Activity

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is common and has significant morbidity and mortality as the fourth leading cause of death in the United States. In many patients, particularly those with emphysema, COPD is characterized by markedly increased residual volume contributing to exertional dyspnea. Current therapies have limited efficacy. Surgical resection of diseased areas of the lung to reduce residual volume was effective in identified subgroups but also had significant mortality in and suboptimal cost effectiveness. Lung-volume reduction, using bronchoscopic techniques, has shown substantial benefits in a broader patient population with less morbidity and mortality. This review is meant to spread the awareness about bronchoscopic lung-volume reduction and to promote its consideration and early referral for patients with advanced COPD and emphysema frequently encountered by both primary care physicians and specialists. A search was conducted on PubMed (MEDLINE), EMbase, and Cochrane library for original studies, using the following keywords “lung-volume reduction.” “endobronchial valves,” “intrabronchial valves,” “bronchoscopic lung-volume reduction,” and “endoscopic lung-volume reduction.” We included reports from systematic reviews, narrative reviews, clinical trials, and observational studies. Two reviewers evaluated potential references. A total of 27 references were included in our review. Included studies report experience in the diagnosis and bronchoscopic treatment for emphysema; case reports and non-English or non-Spanish studies were excluded.Bloodstream infections are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality. Molecular rapid diagnostic tests (mRDTs) are transforming care for patients with bloodstream infection by providing the opportunity to dramatically shorten times to effective therapy and speeding de-escalation of overly broad empiric therapy. However, because of the novelty of these tests which provide information regarding microbial identification and whether specific antibiotic-resistance mutations were detected, many front-line providers still delay final decisions until complete phenotypic susceptibility results are available several days later. Thus the benefits of mRDTs have been largely limited to circumstances where antimicrobial stewardship programs closely monitor these tests and intervene as soon as the results are available. We searched PubMed and Google Scholar for articles published from 1980 to 2019 using the terms antibiotic, antifungal, bacteremia, bloodstream infection, candidemia, candidiasis, children, coagulase negative staphylococcus, consultation, contamination, costs, echocardiogram, endocarditis, enterobacteriaceae, enterococcus, Gram-negative, guidelines, IDSA, immunocompromised, infectious disease or ID, lumbar puncture, meningitis, mortality, MRSA, MSSA, neonatal, outcomes, pediatric, pneumococcal, polymicrobial, Pseudomonas, rapid diagnostic testing, resistance, risk factors, sepsis, Staphylococcus aureus, stewardship, streptococcus, and treatment. With the data from this search, we aim to provide guidance to front-line providers regarding the interpretation and immediate actions to be taken in response to the identification of common bloodstream pathogens by mRDTs. In addition to antimicrobial therapy, additional diagnostic or therapeutic interventions are recommended for particular organisms and clinical settings to either determine the extent of infection or control its source. Pediatric perspectives are offered for those bloodstream pathogens for which management differs from that in adults.The Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway is critical for bone differentiation and regeneration. Tideglusib, a selective FDA approved glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK-3β) inhibitor, has been shown to promote dentine formation, but its effect on bone has not been examined. Vismodegib Our objective was to study the effect of localized Tideglusib administration on bone repair. Bone healing between Tideglusib treated and control mice was analysed at 7, 14 and 28 days postoperative (PO) with microCT, dynamic histomorphometry and immunohistology. There was a local downregulation of GSK-3β in Tideglusib animals, resulting in a significant increase in the amount of new bone formation with both enhanced cortical bone bridging and medullary bone deposition. The bone formation in the Tideglusib group was characterized by early osteoblast differentiation with down-regulation of GSK-3β at day 7 and 14, and higher accumulation of active β-catenin at day 14. Here, for the first time, we show a positive effect of Tideglusib on bone formation through the inactivation of GSK-3β. Furthermore, the findings suggest that Tideglusib does not interfere with precursor cell recruitment and commitment, contrary to other GSK-3β antagonists such as lithium chloride. Taken together, the results indicate that Tideglusib could be used directly at a fracture site during the initial intraoperative internal fixation without the need for further surgery, injection or drug delivery system. This FDA-approved drug may be useful in the future for the prevention of non-union in patients presenting with a high risk for fracture-healing.

Traumatic finger amputations cause a substantial burden to health care system. The purpose of this study is to investigate the epidemiology of traumatic finger amputations, the incidence of replantation attempts and to examine the patient, surgeon, and hospital characteristics that were associated with replantation attempts.

We examined 49,469 patients with traumatic digit amputations from the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD) of Taiwan. We used Chi-square, ANOVA tests, and regression analysis to determine the important factors in decision to replant.

The replantation rate increased significantly with increased hospital volume (low-volume 4.7%, medium-volume 19.1 % and high-volume 35.9 %). Regional hospitals were more likely to attempt replantation (odds ratio= 1.35). Low-volume hospitals had a replantation failure rate of 11.1 %, medium-volume 19.7 % and high-volume hospitals had 13.8 %.

With the national health insurance coverage, hospital volume is a substantial factor to encourage microsurgical-trained staff to perform digit replantation when indicated.