Open Access DOI:10.23937/2469-584X/1510020
Validation of a Simple, Patient Directed, Symptom based Index for Intestinal Inflammation
Hyok Jun Kwon, Sharon Dudley-Brown, Merrilee Williams, Marie-Michelle Sullivan and Michael Schultz
Article Type: Research Article | First Published: April 12, 2016
Optimal management of the Inflammatory Bowel Diseases (IBD) aims for low levels of inflammation to reduce complication rates and disease burden. Scoring systems have been developed to monitor disease but most have not been validated or have shortcomings that limit their practical use. Our aim was to compare two patient related outcome scoring systems with established and validated tools to estimate disease severity in patients with IBD....
Open Access DOI:10.23937/2474-3674/1510015
Addressing Moral Distress in Critical Care Nurses: A Pilot Study
Rose Allen and Eve Butler
Article Type: Research Article | First Published: May 03, 2016
Background: Moral distress can affect critical care nurses caring for complex patients. It can result in job dissatisfaction, loss of capacity for caring, and nurse turnover, resulting in a negative impact on quality care. Aim: This study purpose was to determine how moral distress impacts critical care nurses (adult and pediatric) and to implement improvement strategies to reduce moral distress, improve job satisfaction, and retention. Theoretical framework: Nathaniel's Theory of Moral Reckonin...
Open Access DOI:10.23937/2474-3674/1510014
Use of Transthoracic Impedance Data to Evaluate Intra-arrest Chest Compression Quality
Jonathan W Kamrud, Lori L Boland, Carol L Frazee, Tyler G Kinzy, Paul A Satterlee and Charles J Lick
Article Type: Research Article | First Published: May 02, 2016
Mechanical compression devices purportedly improve the quality of chest compressions by minimizing interruptions and maintaining optimal rate and depth, but this claim has not been objectively substantiated using transthoracic impedance (TTI) recordings from applied setting cardiac arrests. In this study, we use TTI data to compare chest compression quality metrics from the manual versus mechanical compression phases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) treated with the LUCAS™ mechanical co...
Open Access DOI:10.23937/2469-567X/1510020
PrEP Works, But Only When You [Have Access to] Take it: Improving PrEP Access for Young People in Chicago and Philadelphia
S Caitlin Conyngham, Cassie R Warren and Helen C Koenig
Article Type: Commentary | First Published: March 31, 2016
The 2012 United States Food and Drug Administration approval of Tenofovir/Emtricitabine for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has added a highly effective, safe biomedical option to the HIV prevention toolbox. In the United States, young black and Latino men who have sex with men (MSM) and transgender women are disproportionately affected by HIV risk over the course of their lifetime. Nearly 1 in 10 black MSM under age 25 is infected with HIV every year, and there are more new HIV infections a...
Open Access DOI:10.23937/2469-567X/1510019
Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and Bone Fractures in Patients with HIV
Pollo-Flores P, BicudoA, Cruz-FilhoR and Soares DV
Article Type: Short Review | First Published: March 31, 2016
Human immunodeficiency virus infection has posed a challenge for mankind and now this disease is more of a challenge for quality of life than for virus related mortality. This review aims to study two prevalent diseases that may affect this population by decreasing their quality of life. Bone fractures are much more common in the HIV-positive population and have many etiopathogenesis implicated. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease is also common in HIV-positive patients and may even lead to cirrho...
Open Access DOI:10.23937/2469-570X/1410030
The Role of Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis
Carlos Rio, Andreas Jahn, Amanda Iglesias, Luis A Ortiz and Ernest Sala-Llinas
Article Type: Short Review | First Published: March 31, 2016
Mesenchymal stromal cells (MSC) are adult multipotent cells capable of differentiating into a number of different cell lineages, which can be isolated from bone marrow, adipose tissue, umbilical cord, amniotic membrane and other tissues, expanded in culture and, subsequently, administered by systemic or local routes into injured animals or ill patients. As a result of their proliferative potential, multipotency, immunomodulatory effects, migratory ability and immunoprivileged state (MSC express ...
Open Access DOI:10.23937/2378-3516/1410045
A Case Report: What is the Real Cause of Death from Acute Chlorine Exposure in an Asthmatic Patient?
Toprak S and Kalkan EA
Article Type: Case Report | First Published: April 21, 2016
This case report presents an acute and chronic inflammation process at the same time and resulted in death following exposure to chlorine gas. A 65-years-old woman died shortly after cleaning her bathroom with a mixture of various chemicals including bleach and an acid containing product. She was declared dead when she arrives to hospital. She is a non-smoker and has no significant medical history other than asthma. Toxicological analysis showed that paracetamol, methylprednisolone, venlafaxine ...
Open Access DOI:10.23937/2469-5807/1510032
Epigenomic Explanations for the Uncertainty of Cancer Biomarkers
Shou-Tung Chen, Chia-Chen Hsu, Yu-Wei Leu and Shu-Huei Hsiao
Article Type: Review Article | First Published: April 01, 2016
Inheritable epigenetic modifications, like histone modifications and DNA methylation, were once considered somatically stable and tissue-specific, yet accumulating evidence suggests the contrary. Environmental encounters are transduced into the cell through signaling pathways and these signals are relayed to the nucleus and memorized as epigenetic marks on target genes. Signaling-specific epigenomic changes provide selectable outlines for further lineage determination during differentiation and ...