The role of the plasmid-mediated fluoroquinolone resistance genes as resistance mechanisms in pediatric infections due to Enterobacterales.

Introduction: Fluoroquinolones (FQs) are not commonly prescribed in children, yet the increasing incidence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) Enterobacterales (Ent) infections in this population often reveals FQ resistance. We sought to define the role of FQ resistance in the epidemiology of MDR Ent in children, with an overall goal to devise treatment and prevention strategies.

Methods: A case-control study of children (0-18 years) at three Chicago hospitals was performed.

Lisinopril Mitigates Radiation-Induced Mitochondrial Defects in Rat Heart and Blood Cells.

The genetic bases and disparate responses to radiotherapy are poorly understood, especially for cardiotoxicity resulting from treatment of thoracic tumors. Preclinical animal models such as the Dahl salt-sensitive (SS) rat can serve as a surrogate model for salt-sensitive low renin hypertension, common to African Americans, where aldosterone contributes to hypertension-related alterations of peripheral vascular and renal vascular function. Brown Norway (BN) rats, in comparison, are a normotensive control group, while consomic SSBN6 with substitution of rat chromosome 6 (homologous to human chromosome 14) on an SS background manifests cardioprotection and mitochondrial preservation to SS rats after injury.

Amputation Care Quality and Satisfaction With Prosthetic Limb Services: A Longitudinal Study of Veterans With Upper Limb Amputation.

Purpose: This study sought to measure and identify factors associated with satisfaction with care among veterans. The metrics were colelcted for those receiving prosthetic limb care at the US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and US Department of Defense (DoD) care settings and at community-based care providers.

Methods: A longitudinal cohort of veterans with major upper limb amputation receiving any VA care from 2010 to 2015 were interviewed by phone twice, 1 year apart.

Radiotherapeutic Care of Patients With Stage IV Lung Cancer with Thoracic Symptoms in the Veterans Health Administration.

Background: Radiotherapy plays an important role in the palliation of lung cancer, which is the second most common cancer diagnosed in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) developed evidenced-based treatment guidelines for the management of patients with metastatic lung cancer.

Methods: In May 2016, an electronic survey of 88 VHA radiation oncologists (ROs) was conducted to assess metastatic lung cancer management.

A Rare Case of Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia Caused by Cupriavidus Pauculus.

Ventilator-associated pneumonia is a hospital-acquired infection that is commonly encountered in intubated patients in the intensive care unit (ICU). It is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. The causative organisms include gram-negative rods (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, or Acinetobacter species) or gram-positive cocci (Staphylococcus aureus).

Unmasked Testicular Seminoma During Use of Hormonal Transgender Woman Therapy: A Hidden hCG-Secreting Tumor.

Management of gender-affirming hormone therapy (HT) in transgender women includes surveillance of testosterone (T) levels. Failure of T to suppress, despite adherence to therapy, warrants additional investigations for unexpected sources of T or factors stimulating T secretion. Possible causes include T or gonadotropin production by an occult neoplasm.

Increased utilization of prolonged exposure and cognitive processing therapy over time: A case example from a large Veterans Affairs posttraumatic stress disorder clinic.

Prior single-site and regional studies have documented difficulties in implementing prolonged exposure (PE) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT) for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) into practice in Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Centers, estimating that between 6% and 13% of VA patients with PTSD receive PE or CPT (Lu, Plagge, Marsiglio, & Dobscha, 2016; Mott et al., 2014; Shiner et al., 2013).

Safety of Biologic and Nonbiologic Disease-modifying Antirheumatic Drug Therapy in Veterans with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Hepatitis C Virus Infection.

Objective: To examine the effect of disease-modifying antirheumatic drug (DMARD) therapy on hepatotoxicity among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection.

Methods: We identified biologic and nonbiologic treatment episodes of patients with RA using the 1997-2011 national data from the US Veterans Health Administration. Eligible episodes had HCV infection (defined by detectable HCV RNA) and subsequently initiated a new biologic or nonbiologic DMARD.

Implementation of a prediabetes identification algorithm for overweight and obese Veterans.

Type 2 diabetes prevention is an important national goal for the Veteran Health Administration (VHA): one in four Veterans has diabetes. We implemented a prediabetes identification algorithm to estimate prediabetes prevalence among overweight and obese Veterans at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers (VAMCs) in preparation for the launch of a pragmatic study of Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) delivery to Veterans with prediabetes. This project was embedded within the VA DPP Clinical Demonstration Project conducted in 2012 to 2015.

A Novel Design for Drug-Drug Interaction Alerts Improves Prescribing Efficiency.

Background: Drug-drug interactions (DDIs) are common in clinical care and pose serious risks for patients. Electronic health records display DDI alerts that can influence prescribers, but the interface design of DDI alerts has largely been unstudied. In this study, the objective was to apply human factors engineering principles to alert design.

The Quality of Written Feedback by Attendings of Internal Medicine Residents.

Background: Attending evaluations are commonly used to evaluate residents.

Objectives: Evaluate the quality of written feedback of internal medicine residents.

Design: Retrospective.

Dose-dependent effects of prefrontal dopamine on behavioral state in rats.

An inverted-U mechanism has been proposed to explain findings that both under- and overstimulation of dopamine (DA) receptors in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) result in working memory impairments. Dopamine release in the mPFC is also associated with the mediation of other behavioral processes such as affective regulation, reward, and nociception. The present studies investigated mPFC DA dose-dependent effects on the performance of tasks that tap these other processes, including delayed alternation in the T maze for working memory, a water maze task for escape, the elevated plus maze for anxiolytic/anxiogenic effects, place preference conditioning for reward effects, the tail flick test for nociception, and a measure of locomotor activity for general arousal.

