Nevin Manimala

AIDS. 2022 Jun 23. doi: 10.1097/QAD.0000000000003292. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Fracture rates have been reported to be higher among older women living with HIV (WLWH) than HIV- women. Hormone therapy with estrogen can reduce vasomotor symptoms (VMS) associated with menopause and prevent fractures. As data are limited on the benefits of hormone therapy use in WLWH, we examined associations of hormone therapy, use and fractures.

METHODS: A prospective study of 1765 (1350 WLWH and 415 HIV-) postmenopausal Women’s Interagency HIV Study (WIHS) participants was performed, including self-reported hormone therapy, use and fracture data from 2003 to 2017. Proportional hazard models determined predictors of new fractures at any site or at typical fragility fracture sites (hip, spine, wrist).

RESULTS: At the first postmenopausal visit, the median (IQR) age of WLWH was slightly younger than HIV- women [49.8 (46.4-53) vs. 50.7 (47.5-54), P = 0.0002] and a smaller proportion of WLWH reported presence of VMS (17 vs. 26%, P < 0.0001). A greater proportion of WLWH than HIV- women reported hormone therapy use (8 vs. 4%, P = 0.007) at the first postmenopausal visit. In multivariate analyses, white race and smoking were significant predictors of incident fracture at any site but hormone therapy (P = 0.69) and HIV status (P = 0.53) were not.

CONCLUSION: Our study did not find evidence of benefit or harm with regards to fracture outcomes in postmenopausal WLWH receiving hormone therapy. Further research is needed to determine whether hormone therapy has benefits beyond treatment of VMS, such as prevention of adverse aging-associated outcomes.

PMID:35730385 | DOI:10.1097/QAD.0000000000003292

AIDS. 2022 Jun 23. doi: 10.1097/QAD.0000000000003290. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: Given the roll out of maternal antiretroviral therapy (ART) for prevention-of-perinatal-HIV-transmission, increasing numbers of children are perinatally HIV/ART exposed but uninfected (CAHEU). Some studies suggest CAHEU may be at increased risk for neurodevelopmental (ND) deficits. We aimed to assess ND performance among preschool CAHEU.

DESIGN: This cross-sectional study assessed ND outcomes among 3-6-year-old CAHEU at entry into a multicountry cohort study.

METHODS: We used the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL) and Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children (KABC-II) to assess ND status among 3-6-year-old CAHEU at entry into the PROMISE Ongoing Treatment Evaluation (PROMOTE) study conducted in Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Statistical analyses (Stata 16.1) was used to generate group means for ND composite scores and subscale scores, compared to standardized test score means. We used multivariable analysis to adjust for known developmental risk factors including maternal clinical/socioeconomic variables, child sex, growth-for-age measurements, and country.

RESULTS: 1647 children aged 3-6 years had baseline ND testing in PROMOTE; group-mean unadjusted Cognitive Composite scores on the MSEL were 85.8 (standard deviation [SD]: 18.2) and KABC-II were 79.5 (SD: 13.2). Composite score group-mean differences were noted by country, with South African and Zimbabwean children having higher scores. In KABC-II multivariable analyses, maternal age >40 years, lower education, male sex, and stunting were associated with lower composite scores.

CONCLUSIONS: Among a large cohort of 3-6 year old CAHEU from eastern/southern Africa, group-mean composite ND scores averaged within the low-normal range; with differences noted by country, maternal clinical and socioeconomic factors.

PMID:35730383 | DOI:10.1097/QAD.0000000000003290

Zygote. 2022 Jun 22:1-7. doi: 10.1017/S0967199422000193. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the cryopreservation duration (up to 160 months) on the clinical and neonatal outcomes of slow-frozen early-cleavage human embryos. Clinical data collected between February 2013 and August 2017 were included in this retrospective study. Cases were classified into five groups by the duration of cryopreservation: Group 1, 6-12 months; Group 2, 13-36 months; Group 3, 37-60 months; Group 4, 61-84 months; and Group 5, >84 months. The embryo survival rate, implantation rate, clinical pregnancy rate, live-birth rate, newborn sex ratio, singleton gestational age, singleton birth weight and malformation rate were compared between the groups. The cryopreservation duration did not significantly affect the rates of clinical pregnancy (P = 0.119) and live birth (P = 0.354), the newborn sex ratio (P = 0.614) or the singleton gestational age (P = 0.212) and birthweight (P = 0.212). Although decreases in the embryo survival and implantation rates were observed in groups 4 and 5 compared with those in groups 1-3, these differences were not statistically significant (P = 0.329, P = 0.279, respectively). Long-term cryopreservation does not appear to adversely affect the clinical and neonatal outcomes of slow-frozen early-cleavage human embryos.

