A Brief Educational Intervention to Improve Healthcare Providers' Awareness of Child Passenger Safety

Introduction. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among US children aged 4–14 years. In theory, health provider counseling about Child Passenger Safety (CPS) could be a useful deterrent. The data about the effectiveness of CPS dissemination is sparse, but existing results suggest that providers are not well informed. Moreover, there is insufficient evidence to determine whether provider counseling about CPS is effective. Methods. We therefore assessed CPS best practice knowledge among 217 healthcare workers at hospitals in seven cities throughout the USA and evaluated the impact of a brief, lunch and learn educational intervention with a five-item questionnaire. Attendees were comprised of physicians, nurses, social workers, pediatric residents, and pediatric trauma response teams. Results. Pre-post survey completion was nearly 100% (216 of 217 attendees). Participation was fairly evenly distributed according to age (18–29, 30–44, and 45+ years). More than 80% of attendees were women. Before intervention, only 4% of respondents (9/216) answered all five questions correctly; this rose to 77% (167/216) (P<0.001, using a Wilcoxon signed-rank test) after intervention. Conclusion. Future research should consider implementation and controlled testing of comparable educational programs to determine if they improve dissemination of CPS best practice recommendations in the long term

Immune inhibitory proteins and their pathogenic and therapeutic implications in autoimmunity and autoimmune hepatitis

Key inhibitory proteins can blunt immune responses to self-antigens, and deficiencies in this repertoire may promote autoimmunity. The goals of this review are to describe the key immune inhibitory proteins, indicate their possible impact on the development of autoimmune disease, especially autoimmune hepatitis, and encourage studies to clarify their pathogenic role and candidacy as therapeutic targets. English abstracts were identified in PubMed by multiple search terms. Full length articles were selected for review, and secondary and tertiary bibliographies were developed. Cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 impairs ligation of CD28 to B7 ligands on antigen presenting cells and inhibits the adaptive immune response by increasing anti-inflammatory cytokines, generating regulatory T cells, and reducing T cell activation and proliferation. Programed cell death antigen-1 inhibits T cell selection, activation, and proliferation by binding with two ligands at different phases and locations of the immune response. A soluble alternatively spliced variant of this protein can dampen the inhibitory signal. Autoimmune hepatitis has been associated with polymorphisms of the cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen-4 gene, reduced hepatic expression of a ligand of programed cell death antigen-1, an interfering soluble variant of this key inhibitory protein, and antibodies against it. Findings have been associated with laboratory indices of liver injury and suboptimal treatment response. Abatacept, belatacept, CD28 blockade, and induction of T cell exhaustion are management considerations that require scrutiny. In conclusion, deficiencies in key immune inhibitory proteins may promote the occurrence of autoimmune diseases, such as autoimmune hepatitis, and emerging interventions may overcome these deficiencies. Investigations should define the nature, impact and management of these inhibitory disturbances in autoimmune hepatitis

Socioeconomic disparities in mortality after diffuse large B-cell lymphoma in the modern treatment era

Despite advances in treatment, including the introduction of rituximab, survival after diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) remains heterogeneous. However, no studies have considered the association between neighborhood socioeconomic status (SES) and race/ethnicity on DLBCL mortality before (1988-2000) and after (2001-2009) the introduction of rituximab. We studied all 33 032 DLBCL patients diagnosed between 1988-2009 in California for vital status through December 31, 2010. Patients diagnosed from 2001 to 2009 vs 1988 to 2000 had significantly decreased overall and DLBCL-specific mortality. However, those living in lower SES neighborhoods had 34% (95% confidence interval [CI], 27%-40%) and 24% (95% CI, 16%-32%) higher mortality rate from all causes and lymphoma, respectively, than patients in higher SES neighborhoods. The magnitude of mortality disparities by neighborhood SES was more marked in younger (<65 years) than in older patients (≥65 years), in married than nonmarried patients, and after 2000. We concluded that patients living in low SES neighborhoods had substantially worse survival after DLBCL, and this disparity was striking in younger (ie, not eligible for Medicare-aged) patients, married patients, and after the introduction of rituximab. These disparities suggest there are barriers, including inadequate insurance coverage with additional financial burden, to effective treatment among socioeconomically disadvantaged patients