Quality of Post-Discharge Follow-Up in Patients Admitted to TJUH with Intermediate High Risk Pulmonary Embolism

Our institution has developed a multidisciplinary pulmonary embolism response team (PERT) to help in the management of patients with intermediate high risk pulmonary embolism While the PERT focus is on acute inpatient management, it is important that PERT patients have close follow-up to monitor for known future complications including thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) and chronic pulmonary embolism syndrome CTEPH, in particular, is a potentially treatable disease with significant morbidity if left untreated Therefore, an underappreciated and important aspect of the PERT team should be the coordinated follow-up and long term care of these patients We wanted to better understand how consistently our patients with intermediate high risk PE had pulmonary and/or vascular medicine (JATS) outpatient follow-up with repeat TTE performed at 3 month

68-year old man with progressive weakness and ventilator dependent respiratory failure: a case report of sporadic late onset nemaline myopathy

Background: Neuromuscular pathologies must be considered when caring for patients with persistent or progressive respiratory failure. Pertinent disease states may involve skeletal muscles of respiration or associated neurologic structures including motor neurons, peripheral neurons and the neuromuscular junction. Diagnosis may require pulmonary function testing, neurophysiologic studies, imaging, and/or muscle biopsy. Case presentation: A 68-year-old male was transferred to our intensive care unit (ICU) for management of ventilator dependent respiratory failure. Upon further historical review, he described gradually worsening gait instability and muscle weakness, which was previously attributed to vascular Parkinsonism in the setting of known cerebrovascular disease. Upon arrival to our hospital, he was found to have elevated muscle specific enzymes, prompting evaluation for neuromuscular causes of respiratory failure. He was also found to have elevated HMG-CoA Reductase (HMGCR) antibodies. Ultimately, a right quadriceps muscle biopsy was performed and electron microscopy identified nemaline bodies within skeletal myofibers. Given the clinical course and other histopathologic findings, he was diagnosed with Sporadic late-onset nemaline myopathy (SLONM). Conclusion: The diagnosis of neuromuscular disease in patients with ventilator dependent respiratory failure is challenging. A detailed history of a patient\u27s clinical course prior to hospitalization is key and may raise suspicion for underlying neuromuscular pathology. Further evaluation in non-critically ill patients may include pulmonary function, electromyography and confirmatory muscle biopsy. Sporadic late onset nemaline myopathy remains a rare disease entity which rarely presents with respiratory failure and lacks effective treatment

How Hepatitis D Virus Can Hinder the Control of Hepatitis B Virus

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis D (or hepatitis delta) virus is a defective virus that relies on hepatitis B virus (HBV) for transmission; infection with hepatitis D can occur only as coinfection with HBV or superinfection of an existing HBV infection. Because of the bond between the two viruses, control measures for HBV may have also affected the spread of hepatitis D, as evidenced by the decline of hepatitis D in recent years. Since the presence of hepatitis D is associated with suppressed HBV replication and possibly infectivity, it is reasonable to speculate that hepatitis D may facilitate the control of HBV. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We introduced a mathematical model for the transmission of HBV and hepatitis D, where individuals with dual HBV and hepatitis D infection transmit both viruses. We calculated the reproduction numbers of single HBV infections and dual HBV and hepatitis D infections and examined the endemic prevalences of the two viruses. The results show that hepatitis D virus modulates not only the severity of the HBV epidemic, but also the impact of interventions for HBV. Surprisingly we find that the presence of hepatitis D virus may hamper the eradication of HBV. Interventions that aim to reduce the basic reproduction number of HBV below one may not be sufficient to eradicate the virus, as control of HBV depends also on the reproduction numbers of dual infections. CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE: For populations where hepatitis D is endemic, plans for control programs ignoring the presence of hepatitis D may underestimate the HBV epidemic and produce overoptimistic results. The current HBV surveillance should be augmented with monitoring of hepatitis D, in order to improve accuracy of the monitoring and the efficacy of control measures

Galectin-3 as a Predictor of Post Cardiac Surgery Atrial Fibrillation: A Scoping Review

Galectin-3 is associated with myocardial fibrosis, a known risk factor for developing re-entrant circuits associated with atrial fibrillation (AF). Previous studies have demonstrated increased galectin levels in AF patients. Whether preoperative galectin-3 levels can predict the incidence of postoperative atrial fibrillation (POAF) remains unknown.This scoping review was conducted in accordance with the 2020 Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement. Electronic searches were conducted in Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane, and Google Scholar databases using a predetermined strategy. Methodological variables, demographics and operative data were extracted. Data extraction was performed manually by 3 reviewers.The search yielded 620 citations, of which 74 underwent full text review, and 3 citations with 3 independent samples (n=1812) met full inclusion/exclusion criteria and were included. Of the 3 studies that reported on the association between preoperative galectin-3 levels and POAF, 2 studies compared median galectin levels in patients who developed POAF and those who did not. While Alexandre et al. reported a significant difference (P=0.002), Bening et al did not find a significant difference between POAF and non-POAF groups (P=0.3). A third study reporting on the association between galectin-3 and atrial fibrillation comparing third and first tercile galectin-3 levels found a significant association between preoperative galectin levels and POAF on univariate analysis (OR 1.54; 95% CI 1.14-2.09).Galectin-3 is an emerging biomarker that has been associated with the development of AF. However, there is currently not enough evidence to establish its prognostic role in postcardiac surgery atrial fibrillation.Fil: King, Morgan. Queens University; CanadáFil: Stambulic, Thomas. Queens University; CanadáFil: Kirupaharan, Sawmmiya. Queens University; CanadáFil: Baranchuk, Adrian. Queens University; CanadáFil: Rabinovich, Gabriel Adrián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Payne, Darrin. Queens University; CanadáFil: El Diasty, Mohammad. Queens University; Canad

Changes in pain following bilateral intermittent theta-burst, transcranial magnetic stimulation for depression: A retrospective chart review

ABSTRACTIntroduction Pain management in patients with chronic pain and comorbid depression is challenging and understudied. There is interest in intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS), a new modality of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). This retrospective review describes changes in pain, anxiety and depression throughout iTBS treatment at the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC).Methods A retrospective chart review was conducted of patients who underwent their first acute series of iTBS treatments at the DLPFC for depression at a single institution between 2020 and 2023. Data on depression, anxiety, and pain were collected throughout iTBS treatment using the Beck Depression Inventory–II (BDI-II; higher scores indicate worse depression) and visual analogue scale (VAS; 0–100, higher scores indicate worse pain, anxiety, and depression). Nonparametric tests were used for all analyses.Results Of 104 patients, 52 reported moderate pain at baseline (50.0%). Median BDI-II scores decreased from 38.0 (interquartile range [IQR] = 29.0–44.0) to 24.0 (IQR = 9.0–36.0) from pre- to posttreatment (P < 0.001). Of the 32 patients with both pre- and posttreatment pain scores, there was a significant decrease from 40.0 (IQR = 5.5–71.8) to 15.0 (IQR = 3.5–53.8; P = 0.037). In patients with at least moderate pain at baseline, pain scores decreased from 71.0 (IQR = 55.0–80.0) to 20.0 (IQR = 11.0–71.0; P = 0.004). Ten of 32 patients with available pre- and posttreatment scores reported ≥30% reduction in pain scores (31.2%).Conclusion These preliminary results, suggesting decreases in pain following iTBS treatment, provide a rationale for future rigorous investigations to evaluate this intervention for depression and comorbid chronic pain