PMID:35730368 | DOI:10.1017/S0967199422000193

J Periodontal Res. 2022 Jun 22. doi: 10.1111/jre.13025. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Periodontitis is a chronic progressive inflammation that invades periodontal supporting tissues, in which periodontal tissue regeneration engineering offers new hope for prevention and treatment, including seed cells, scaffolds, and growth factors. In recent years, scholars have shown that autologous teeth can be used as new bone tissue repair materials for periodontal regeneration and bone tissue repair. The aim of this study was to establish a human periodontal ligament cell line that expresses the human bone morphogenetic protein 2 gene (BMP2) in a stable manner using lentiviral mediation in order to explore the effect of BMP2 from autologous tooth on the proliferative and osteogenic capacity of human periodontal ligament cells (hPDLCs).

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Human periodontal ligament cells were cultured, subcultured, and identified, and then homologous recombinant lentivirus plasmid plv-BMP2 was constructed and transfected into the third passage (P₃ ) hPDLCs. After that, the effect of BMP2 on its proliferation was detected by CCK-8, at the same time, the osteogenic induction of hPDLCs was carried out at 7, 14, and 21 days, and then the effect of BMP2 on its osteogenic ability was detected by alizarin red staining, alkaline phosphatase activity determination, and the mRNA expression levels of osteogenic-related genes using real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR, including alkaline phosphatase, runt-related transcription factor 2, bone sialoprotein, osteocalcin, osteopontin, and collagen I. Finally, spss26.0 software was used for statistical processing.

RESULTS: The results showed that cells transfected with the homologous recombinant lentiviral plasmid pLV-BMP2 had a similar morphology to normal hPDLCs, showing a typical radial arrangement; the cell proliferative capacity of the pLV-BMP2 group as measured by CCK-8 was enhanced compared with the control group and the pLV-puro group (p < .05); alizarin red staining and alkaline phosphatase activity assay showed that the osteogenic ability of pLV-BMP2 was significantly enhanced compared with the control and pLV-puro groups (p < .01), and the findings of real-time fluorescence-based quantitative PCR showed high expression of osteogenic-related genes in pLV-BMP2 group (p < .01).

CONCLUSION: In conclusion, a stable periodontal ligament cell line overexpressing BMP2 was successfully established by a lentivirus-mediated method, which proved that BMP2 has a strong ability to promote the proliferation and osteogenesis of hPDLCs, thereby providing an opportunity for the study of periodontal tissue regeneration as well as providing an experimental basis for the application of autologous teeth as a new type of bone repair material for periodontal therapy and even for maxillofacial bone tissue repair.

PMID:35730345 | DOI:10.1111/jre.13025

Pediatrics. 2022 Jun 22:e2021053103. doi: 10.1542/peds.2021-053103. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Morning report (MR) is a common case-based conference in graduate medical education. Recent studies highlight participant dissatisfaction with the educational value of MR, but data are lacking on means for improvement. We aimed to increase MR quality and participant satisfaction at our academic pediatric residency program.

METHODS: Improvement science was used to develop and implement a new standardized pediatric MR process (intervention), with 5 core educational elements and structured resident-faculty mentorship. Educational elements were measured via feedback forms and tracked using a run chart. Residents and faculty were surveyed regarding MR quality and satisfaction at baseline and 6 months postintervention; responses were analyzed using mixed effects logistic regression.

RESULTS: The median of educational elements increased from 3 to 5 (5 maximum) during the 6-month study period and 12-months poststudy. Baseline and postintervention survey response rates were 90% (18 of 20) for residents and 66% (51 of 77) for faculty. Residents reporting high quality MR changed from 50% to 72% (P = .20), and faculty from 29% to 85% (P <.001). Satisfaction with MR content increased for both residents (50%-89%, P = .03) and faculty (25%-67%, P <.001). Resident satisfaction with faculty mentorship before MR increased from 28% to 78% (P = .01); satisfaction with faculty feedback after MR increased from 11% to 56% (P = .02).

CONCLUSIONS: Improvement science can be used to develop a new pediatric graduate medical education process. Requiring core educational elements and providing structured mentorship were associated with improvements in pediatric MR quality and participant satisfaction.

PMID:35730343 | DOI:10.1542/peds.2021-053103

Ther Apher Dial. 2022 Jun 22. doi: 10.1111/1744-9987.13900. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Plasmapheresis is a frequently used procedure that removes the pathogenic components from circulation. We aimed to evaluate the relationship between plasmapheresis, neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and mortality in the intensive care unit (ICU) between 2014 and 2021.

METHODS: 49 patients (27 females and 22 males) were included. Demographic characteristics, laboratory values of the day of admittance to the ICU, APACHE II scores, and length of stay were recorded.

RESULTS: The mean age was 52.73±16.93. APACHE II value (p=0.003; p<0.01), NLR ratio (p=0.001; p<0.01) and PLR ratio (p=0.001; p<0.01) of the surviving group were lower than those of the deceased group, which was statistically significant.

CONCLUSION: As high PLR and NLR levels suggest increased mortality in the ICU population, attention should be paid for increased NLR and PLR when plasmapheresis is decided on in the ICU.

