Short-term impact of COVID-19 on quality of life,perceived stress,and serious psychological distress in an adult population in the midwest United States

Quality of Life Research - This study aimed to investigate changes over time in quality of life, perceived stress, and serious psychological distress for individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in an...     

Primary social factors and smoking in Korean adolescents

Journal of Public Health - The present study aimed to examine the effects of primary social factors on the smoking behaviors according to the smoking stages—initiation and...     

Improving Postpartum Care: Identifying Opportunities to Reduce Postpartum Emergency Room Visits Among Publicly-Insured Women of Color

Maternal and Child Health Journal - The purpose of this study was to explore the postpartum experiences of publicly-insured women of color, and identify how postpartum care can be improved to...     

Addressing the Risks That Trade Secret Protections Pose for Health and Rights

Human rights frameworks afford everyone the right to health and the right to enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications. Both come together to create state obligations to ensure access to medicines and other health technologies. Though the impact of patents on access to high-quality, affordable medicines and health technologies has been well described, there has been little attention to the impact of trade secrecy law in this context. In this paper, we describe how trade secrecy protection comes into conflict with access to medicines—for example, by preventing researchers from accessing clinical trial data, undermining the scale-up of manufacturing in pandemics, and deterring whistleblowers from reporting industry misconduct. The paper proposes measures to diminish the conflict between trade secrecy and health that are consistent with international law and will advance health without undermining innovation.     

Anabolic actions of PTH in murine models: two decades of insights

Parathyroid hormone (PTH) is produced by the parathyroid glands in response to low serum calcium concentrations where it targets bones, kidneys, and indirectly, intestines. The N-terminus of PTH has been investigated for decades for its ability to stimulate bone formation when administered intermittently (iPTH) and is used clinically as an effective anabolic agent for the treatment of osteoporosis. Despite great interest in iPTH and its clinical use, the mechanisms of PTH action remain complicated and not fully defined. More than 70 gene targets in more than 90 murine models have been utilized to better understand PTH anabolic actions. Because murine studies utilized wild-type mice as positive controls, a variety of variables were analyzed to better understand the optimal conditions under which iPTH functions. The greatest responses to iPTH were in male mice, with treatment starting later than 12 weeks of age, a treatment duration lasting 5–6 weeks, and a PTH dose of 30–60 μg/kg/day. This comprehensive study also evaluated these genetic models relative to the bone formative actions with a primary focus on the trabecular compartment revealing trends in critical genes and gene families relevant for PTH anabolic actions. The summation of these data revealed the gene deletions with the greatest increase in trabecular bone volume in response to iPTH. These included PTH and 1-α-hydroxylase (Pth;1α(OH)ase, 62-fold), amphiregulin (Areg, 15.8-fold), and PTH related protein (Pthrp, 10.2-fold). The deletions with the greatest inhibition of the anabolic response include deletions of: proteoglycan 4 (Prg4, −9.7-fold), low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 6 (Lrp6, 1.3-fold), and low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 5 (Lrp5, −1.0-fold). Anabolic actions of iPTH were broadly affected via multiple and diverse genes. This data provides critical insight for future research and development, as well as application to human therapeutics. © 2021 The Authors. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR).     

The changing landscape of percutaneous technology leading to surgical complications

With new technology comes new complications. We discuss the interesting case presented by Bjelic and colleagues regarding a misplaced TAVR (transcatheter aortic valve replacement) valve into the inflow cannula of a left ventricular assist device, leading to hemodynamic collapse. The author describes the pitfalls of the new technology and interesting surgical maneuvers to address these complications.     

Association of hospital and surgeon operative volumes and surgeon pediatric subspecialization with pediatric laparoscopic cholecystectomy outcomes: A population-based cohort study

BackgroundMost pediatric cholecystectomies are performed by adult general surgeons, but it is unclear whether outcomes differ by surgeon pediatric subspecialization, hospital procedure volume, or surgeon procedure volume. We aimed to determine whether higher hospital or surgeon laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) volume or surgeon pediatric subspecialization is associated with better outcomes after LC in children.MethodsWe performed a retrospective cohort study using statewide hospital discharge databases from the states of Florida, Georgia, and Iowa. We included children aged 4–18 years who underwent inpatient or outpatient LC for acute or chronic gallbladder disease in January 2010–August 2015.Propensity score weighting was used to estimate relationships between operative volumes or surgeon pediatric subspecialization and rates of readmission or emergency department (ED) visit within 30 days.ResultsA total of 5391 children were included (mean age 15.9 years, 81.6% female). Children operated on by surgeons with high LC volumes in hospitals with high LC volumes were less likely to experience a readmission or ED visit within 30 days (10.8% vs. 13.7%, p = 0.04). Additionally, children operated on by adult general surgeons in hospitals with high LC volumes were less likely to experience a readmission or ED visit within 30 days (10.9% vs. 13.8%, p = 0.03).ConclusionsChildren are less likely to be readmitted to the hospital or present to the ED after laparoscopic cholecystectomy if they receive their care from adult general surgeons at hospitals that frequently perform this procedure in both adults and children.Level of evidenceIII