bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
K13
Propeller Alleles,
mdr1
Polymorphism, and Drug Effectiveness at Day 3 after Artemether-Lumefantrine Treatment for Plasmodium falciparum Malaria in Colombia, 2014-2015
Authors: Montenegro Madeline , Neal Aaron T. , Posada Maritza , De las Salas Briegel , Lopera-Mesa Tatiana M. , Fairhurst Rick M. , Tobon-Castaño Alberto 
Published: September 2017

ABSTRACT

High treatment failure rates for
Plasmodium falciparum
malaria have been reported in Colombia for chloroquine, amodiaquine, and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine. Artemisinin combination therapies were introduced in 2006 in Colombia, where artemether-lumefantrine (AL) is currently used to treat uncomplicated
P. falciparum
malaria. Artemisinin (ART) resistance was initially observed in Southeast Asia as an increased parasite clearance time, manifesting as a positive thick-blood smear on day 3 after treatment (D3 positivity). Recently, mutations in the propeller domain of the
P. falciparum
kelch13
gene (
K13
propeller) have been associated with ART resistance. In this study, we surveyed AL effectiveness at D3 and molecular markers of drug resistance among 187 uncomplicated
P. falciparum
cases in 4 regions of Colombia from June 2014 to July 2015. We found that 3.2% (4/125) of patients showed D3 positivity, 100% (163/163) of isolates carried wild-type
K13
propeller alleles, 12.9% (23/178) of isolates had multiple copies of the multidrug resistance 1 gene (
mdr1
), and 75.8% (113/149) of isolates harbored the double mutant N
F
S
D
D
mdr1
haplotype (the underlining indicates mutant alleles). These data suggest that ART resistance is not currently suspected in Colombia but that monitoring for lumefantrine resistance and AL failures should continue.
SPR741, an Antibiotic Adjuvant, Potentiates theIn VitroandIn VivoActivity of Rifampin against Clinically Relevant Extensively Drug-Resistant Acinetobacter baumannii
Authors: Zurawski Daniel V. , Reinhart Alexandria A. , Alamneh Yonas A. , Pucci Michael J. , Si Yuanzheng , Abu-Taleb Rania , Shearer Jonathan P. , Demons Samandra T. , Tyner Stuart D. , Lister Troy 
Published: September 2017

ABSTRACTAcinetobacter baumanniiis responsible for 10% of all nosocomial infections and has >50% mortality rates when causing ventilator-associated pneumonia. In this proof-of-concept study, we evaluated SPR741, an antibiotic adjuvant that permeabilizes the Gram-negative membrane, in combination with rifampin against AB5075, an extensively drug-resistant (XDR)A. baumanniistrain. In standardin vitroassays and in a murine pulmonary model, we found that this drug combination can significantly reduce bacterial burden and promote animal survival despite an aggressive infection.
Requirement and Synergistic Contribution of Platelet-Activating Factor Acetylhydrolase Sse and Streptolysin S to Inhibition of Neutrophil Recruitment and Systemic Infection by Hypervirulentemm3Group A Streptococcus in Subcutaneous Infection of Mice
Authors: Feng Wenchao , Minor Dylan , Liu Mengyao , Lei Benfang 
Published: September 2017