PMID:35730341 | DOI:10.1111/1744-9987.13900

J Int Med Res. 2022 Jun;50(6):3000605221105372. doi: 10.1177/03000605221105372.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: This study was performed to examine the relationship between the C-reactive protein/albumin ratio (CAR) and the prognosis of patients with lung adenocarcinoma and thus provide a reference for evaluating the prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma.

METHODS: The clinical data of 130 patients with lung adenocarcinoma were retrospectively collected and analyzed. The patients’ overall survival (OS) time was calculated, and the factors affecting OS were statistically analyzed.

RESULTS: The CAR was correlated with sex, clinical stage, brain metastasis, S100 calcium-binding protein B (S100B), interleukin 17, myelin basic protein, squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC-Ag), and the lymphocyte count. The median OS was significantly shorter in the high- than low-CAR group (18 vs. 64 months, respectively). The CAR, clinical stage, brain metastasis, S100B, interleukin 17, SCC-Ag, C-reactive protein, albumin, and neutrophil count affected the OS of patients with lung adenocarcinoma. The CAR and clinical stage were independent risk factors for a poor prognosis in patients with lung adenocarcinoma.

CONCLUSIONS: The CAR and clinical stage are independent risk factors for OS in patients with lung adenocarcinoma.

PMID:35730330 | DOI:10.1177/03000605221105372

Cardiol Young. 2022 Jun 22:1-6. doi: 10.1017/S1047951122001925. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Fetal arterial duct aneurysm, saccular, or fusiform enlargement of the arterial duct affect > 8% of pregnancies. It is uncommonly associated with serious sequelae postnatally, including thromboembolic events such as stroke and left pulmonary artery obstruction, rupture with demise, and vocal cord compression. Risk factors include maternal diabetes, late maternal age, maternal blood type A, large size for gestational age, and connective tissue disorders. The clinical importance remains unknown, making it difficult to determine how to monitor this finding postnatally.

METHODS: This is a retrospective echocardiogram study assessing the outcomes of fetally diagnosed arterial duct aneurysm. Images and records were reviewed to confirm the diagnosis and assess risk factors and outcomes. Descriptive statistics were performed.

RESULTS: Fifty-three affected fetuses were identified. The median gestational age at diagnosis was 34.9 weeks (IQR 32.6, 36.6). The median maternal age was 31 years (IQR 27.3-34.1). Eight (15%) had maternal diabetes. The most common blood type was type O. The median maximal dimension of the aneurysm was 7.6 mm (IQR 6.1, 8.7). The aortic end was the maximal dimension in 67.9%. Median postnatal follow-up period was 76 days (IQR 7.5, 368). No patients sustained postnatal demise related to the duct, rupture of the ductal aneurysm, cerebral infarction, or other sequelae. No newborn had associated connective tissue disorders. No patients underwent ductal intervention.

CONCLUSION: In our experience, no adverse outcomes related to the ductal aneurysm were identified. This should be considered when counselling families about the need for postnatal follow-up.

PMID:35730324 | DOI:10.1017/S1047951122001925

Math Biosci Eng. 2022 May 18;19(7):7284-7313. doi: 10.3934/mbe.2022344.

ABSTRACT

The vehicle routing problem (VRP) problem is a classic NP-hard problem. Usually, the traditional optimization method cannot effectively solve the VRP problem. Metaheuristic optimization algorithms have been successfully applied to solve many complex engineering optimization problems. This paper proposes a discrete Harris Hawks optimization (DHHO) algorithm to solve the shared electric vehicle scheduling (SEVS) problem considering the charging schedule. The SEVS model is a variant of the VPR problem, and the influence of the transfer function on the model is analyzed. The experimental test data are based on three randomly generated examples of different scales. The experimental results verify the effectiveness of the proposed DHHO algorithm. Furthermore, the statistical analysis results show that other transfer functions have apparent differences in the robustness and solution accuracy of the algorithm.

PMID:35730307 | DOI:10.3934/mbe.2022344

Math Biosci Eng. 2022 May 18;19(7):7272-7283. doi: 10.3934/mbe.2022343.

ABSTRACT

We study the monotonicity method to analyse nabla positivity for discrete fractional operators of Riemann-Liouville type based on exponential kernels, where $ left({}_{{c_0}}^{C{F_R}}nabla^{theta} mathtt{F}right)(t) > -epsilon, Lambda(theta-1), bigl(nabla mathtt{F}bigr)(c_{0}+1) $ such that $ bigl(nabla mathtt{F}bigr)(c_{0}+1)geq 0 $ and $ epsilon > 0 $. Next, the positivity of the fully discrete fractional operator is analyzed, and the region of the solution is presented. Further, we consider numerical simulations to validate our theory. Finally, the region of the solution and the cardinality of the region are discussed via standard plots and heat map plots. The figures confirm the region of solutions for specific values of $ epsilon $ and $ theta $.

PMID:35730306 | DOI:10.3934/mbe.2022343