Incidence of Wounds Associated with Posterior Midline Incision for Achilles Tendon Pathology in a Large Cohort at a Tertiary Care Center.

Background: We sought to determine the wound complications associated with a straight midline incision overlying the Achilles tendon. Data on sex, age, body mass index (BMI), surgery performed, date of surgery, and wound development were collected.

Methods: We retrospectively collected data on 217 patients with a mean ± SD age of 46.

The talk and walk in Black families: Exploring racial socialization content and competency in the context of parental worries about racial profiling and adolescents' internalizing outcomes.

Although many parents worry that their child will be the target of racial profiling, there is a dearth of literature on how parental worries about children facing racism are linked to racial socialization (RS) practices and youth internalizing symptoms. Additionally, it is unclear how RS content relative to competency may uniquely influence whether and how parental worries influence youth internalizing outcomes. Using data from 203 Black parents (M = 44.

Improving predictive accuracy of early recurrence in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: Role of postoperative serum tumor markers.

In a recent study by He , the nomogram integrates postoperative serum tumor markers such as carbohydrate antigen 19-9 and carcinoembryonic antigen, thereby improving the accuracy of identifying high-risk patients compared to relying solely on preoperative markers, which has significant implications for customizing adjuvant therapy and potentially improving outcomes for this aggressive form of cancer. However, the study's single-center design and short follow-up period may limit the generalizability of its findings and potentially introduce reporting bias. Future studies could consider additional confounding factors, such as adjuvant chemotherapy and variations in surgical techniques, to improve the model's accuracy.

Development and Delivery of Enhanced Implementation Support to Disseminate a National Caregiver Skills Training Program.

Background And Objectives: As the population ages there is an increasing need for caregiver training programs, but little is known about how to deliver implementation support for diverse sites in large-scale implementation efforts. External group-based implementation facilitation may be one promising approach. This study's objective is to detail the development and delivery of a pragmatic implementation facilitation approach to support the national rollout of caregiver training, Caregivers FIRST, at over 140 Veterans Health Administration (VHA) sites.

The fungal microbiota modulate neonatal oxygen-induced lung injury.

Background: The immature lungs of very preterm infants are exposed to supraphysiologic oxygen, contributing to bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), a chronic lung disease that is the most common morbidity of prematurity. While the microbiota significantly influences neonatal health, the relationship between the intestinal microbiome, particularly micro-eukaryotic members such as fungi and yeast, and lung injury severity in newborns remains unknown.

Results: Here, we show that the fungal microbiota modulates hyperoxia-induced lung injury severity in very low birth weight premature infants and preclinical pseudohumanized and altered fungal colonization mouse models.

A year in review: new treatments and expanded indications in dermatology in 2024.

Methods: A literature search was conducted on Drugs@FDA: FDA-Approved Drugs for the year 2024 to identify new dermatologic treatments.

Results: In 2024, the FDA approved seven new dermatologic therapies and expanded the indications for seven current therapies. These therapies treat conditions such as atopic dermatitis, hidradenitis suppurativa, prurigo nodularis, molluscum contagiosum, and alopecia areata, among others.

Integrated care for mental health in epilepsy: A systematic review and meta-synthesis by the International League Against Epilepsy Integrated Mental Health Care Pathways Task Force.

Mental health (MH) comorbidities are prevalent among people with epilepsy (PWE), but many experience challenges accessing care. To address this, suggestions have been made to integrate MH care into epilepsy care settings, yet the current approaches, benefits, and implementation determinants to MH care integration are unclear. This review aims to synthesize existing integrated MH care models for PWE to inform the development and planning of future initiatives.

Investing in equitable healthy aging: Why Africa must reform social pension schemes to improve Alzheimer's disease and dementia outcomes.

The eligibility criteria for social pension schemes in Africa hinder equitable and healthy aging. In 2019, women in 14 sub-Saharan African countries had an average life expectancy of 67 years but a healthy life expectancy of only 57 years, leaving them 5 years in poor health before receiving a pension at age 62. Men had a similar situation-a life expectancy of 62 years and a healthy life expectancy of 53 years, spending 10 years in poor health before becoming eligible for pensions at age 63.

Proton pump inhibitors and all-cause mortality risk among cancer patients.

Background: Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) are widely used, including among cancer patients, to manage gastroesophageal reflux and other gastric acid-related disorders. Recent evidence suggests associations between long-term PPI use and higher risks for various adverse health outcomes, including greater mortality.

Aim: To investigate the association between PPI use and all-cause mortality among cancer patients by a comprehensive analysis after adjustment for various confounders and a robust methodological approach to minimize bias.

Sex and race disparities in emergency department patients with chest pain and a detectable or mildly elevated troponin.

Background: Identifying and eliminating health disparities is a public health priority. The goal of this analysis is to determine whether cardiac testing or outcome disparities exist by race or sex in patients with detectable to mildly elevated serum troponin.

Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis of the CMR-IMPACT trial that randomized patients with symptoms suggestive of acute coronary syndrome and a detectable or mildly elevated troponin measure from 4 US hospitals to an early invasive angiography or cardiac MRI strategy.

Understanding the opioid syndemic in North Carolina: A novel approach to modeling and identifying factors.