ABSTRACTHypervirulent group A streptococcus (GAS) can inhibit neutrophil recruitment and cause systemic infection in a mouse model of skin infection. The purpose of this study was to determine whether platelet-activating factor acetylhydrolase Sse and streptolysin S (SLS) have synergistic contributions to inhibition of neutrophil recruitment and systemic infection in subcutaneous infection of mice by MGAS315, a hypervirulent genotypeemm3GAS strain. Deletion ofsseandsagAin MGAS315 synergistically reduced the skin lesion size and GAS burden in the liver and spleen. However, the mutants were persistent at skin sites and had similar growth factors in nonimmune blood. Thus, the low numbers of ΔsseΔsagAmutants in the liver and spleen were likely due to their reduction in the systemic dissemination. Few intact and necrotic neutrophils were detected at MGAS315 infection sites. In contrast, many neutrophils and necrotic cells were present at the edge of Δssemutant infection sites on day 1 and at the edge of and inside Δssemutant infection sites on day 2. ΔsagAmutant infection sites had massive numbers of and few intact neutrophils at the edge and center of the infection sites, respectively, on day 1 and were full of intact neutrophils or necrotic cells on day 2. ΔsseΔsagAmutant infection sites had massive numbers of intact neutrophils throughout the whole infection site. ThesesseandsagAdeletion-caused changes in the histological pattern at skin infection sites could be complemented. Thus, thesseandsagAdeletions synergistically enhance neutrophil recruitment. These findings indicate that both Sse and SLS are required but that neither is sufficient for inhibition of neutrophil recruitment and systemic infection by hypervirulent GAS.
Lipids Affect the Cryptococcus neoformans-Macrophage Interaction and Promote Nonlytic Exocytosis
Authors: Nolan Sabrina J. , Fu Man Shun , Coppens Isabelle , Casadevall Arturo 
Published: September 2017

ABSTRACT

Many microbes exploit host cellular lipid droplets during the host-microbe interaction, but this phenomenon has not been extensively studied for fungal pathogens. In this study, we analyzed the role of lipid droplets during the interaction of
Cryptococcus neoformans
with macrophages in the presence and the absence of exogenous lipids, in particular, oleate. The addition of oleic acid increased the frequency of lipid droplets in both
C. neoformans
and macrophages
. C. neoformans
responded to oleic acid supplementation by faster growth inside and outside macrophages. Fungal cells were able to harvest lipids from macrophage lipid droplets. Supplementation of
C. neoformans
and macrophages with oleic acid significantly increased the rate of nonlytic exocytosis while having no effect on lytic exocytosis. The process for lipid modulation of nonlytic exocytosis was associated with actin changes in macrophages. In summary,
C. neoformans
harvests lipids from macrophages, and the
C. neoformans
-macrophage interaction is modulated by exogenous lipids, providing a new tool for studying nonlytic exocytosis.
Discrepancies in drug histories at admission to gastrointestinal surgery, internal medicine and geriatric hospital wards in Central Norway: a cross-sectional study
Authors: Sund Janne Kutschera , Sletvold Olav , Mellingsæter Trude Cecilie , Hukari Randi , Hole Torstein , Uggen Per Einar , Vadset Petra Thiemann , Spigset Olav 
Published: September 2017

ObjectivesTo compare discrepancies in drug histories among patients acutely admitted to different hospital wards, classify the discrepancies according to their potential clinical impact and identify appropriate selection criteria for patients that should be subject to a detailed drug history at admission.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingTwo gastrointestinal surgery wards and one geriatric ward at St Olav’s University Hospital in Trondheim and two general internal medicine wards at Ålesund Hospital in Ålesund, Norway.ParticipantsAll patients acutely admitted to these wards during a period of three months were asked to participate in the study. A total of 168 patients were included. For each patient, drug information available at admission was compared with information from drug lists obtained from the general practitioner and (if applicable) the home care services/the nursing home.Primary and secondary outcome measuresNumber of patients with one or more discrepancies in their drug history. Type and clinical impact of the discrepancies found. Selection criteria for patients that should be subject to a detailed drug history.ResultsIn total, 83% had at least one discrepancy in their drug history. Omission of a drug accounted for 72% of the discrepancies, whereas a difference in dosing was the cause of the remaining 28%. 9% of the discrepancies had the potential to cause severe harm or discomfort. We found no significant differences in the number of discrepancies between hospital wards, genders, ages or levels of care.ConclusionsThis study demonstrates the importance of collecting drug information from all available sources when a patient is admitted to hospital. As we found no significant differences in discrepancies between subgroups of patients, we suggest that medication reconciliation should be performed for all patients.
Development of a questionnaire to evaluate patients’ awareness of cardiovascular disease risk in England’s National Health Service Health Check preventive cardiovascular programme
Authors: Woringer Maria , Nielsen Jessica Jones , Zibarras Lara , Evason Julie , Kassianos Angelos P , Harris Matthew , Majeed Azeem , Soljak Michael 
Published: September 2017

