Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis Screening for School, Community, and Clinical Health Promotion Practice Utilizing the PRECEDE-PROCEED Model

Background Screening for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a commonly performed procedure for school children during the high risk years. The PRECEDE-PROCEDE (PP) model is a health promotion planning model that has not been utilized for the clinical diagnosis of AIS. The purpose of this research is to study AIS in the school age population using the PP model and its relevance for community, school, and clinical health promotion. Methods MEDLINE was utilized to locate AIS data. Studies were screened for relevance and applicability under the auspices of the PP model. Where data was unavailable, expert opinion was utilized based on consensus. Results The social assessment of quality of life is limited with few studies approaching the long-term effects of AIS. Epidemiologically, AIS is the most common form of scoliosis and leading orthopedic problem in children. Behavioral/environmental studies focus on discovering etiologic relationships yet this data is confounded because AIS is not a behavioral. Illness and parenting health behaviors can be appreciated. The educational diagnosis is confounded because AIS is an orthopedic disorder and not behavioral. The administration/policy diagnosis is hindered in that scoliosis screening programs are not considered cost-effective. Policies are determined in some schools because 26 states mandate school scoliosis screening. There exists potential error with the Adam's test. The most widely used measure in the PP model, the Health Belief Model, has not been utilized in any AIS research. Conclusion The PP model is a useful tool for a comprehensive study of a particular health concern. This research showed where gaps in AIS research exist suggesting that there may be problems to the implementation of school screening. Until research disparities are filled, implementation of AIS screening by school, community, and clinical health promotion will be compromised. Lack of data and perceived importance by school/community health planners may influence clinical health promotion practices

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis screening for school, community, and clinical health promotion practice utilizing the PRECEDE-PROCEED model

BACKGROUND: Screening for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a commonly performed procedure for school children during the high risk years. The PRECEDE-PROCEDE (PP) model is a health promotion planning model that has not been utilized for the clinical diagnosis of AIS. The purpose of this research is to study AIS in the school age population using the PP model and its relevance for community, school, and clinical health promotion. METHODS: MEDLINE was utilized to locate AIS data. Studies were screened for relevance and applicability under the auspices of the PP model. Where data was unavailable, expert opinion was utilized based on consensus. RESULTS: The social assessment of quality of life is limited with few studies approaching the long-term effects of AIS. Epidemiologically, AIS is the most common form of scoliosis and leading orthopedic problem in children. Behavioral/environmental studies focus on discovering etiologic relationships yet this data is confounded because AIS is not a behavioral. Illness and parenting health behaviors can be appreciated. The educational diagnosis is confounded because AIS is an orthopedic disorder and not behavioral. The administration/policy diagnosis is hindered in that scoliosis screening programs are not considered cost-effective. Policies are determined in some schools because 26 states mandate school scoliosis screening. There exists potential error with the Adam's test. The most widely used measure in the PP model, the Health Belief Model, has not been utilized in any AIS research. CONCLUSION: The PP model is a useful tool for a comprehensive study of a particular health concern. This research showed where gaps in AIS research exist suggesting that there may be problems to the implementation of school screening. Until research disparities are filled, implementation of AIS screening by school, community, and clinical health promotion will be compromised. Lack of data and perceived importance by school/community health planners may influence clinical health promotion practices

A diagnostic host response biosignature for COVID-19 from RNA profiling of nasal swabs and blood.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), has emerged as the cause of a global pandemic. We used RNA sequencing to analyze 286 nasopharyngeal (NP) swab and 53 whole-blood (WB) samples from 333 patients with COVID-19 and controls. Overall, a muted immune response was observed in COVID-19 relative to other infections (influenza, other seasonal coronaviruses, and bacterial sepsis), with paradoxical down-regulation of several key differentially expressed genes. Hospitalized patients and outpatients exhibited up-regulation of interferon-associated pathways, although heightened and more robust inflammatory responses were observed in hospitalized patients with more clinically severe illness. Two-layer machine learning-based host classifiers consisting of complete (>1000 genes), medium (<100), and small (<20) gene biomarker panels identified COVID-19 disease with 85.1-86.5% accuracy when benchmarked using an independent test set. SARS-CoV-2 infection has a distinct biosignature that differs between NP swabs and WB and can be leveraged for COVID-19 diagnosis

A diagnostic host response biosignature for COVID-19 from RNA profiling of nasal swabs and blood.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which causes coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), has emerged as the cause of a global pandemic. We used RNA sequencing to analyze 286 nasopharyngeal (NP) swab and 53 whole-blood (WB) samples from 333 patients with COVID-19 and controls. Overall, a muted immune response was observed in COVID-19 relative to other infections (influenza, other seasonal coronaviruses, and bacterial sepsis), with paradoxical down-regulation of several key differentially expressed genes. Hospitalized patients and outpatients exhibited up-regulation of interferon-associated pathways, although heightened and more robust inflammatory responses were observed in hospitalized patients with more clinically severe illness. Two-layer machine learning-based host classifiers consisting of complete (>1000 genes), medium (<100), and small (<20) gene biomarker panels identified COVID-19 disease with 85.1-86.5% accuracy when benchmarked using an independent test set. SARS-CoV-2 infection has a distinct biosignature that differs between NP swabs and WB and can be leveraged for COVID-19 diagnosis

Insertion sites in engrafted cells cluster within a limited repertoire of genomic areas after gammaretroviral vector gene therapy

Vector-associated side effects in clinical gene therapy have provided insights into the molecular mechanisms of hematopoietic regulation in vivo. Surprisingly, many retrovirus insertion sites (RIS) present in engrafted cells have been found to cluster nonrandomly in close association with specific genes. Our data demonstrate that these genes directly influence the in vivo fate of hematopoietic cell clones. Analysis of insertions thus far has been limited to individual clinical studies. Here, we studied >7,000 insertions retrieved from various studies. More than 40% of all insertions found in engrafted gene-modified cells were clustered in the same genomic areas covering only 0.36% of the genome. Gene classification analyses displayed significant overrepresentation of genes associated with hematopoietic functions and relevance for cell growth and survival in vivo. The similarity of insertion distributions indicates that vector insertions in repopulating cells cluster in predictable patterns. Thus, insertion analyses of preclinical in vitro and murine in vivo studies as well as vector insertion repertoires in clinical trials yielded concerted results and mark a small number of interesting genomic loci and genes that warrants further investigation of the biological consequences of vector insertions