A Rapid Usability Evaluation (RUE) Method for Health Information Technology.

Usability testing can help generate design ideas to enhance the quality and safety of health information technology. Despite these potential benefits, few healthcare organizations conduct systematic usability testing prior to software implementation. We used a Rapid Usability Evaluation (RUE) method to apply usability testing to software development at a major VA Medical Center.

Cardiac coherence and posttraumatic stress disorder in combat veterans.

Background: The need for treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among combat veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq is a growing concern. PTSD has been associated with reduced cardiac coherence (an indicator of heart rate variability [HRV]) and deficits in early stage information processing (attention and immediate memory) in different studies. However, the co-occurrence of reduced coherence and cognition in combat veterans with PTSD has not been studied before.

Clinical and psychological correlates of two domains of hopelessness in schizophrenia.

Hopelessness is a widely observed barrier to recovery from schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Yet little is known about how clinical, social, and psychological factors independently affect hope. Additionally, the relationships that exist between these factors and different kinds of hope are unclear.

Adaptive physical activity improves mobility function and quality of life in chronic hemiparesis.

This study investigated the effects of an adaptive physical activity (APA) program on mobility function and quality of life (QOL) in chronic stroke patients. Twenty subjects with chronic hemiparesis completed a 2-month, combined group, class-home exercise regimen that emphasized mobility training. APA improved Berg Balance Scale scores (35 +/- 2 vs 45 +/- 2, p = 0.

Cognitive impairment and pain management: review of issues and challenges.

The assessment and treatment of pain in persons with cognitive impairments pose unique challenges. Disorders affecting cognition include neurodegenerative, vascular, toxic, anoxic, and infectious processes. Persons with memory, language, and speech deficits and consciousness alterations are often unable to communicate clearly about their pain and discomfort.

Efficacy of selected complementary and alternative medicine interventions for chronic pain.

Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is a group of diverse medical and healthcare systems, therapies, and products that are not presently considered part of conventional medicine. This article provides an up-to-date review of the efficacy of selected CAM modalities in the management of chronic pain. Findings are presented according to the classification system developed by the National Institutes of Health National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (formerly Office of Alternative Medicine) and are grouped into four domains: biologically based medicine, energy medicine, manipulative and body-based medicine, and mind-body medicine.

Risk factors associated with mortality in veteran population following transtibial or transfemoral amputation.

This study explored medical conditions associated with mortality among veterans following transfemoral amputation, transtibial amputation, or hip disarticulation. We applied logistic regression models to identify clinical factors associated with mortality postoperatively. The participants included patients with lower-limb amputations (n = 2,375) who were discharged from Veterans Health Administration hospitals between October 1, 2002, and September 30, 2003.

Clinical trial to compare tinnitus masking and tinnitus retraining therapy.

Conclusion: Both tinnitus masking (TM) and tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT) can be effective therapies for amelioration of tinnitus. TM may be more effective for patients in the short term, but with continued treatment TRT may produce the greatest effects.

Objectives: Although TM and TRT have been used for many years, research has not documented definitively the efficacy of these methods.

New instrumentation for automated tinnitus psychoacoustic assessment.

Conclusion: Although tinnitus is a major health problem, techniques to quantify its perceptual aspects are not standardized. This study represents a key step in our efforts to develop clinical methodology to accurately and reliably quantify the sensation of tinnitus, using a uniform method for obtaining a battery of tinnitus measures.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of the automated system, which was redesigned to reduce time of testing and to add new testing capabilities.

Influence of intensive phonomotor rehabilitation on apraxia of speech.

In this phase I rehabilitation study, we investigated the effects of an intensive phonomotor rehabilitation program on verbal production in a 73-year-old male, 11 years postonset a left-hemisphere stroke, who exhibited apraxia of speech and aphasia. In the context of a single-subject design, we studied whether treatment would improve phoneme production and generalize to repetition of multisyllabic words, words of increasing length, discourse, and measures of self-report. We predicted that a predominant motor impairment would respond to intensive phonomotor rehabilitation.

Effects of two treatments for aprosodia secondary to acquired brain injury.

Expressive aprosodia is an impaired ability to change one's voice to express common emotions such as joy, anger, and sadness. Individuals with aprosodia speak in a flat, unemotional voice that often results in miscommunicated emotional messages. This study investigated two conceptually based treatments for expressive aprosodia: imitative treatment and cognitive-linguistic treatment.

Dysphagia in stroke: Development of a standard method to examine swallowing recovery.

This study began development of a standard method that uses the videofluoroscopic swallow study for evaluation of swallowing recovery after stroke based on a definition of dysphagia derived from three domains: bolus timing, bolus direction, and bolus clearance. Two experiments were conducted: one that defined normal versus disordered swallowing based on the range of scores in a sample of healthy adults (n = 13), and one that applied these thresholds to nine stroke patients to identify the presence of dysphagia. Results indicate that acute and protracted dysphagia may be more accurately detected by identifying abnormalities on multiple objective measures of swallowing rather than on laryngeal penetration or aspiration alone.

Treatability of different components of aphasia - insights from a case study.

In this phase I clinical rehabilitation study, we investigated the effects of phonological rehabilitation for alexia and aphasia in an individual 54 years after a left-hemisphere ischemic infarction. In the context of a single-subject design, we studied whether treatment would improve phonological processing, reading, and generalization to untreated behaviors. While results showed a lack of generalization to real-word reading aloud, improvement was present in phonological processing, language function (Western Aphasia Battery Aphasia Quotient, Boston Naming Test, Reading Comprehension Battery for Aphasia), and auditory processing (Revised Token Test).