BackgroundThe National Health Service (NHS) Health Check is a cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk assessment and management programme in England aiming to increase CVD risk awareness among people at increased risk of CVD. There is no tool to assess the effectiveness of the programme in communicating CVD risk to patients.AimsThe aim of this paper was to develop a questionnaire examining patients’ CVD risk awareness for use in health service research evaluations of the NHS Health Check programme.MethodsWe developed an 85-item questionnaire to determine patients’ views of their risk of CVD. The questionnaire was based on a review of the relevant literature. After review by an expert panel and focus group discussion, 22 items were dropped and 2 new items were added. The resulting 65-item questionnaire with satisfactory content validity (content validity indices≥0.80) and face validity was tested on 110 NHS Health Check attendees in primary care in a cross-sectional study between 21 May 2014 and 28 July 2014.ResultsFollowing analyses of data, we reduced the questionnaire from 65 to 26 items. The 26-item questionnaire constitutes four scales: Knowledge of CVD Risk and Prevention, Perceived Risk of Heart Attack/Stroke, Perceived Benefits and Intention to Change Behaviour and Healthy Eating Intentions. Perceived Risk (Cronbach’s α=0.85) and Perceived Benefits and Intention to Change Behaviour (Cronbach’s α=0.82) have satisfactory reliability (Cronbach’s α≥0.70). Healthy Eating Intentions (Cronbach’s α=0.56) is below minimum threshold for reliability but acceptable for a three-item scale.ConclusionsThe resulting questionnaire, with satisfactory reliability and validity, may be used in assessing patients’ awareness of CVD risk among NHS Health Check attendees.
Medical leadership, a systematic narrative review: do hospitals and healthcare organisations perform better when led by doctors?
Authors: Clay-Williams Robyn , Ludlow Kristiana , Testa Luke , Li Zhicheng , Braithwaite Jeffrey 
Published: September 2017

IntroductionDespite common assumptions that doctors are well placed to lead hospitals and healthcare organisations, the peer-reviewed literature contains little evidence on the performance of doctors in leadership roles in comparison with that of non-medical managers.ObjectivesTo determine whether there is an association between the leader’s medical background and management performance in terms of organisational performance or patient outcomes.MethodsWe searched for peer-reviewed, English language studies using Medline, Embase and Emerald Management between 2005 and 2017. We included quantitative, qualitative and mixed method empirical studies on the performance of senior healthcare managers where participants were described as doctors or leaders and where comparative performance data were provided on non-medical leaders. Studies without full text available, or no organisational, leadership behaviour or patient measures, were excluded.ResultsThe search, conducted in Medline (n=3395), Embase (n=1913) and Emerald Management (n=454) databases, yielded 3926 entries. After the application of inclusion and exclusion criteria, 16 studies remained. Twelve studies found that there were positive differences between medical and non-medical leaders, and eight studies correlated those findings with hospital performance or patient outcomes. Six studies examined the composition of boards of directors; otherwise, there were few common areas of investigation. Five inter-related themes emerged from a narrative analysis: the impact of medical leadership on outcomes; doctors on boards; contribution of qualifications and experience; the medical leader as an individual or part of a team and doctors transitioning into the medical leadership role.Discussion and conclusionA modest body of evidence supports the importance of including doctors on organisational governing boards. Despite many published articles on the topic of whether hospitals and healthcare organisations perform better when led by doctors, there were few empirical studies that directly compared the performance of medical and non-medical managers. This is an under-researched area that requires further funding and focus.
Serum levels of chemical elements in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma in Anyang, China: a case-control study based on machine learning methods
Authors: Lin Tong , Liu Tiebing , Lin Yucheng , Zhang Chaoting , Yan Lailai , Chen Zhongxue , He Zhonghu , Wang Jingyu 
Published: September 2017

ObjectivesEsophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is the predominant form of esophageal carcinoma with extremely aggressive nature and low survival rate. The risk factors for ESCC in the high-incidence areas of China remain unclear. We used machine learning methods to investigate whether there was an association between the alterations of serum levels of certain chemical elements and ESCC.SettingsPrimary healthcare unit inAnyangcity, Henan Province of China.Participants100 patients with ESCC and 100 healthy controls matched for age, sex and region were included.Primary and secondary outcome measuresPrimary outcome was the classification accuracy. Secondary outcome was the p Value of the t-test or rank-sum test.MethodsBoth traditional statistical methods of t-test and rank-sum test and fashionable machine learning approaches were employed.ResultsRandom Forest achieves the best accuracy of 98.38% on the original feature vectors (without dimensionality reduction), and support vector machine outperforms other classifiers by yielding accuracy of 96.56% on embedding spaces (with dimensionality reduction). All six classifiers can achieve accuracies more than 90% based on the single most important element Sr. The other two elements with distinctive difference are S and P, providing accuracies around 80%. More than half of chemical elements were found to be significantly different between patients with ESCC and the controls.ConclusionsThese results suggest clear differences between patients with ESCC and controls, implying some potential promising applications in diagnosis, prognosis, pharmacy and nutrition of ESCC. However, the results should be interpreted with caution due to the retrospective design nature, limited sample size and the lack of several potential confounding factors (including obesity, nutritional status, and fruit and vegetable consumption and potential regional carcinogen contacts).
UK-based prospective cohort study to anglicise and validate the FACE-Q Skin Cancer Module in patients with facial skin cancer undergoing surgical reconstruction: the PROMISCR (Patient-Reported Outcome Measure in Skin Cancer Reconstruction) study
Authors: Dobbs Thomas , Hutchings Hayley A , Whitaker Iain S 
Published: September 2017

IntroductionSkin cancer is the most common malignancy worldwide, often occurring on the face, where the cosmetic outcome of treatment is paramount. A number of skin cancer-specific patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) exist, however none adequately consider the difference in type of reconstruction from a patient’s point of view. It is the aim of this study to ‘anglicise’ (to UK English) a recently developed US PROM for facial skin cancer (the FACE-Q Skin Cancer Module) and to validate this UK version of the PROM. The validation will also involve an assessment of the items for relevance to facial reconstruction patients. This will either validate this new measure for the use in clinical care and research of various facial reconstructive options, or provide evidence that a more specific PROM is required.Methods and analysisThis is a prospective validation study of the FACE-Q Skin Cancer Module in a UK facial skin cancer population with a specific focus on the difference between types of reconstruction. The face and content validity of the FACE-Q questionnaire will initially be assessed by a review process involving patients, skin cancer specialists and methodologists. An assessment of whether questions are relevant and any missing questions will be made. Initial validation will then be carried out by recruiting a cohort of 100 study participants with skin cancer of the face pre-operatively. All eligible patients will be invited to complete the questionnaire preoperatively and postoperatively. Psychometric analysis will be performed to test validity, reliability and responsiveness to change. Subgroup analysis will be performed on patients undergoing different forms of reconstruction postexcision of their skin cancer.Ethics and disseminationThis study has been approved by the West Midlands, Edgbaston Research Ethics Committee (Ref 16/WM/0445). All personal data collected will be anonymised and patient-specific data will only be reported in terms of group demographics. Identifiable data collected will include the patient name and date of birth. Other collected personal data will include their diagnosis, treatment performed, method of reconstruction and complications. A unique identifier will be applied to each patient so that pretreatment and post-treatment questionnaire results can be compared. All data acquisition and storage will be in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. Following completion of the study, all records will be stored in the Abertawe Bro Morgannwg University (AMBU) Health Board archive facility. Only qualified personnel working on the project will have access to the data.The outputs from this work will be published as widely as possible in peer-review journals and it is our aim to make this open access.
Comparison of ethnic group classification using naming analysis and routinely collected data: application to cancer incidence trends in children and young people
Authors: Smith Lesley , Norman Paul , Kapetanstrataki Melpo , Fleming Sarah , Fraser Lorna K , Parslow Roger C , Feltbower Richard G 
Published: September 2017

