive patient education before the treatment decision is made and expressed concern about the current unevaluated information available on the Internet.

Variation in Hospital Use and Outcomes Associated With Pulmonary Artery Catheterization in Heart Failure in the United States.

Background: There has been an increase in the use of pulmonary artery (PA) catheters in heart failure (HF) in the United States in recent years. However, patterns of hospital use and trends in patient outcomes are not known.

Methods And Results: In the National Inpatient Sample 2001 to 2012, using International Classification of Diseases-Ninth Revision codes, we identified 11 888 525 adult (≥18 years) HF hospitalizations nationally, of which an estimated 75 209 (SE 0.

The Role of the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex in Purchase Intent Among Older Adults.

Older adults are frequently the targets of scams and deception, with millions of individuals being affected each year in the United States alone. Previous research has shown that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) may play a role in vulnerability to fraud. The current study examined brain activation patterns in relation to susceptibility to scams and fraud using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Treatment Preferences for Active Surveillance versus Active Treatment among Men with Low-Risk Prostate Cancer.

Background: Due to the concerns about the overtreatment of low-risk prostate cancer, active surveillance (AS) is now a recommended alternative to the active treatments (AT) of surgery and radiotherapy. However, AS is not widely utilized, partially due to psychological and decision-making factors associated with treatment preferences.

Methods: In a longitudinal cohort study, we conducted pretreatment telephone interviews (N = 1,140, 69.

A 6-month telephone-based weight loss intervention in overweight and obese subjects with idiopathic intracranial hypertension.

Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to measure the change in body weight after a 6-month telephone-based weight loss intervention in overweight and obese subjects with idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) and mild visual loss randomized to receive either acetazolamide or placebo.

Methods: One hundred sixty-five subjects with IIH, aged 29.1 ± 7.

Guide to Academic Research Career Development.

Objectives/hypothesis: Development of an academic career easily follows a clinical course for which there are multiple role models; however, development of an academic career involves few role models, and rarely do instructional guides reach out to the new faculty. The purpose of this article is to present the cumulative experiences of previously and currently funded authors to serve as a guide to young as well as older faculty for developing their research careers.

Study Design: Cumulative experiences of research-dedicated faculty.

Characterization of Francisella tularensis Schu S4 mutants identified from a transposon library screened for O-antigen and capsule deficiencies.

The lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and O-antigen polysaccharide capsule structures of Francisella tularensis play significant roles in helping these highly virulent bacteria avoid detection within a host. We previously created pools of F. tularensis mutants that we screened to identify strains that were not reactive to a monoclonal antibody to the O-antigen capsule.

The Impact of Discontinuing Contact Precautions for VRE and MRSA on Device-Associated Infections.

The impact of discontinuing contact precautions for patients with MRSA and VRE colonization/infection on device-associated hospital-acquired infection rates at an academic medical center was investigated in this before-and-after study. In the setting of a strong horizontal infection prevention platform, discontinuation of contact precautions had no impact on device-associated hospital-acquired infection rates.

A slowly progressive form of limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2C associated with founder mutation in the SGCG gene in Puerto Rican Hispanics.

Limb-girdle muscular dystrophy type 2C (LGMD2C) is considered one of the severe forms of childhood-onset muscular dystrophy. The geographical distribution of founder mutations in the SGCG gene has a prominent effect on the prevalence of LGMD2C in certain populations. The aim of this study was to confirm the hypothesis that the c.

Neuroanatomical correlates of cognitive functioning in prodromal Huntington disease.

Introduction: The brain mechanisms of cognitive impairment in prodromal Huntington disease (prHD) are not well understood. Although striatal atrophy correlates with some cognitive abilities, few studies of prHD have investigated whether cortical gray matter morphometry correlates in a regionally specific manner with functioning in different cognitive domains. This knowledge would inform the selection of cognitive measures for clinical trials that would be most sensitive to the target of a treatment intervention.

Uncovering the components of the Francisella tularensis virulence stealth strategy.

Over the last decade, studies on the virulence of the highly pathogenic intracellular bacterial pathogen Francisella tularensis have increased dramatically. The organism produces an inert LPS, a capsule, escapes the phagosome to grow in the cytosol (FPI genes mediate phagosomal escape) of a variety of host cell types that include epithelial, endothelial, dendritic, macrophage, and neutrophil. This review focuses on the work that has identified and characterized individual virulence factors of this organism and we hope to highlight how these factors collectively function to produce the pathogenic strategy of this pathogen.

How voltage-gated calcium channels gate forms of homeostatic synaptic plasticity.

Throughout life, animals face a variety of challenges such as developmental growth, the presence of toxins, or changes in temperature. Neuronal circuits and synapses respond to challenges by executing an array of neuroplasticity paradigms. Some paradigms allow neurons to up- or downregulate activity outputs, while countervailing ones ensure that outputs remain within appropriate physiological ranges.

The link between stress disorders and autonomic dysfunction in muscular dystrophy.

Muscular dystrophy is a progressive disease of muscle weakness, muscle atrophy and cardiac dysfunction. Patients afflicted with muscular dystrophy exhibit autonomic dysfunction along with cognitive impairment, severe depression, sadness, and anxiety. Although the psychological aspects of cardiovascular disorders and stress disorders are well known, the physiological mechanism underlying this relationship is not well understood, particularly in muscular dystrophy.

Regulation of the transcriptome by ER stress: non-canonical mechanisms and physiological consequences.

The mammalian unfolded protein response (UPR) is propagated by three ER-resident transmembrane proteins, each of which initiates a signaling cascade that ultimately culminates in production of a transcriptional activator. The UPR was originally characterized as a pathway for upregulating ER chaperones, and a comprehensive body of subsequent work has shown that protein synthesis, folding, oxidation, trafficking, and degradation are all transcriptionally enhanced by the UPR. However, the global reach of the UPR extends to genes involved in diverse physiological processes having seemingly little to do with ER protein folding, and this includes a substantial number of mRNAs that are suppressed by stress rather than stimulated.