The opioid epidemic is a significant public health challenge in North Carolina, but limited data restrict our understanding of its complexity. Examining trends and relationships among different outcomes believed to reflect opioid misuse provides an alternative perspective to understand the opioid epidemic. We use a Bayesian dynamic spatial factor model to capture the interrelated dynamics within six different county-level outcomes, such as illicit opioid overdose deaths, emergency department visits related to drug overdose, treatment counts for opioid use disorder, patients receiving prescriptions for buprenorphine, and newly diagnosed cases of acute and chronic hepatitis C virus and human immunodeficiency virus.

Clin-STAR Corner: Rehabilitation for Older Adults With Heart Failure.

Heart failure is a major contributor to morbidity, mortality, and healthcare costs, especially among older adults. Despite a large body of evidence supporting the benefits of cardiac rehabilitation, less than 30% of eligible Medicare beneficiaries participate in cardiac rehabilitation. Thus, it is essential to examine alternatives, such as physical rehabilitation, a rehabilitation approach that focuses on physical activity and function.

Treatment with a superoxide dismutase mimetic for joint preservation during 35 and 75 days in orbit aboard the international space station, and after 120 days recovery on Earth.

Reduced weight-bearing during spaceflight has been associated with musculoskeletal degradation that risks astronaut health and performance in transit and upon reaching deep space destinations. Previous rodent experiments aboard the international space station (ISS) have identified that the spaceflight-induced molecular arthritic phenotype was characterized with an increase in oxidative stress. This study evaluated if treatment with a superoxide dismutase (SOD) mimetic on orbit could prevent spaceflight-induced damage to the knee and hip articular cartilage, and the menisci in rodents.

Sex-specific effects on the heart from combined exposure to simulated galactic cosmic radiation and hindlimb unloading.

Future long duration space missions will expose astronauts to higher doses of galactic cosmic radiation (GCR) than those experienced on the international space station. Recent studies have demonstrated astronauts may be at risk for cardiovascular complications due to increased radiation exposure and fluid shift from microgravity. However, there is a lack of direct evidence on how the cardiovascular system is affected by GCR and microgravity since no astronauts have been exposed to exploratory mission relevant GCR doses.

Thoracolumbar spine muscle size and composition changes in long-duration space missions.

Muscle atrophy occurs with extended exposure to microgravity. This study quantified the overall muscle size, lean muscle area and fat infiltration changes pre- to post-flight that occur in the thoracic and lumbar spine with long-duration spaceflight. Pre- and post-flight magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were obtained from 9 crewmembers on long-duration (≥6 months) International Space Station (ISS) missions.

Adherence and Body Weight with Daily Avocado Consumption Among Latina Women of the Habitual Diet and Avocado Trial (HAT).

The aim of this study was to examine the adherence, changes in weight, and, waist circumference associated with the daily consumption of a culturally preferred food, namely an avocado, among Hispanic/Latina females in the Habitual Diet and Avocado Trial (HAT). HAT was a multisite, randomized controlled trial conducted between 2018 and 2020. Participants in the Avocado-Supplemented Diet Group were provided with and instructed to consume one avocado/day (~2.

Evaluating ChatGPT-4 for the Interpretation of Images from Several Diagnostic Techniques in Gastroenterology.

Several artificial intelligence systems based on large language models (LLMs) have been commercially developed, with recent interest in integrating them for clinical questions. Recent versions now include image analysis capacity, but their performance in gastroenterology remains untested. This study assesses ChatGPT-4's performance in interpreting gastroenterology images.

Estimating prevalence of opioid misuse in North Carolina counties from 2016-2021: An integrated abundance model approach.

Background: The overdose epidemic remains largely driven by opioids, but county-level prevalence of opioid misuse is unknown. Without this information, public health and policy responses are limited by a lack of knowledge on the scope of the problem.

Methods: Using an integrated abundance model, we estimate annual county-level prevalence of opioid misuse for counties in North Carolina from 2016 to 2021.

Oncology Provider and Patient Perspectives on a Cardiovascular Health Assessment Tool utilized during Post-treatment Survivorship Care in Community Oncology (Results from WF-1804CD): Mixed Methods Observational Study.

Background: Most cancer survivors have multiple cardiovascular risk factors, increasing their risk of poor cardiovascular and cancer outcomes. The Automated Heart-Health Assessment (AH-HA) tool is a novel electronic health record clinical decision support tool based on the American Heart Association's Life's Simple 7 cardiovascular health (CVH) metrics to promote CVH assessment and discussion in outpatient oncology. Before proceeding to future implementation trials, it is critical to establish the acceptability of the tool among providers and survivors.

Supervised Functional Principal Component Analysis Under the Mixture Cure Rate Model: An Application to Alzheimer'S Disease.

Brain imaging data is one of the primary predictors for assessing the risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD). This study aims to extract image-based features associated with the possibly right-censored time-to-event outcomes and to improve predictive performance. While the functional proportional hazards model is well-studied in the literature, these studies often do not consider the existence of patients who have a very low risk and are approximately insusceptible to AD.

Pigmented Syringomatous Carcinoma/Sweat Gland Carcinoma of the Vulva With Melanocytic Colonization: An Uncommon Presentation of a Rare Sweat Gland Neoplasm.

Primary vulvar carcinomas are rare and constitute a diverse group of neoplasms. These primary tumors are typically classified based on their presumed tissue of origin or histological characteristics. Among these, carcinomas of sweat gland origin are particularly significant.