ObjectiveInpatient Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) ethnicity data are available but not always collected and data quality can be unreliable. This may have implications when assessing outcomes by ethnicity. An alternative method for assigning ethnicity is using naming algorithms. We investigate if the association between ethnicity and cancer incidence varied dependent on how ethnic group was assigned.DesignPopulation-based cancer registry cohort study.SettingYorkshire, UK.ParticipantsCancer registrations from 1998 to 2009 in children and young people (0–29 years) from a specialist cancer register in Yorkshire, UK (n=3998) were linked to inpatient HES data to obtain recorded ethnicity. Patients’ names, recorded in the cancer register, were matched to an ethnic group using the naming algorithm software Onomap. Each source of ethnicity was categorised as white, South Asian (SA) or Other, and a further two indicators were defined based on the combined ethnicities of HES and Onomap, one prioritising HES results, the other prioritising Onomap.OutcomesIncidence rate ratios (IRR) between ethnic groups were compared using Poisson regression for all cancers combined, leukaemia, lymphoma and central nervous system (CNS) tumours.ResultsDepending on the indicator used, 7.1%–8.6% of the study population were classified as SA. For all cancers combined there were no statistically significant differences between white and SA groups using any indicator; however, for lymphomas significant differences were only evident using one of the ‘Combined’ indicators (IRR=1.36 (95% CI 1.08 to 1.71)), and for CNS tumours incidence was lower using three of the four indicators. For the other ethnic group the IRR for all cancers combined ranged from 0.78 (0.65 to 0.94) to 1.41 (1.23 to 1.62).ConclusionsUsing different methods of assigning ethnicity can result in different estimates of ethnic variation in cancer incidence. Combining ethnicity from multiple sources results in a more complete estimate of ethnicity than the use of one single source.
Cohort profile: the National Health Insurance Service-National Health Screening Cohort (NHIS-HEALS) in Korea
Authors: Seong Sang Cheol , Kim Yeon-Yong , Park Sue K , Khang Young Ho , Kim Hyeon Chang , Park Jong Heon , Kang Hee-Jin , Do Cheol-Ho , Song Jong-Sun , Lee Eun-Joo , Ha Seongjun , Shin Soon Ae , Jeong Seung-Lyeal 
Published: September 2017

PurposeThe National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening Cohort (NHIS-HEALS) is a cohort of participants who participated in health screening programmes provided by the NHIS in the Republic of Korea. The NHIS constructed the NHIS-HEALS cohort database in 2015. The purpose of this cohort is to offer relevant and useful data for health researchers, especially in the field of non-communicable diseases and health risk factors, and policy-maker.ParticipantsTo construct the NHIS-HEALS database, a sample cohort was first selected from the 2002 and 2003 health screening participants, who were aged between 40 and 79 in 2002 and followed up through 2013. This cohort included 514 866 health screening participants who comprised a random selection of 10% of all health screening participants in 2002 and 2003.Findings to dateThe age-standardised prevalence of anaemia, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, obesity, hypercholesterolaemia and abnormal urine protein were 9.8%, 8.2%, 35.6%, 2.7%, 14.2% and 2.0%, respectively. The age-standardised mortality rate for the first 2 years (through 2004) was 442.0 per 100 000 person-years, while the rate for 10 years (through 2012) was 865.9 per 100 000 person-years. The most common cause of death was malignant neoplasm in both sexes (364.1 per 100 000 person-years for men, 128.3 per 100 000 person-years for women).Future plansThis database can be used to study the risk factors of non-communicable diseases and dental health problems, which are important health issues that have not yet been fully investigated. The cohort will be maintained and continuously updated by the NHIS.