Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Activation of human primary visual cortex during visual recall: a magnetic resonance imaging study.

The degree to which the process involved in visual perception and visual imagery share a common neuroanatomical substrate is unclear. Physiological evidence for localization of visual imagery early in the visual pathways would have important bearing on current theories of visual processing. A magnetic resonance imaging technique sensitive to regional changes in blood oxygenation was used to obtain functional activation maps in the human visual cortex. During recall of a visual stimulus, focal increases in signal related to changes in blood flow were detected in V1 and V2 cortex in five of seven subjects. These experiments show that the same areas of the early visual cortex that are excited by visual stimulation are also activated during mental representation of the same stimulus. Some of the processes used in topographically mapped cortical areas during visual perception may also be utilized during visual recall

Scholarship as cultural production in the neoliberal university: Working within and against ‘deliverables’

This article focuses on the idea of scholarly work as cultural production to help understand how the tensions of precarious, early-career academic employment are articulated on a day-to-day basis in the context of pressures to efficiently produce monetizable ‘deliverables.’ Using a political economy of communication framework and an iterative methodological approach, the authors mobilize examples drawn from a collaborative set of activities they undertook as part of a broader research group of emerging Canadian scholars working in different international contexts between 2012 and 2015. The research conversation began in academic roundtables in 2013, and was furthered through a content analysis of articles collected from scholarly and general interest blog posts, newsletters, and magazines published online from July 2012 to April 2014. In this article, the authors explore emerging themes and document pressures to conform to neoliberal practices within the corporatized university, as well as suggest pathways for dissent and reinvention of academic labour

Functional MRI during word generation, using conventional equipment: a potential tool for language localization in the clinical environment.

International audienceOBJECTIVE. To test the accuracy of bilateral language mapping using a standard clinical magnetic resonance (MR) imaging device during word generation. DESIGN. A study of normal volunteers. SETTING. Volunteers from the Washington, DC, area. PARTICIPANTS. Nine normal, right-handed, native English speakers (four women, five men, mean age 31 years). INTERVENTIONS. During four MR acquisition periods, subjects would alternately rest and silently generate words. Sagittal MR images covered the middle and inferior frontal gyri, insulae, and part of the temporal and parietal lobes bilaterally. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES. (1) Anatomic maps of task-related signal changes obtained by comparing, in each voxel, the signal during word generation and rest periods, and (2) analysis of the time course of the signal. RESULTS. Maximum responses were in the left hemisphere, mainly in the frontal lobe (Broca's area, premotor cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) but also in posterior regions such as Wernicke's area. In agreement with previous studies, some degree of task-related changes was present in a subset of the corresponding regions in the right hemisphere. CONCLUSION. Despite certain limitations, it is possible, using widely available MR equipment, to obtain results consistent with previous studies. The technique may have important implications for assessment of cognitive functions in patients with neurologic disorders in a clinical environment

A Modified Reach-to-Grasp Task in a Supine Position Shows Coordination Between Elbow and Hand Movements After Stroke

Objective: A modified reach-to-grasp task has been developed for the purpose of investigating arm-hand coordination in a supine position in the functional magnetic resonance imaging environment. The objective of this study was to investigate the kinematics of the reach-to-grasp task, in stroke and healthy participants. Design: Observational cohort study. Setting: Movement laboratory. Participants: Ten stroke participants and 10 age-matched healthy participants performed 10 repetitions of the modified reach-to-grasp task in two conditions-a natural condition and a standardized condition in a splint. Intervention: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Kinematic variables of start time of transport, start time of aperture, movement duration, time of peak velocity (PV), percentage time of PV, peak deceleration (PD), percentage time of PD, peak aperture (PA), time of PA, and percentage time of PA were recorded. The correlation between key events in the grasp and transport trajectories were investigated. Performance between conditions and groups were compared. Results: Both groups demonstrated a significant correlation between the start time of aperture and the start time of transport and between the time of PA and PV in both conditions. A significant correlation was found between the time of PA and the PD in both conditions for the healthy group, but in neither condition for the stroke group. Movements by participants with stroke had a significantly longer movement duration, a smaller PV, and an earlier absolute time of PV and PD, and an earlier percentage time of PV and PD. They also had a smaller aperture than healthy participants. Wearing the splint resulted in a significantly higher PV, later absolute and percentage time of PV, PD, and PA, and a smaller PA compared to moving without the splint. The timing of transport variables time to peak velocity and time to peak deceleration, were strongest determinants of movement duration. Conclusion: The modified reach-to-gr

Offering to share: How to put heads together in autism neuroimaging

Data sharing in autism neuroimaging presents scientific, technical, and social obstacles. We outline the desiderata for a data-sharing scheme that combines imaging with other measures of phenotype and with genetics, defines requirements for comparability of derived data and recommendations for raw data, outlines a core protocol including multispectral structural and diffusion-tensor imaging and optional extensions, provides for the collection of prospective, confound-free normative data, and extends sharing and collaborative development not only to data but to the analytical tools and methods applied to these data. A theme in these requirements is the need to preserve creative approaches and risk-taking within individual laboratories at the same time as common standards are provided for these laboratories to build on

A materialist media ecological approach to studying urban media in/of place

Despard develops an approach to studying the interactivity of media and place together based on theories of an inclusive, materialist media ecology. Her qualitative research implies an attention to what different sites and communication technologies can do as opposed to what they mean, as well as to the relations of production and circulation that enable and sustain those capacities. Baines presents here a strategy for the development of site- and media-specific methods capable of both describing and critically exploiting the interactivity of place, practice and technology. Finally, the chapter presents research on the affordances and constraints of Instagram in relation to the visibility of a contested public place in Glasgow, Scotland