Background: Women with abnormal glucose tolerance during pregnancy are at risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), with higher rates among Hispanics. However, studies on the impact of lifestyle interventions on postpartum CVD profiles are sparse. Methods: This is a secondary analysis of a controlled trial among a subsample of Hispanic women with abnormal glucose tolerance participating in Estudió PARTO (Project Aiming to Reduce Type twO diabetes; mean age = 28.2 y, SD: 5.8) who were randomized to a culturally modified Lifestyle intervention (n = 45) or a comparison Health and Wellness intervention (n = 55). Primary endpoints were biomarkers of cardiovascular risk (lipids, C-reactive protein, fetuin-A, and albumin-to-creatinine ratio) and insulin resistance (fasting insulin, glucose, HbA1c, homeostasis model assessment, leptin, tumor necrosis factor-alpha, and adiponectin) measured at baseline (6-wk postpartum) and 6 and 12 months. Results: In intent-to-treat analyses, there were no significant differences in changes in biomarkers of CVD risk or insulin resistance over the postpartum year. In prespecified sensitivity analyses, women adherent with the Lifestyle Intervention had more favorable improvements in insulin (intervention effect = -4.87, SE: 1.93, P = .01) and HOMA-IR (intervention effect = -1.15, SE: 0.53, P = .03) compared with the Health and Wellness arm. In pooled analyses, regardless of intervention arm, women with higher postpartum sports/exercise had greater increase in HDL-cholesterol (intervention effect = 6.99, SE: 1.72, P = .0001). Conclusions: In this randomized controlled trial among Hispanic women with abnormal glucose tolerance, we did not observe a significant effect on postpartum biomarkers of CVD risk or insulin resistance. Women adherent to the intervention had more favorable changes in insulin and HOMA-IR.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, people with disabilities have a right to accommodations if their condition gets in the way of doing what’s called “the essential functions of a job.” Disabilities can include a mental health condition. If you have a disability, accommodations may help you perform the essential functions of the job. You still must do those basic tasks, but “how” you do them may be different with the help of an accommodation. This tip sheet explains what accommodations are, who they apply to and provides examples of workplace accommodations that could be helpful for young adults, and others, with serious mental health conditions.

Background: Shared decision-making is a joint process where patients, or their surrogates, and clinicians make health choices based on evidence and preferences. We aimed to determine the extent and predictors of shared decision-making for goals-of-care discussions for critically ill neurological patients, which is crucial for patient-goal-concordant care but currently unknown. Methods: We analyzed 72 audio-recorded routine clinician-family meetings during which goals-of-care were discussed from seven US hospitals. These occurred for 67 patients with 72 surrogates and 29 clinicians; one hospital provided 49/72 (68%) of the recordings. Using a previously validated 10-element shared decision-making instrument, we quantified the extent of shared decision-making in each meeting. We measured clinicians' and surrogates' characteristics and prognostic estimates for the patient's hospital survival and 6-month independent function using post-meeting questionnaires. We calculated clinician-family prognostic discordance, defined as ≥ 20% absolute difference between the clinician's and surrogate's estimates. We applied mixed-effects regression to identify independent associations with greater shared decision-making. Results: The median shared decision-making score was 7 (IQR 5-8). Only 6% of meetings contained all 10 shared decision-making elements. The most common elements were "discussing uncertainty"(89%) and "assessing family understanding"(86%); least frequent elements were "assessing the need for input from others"(36%) and "eliciting the context of the decision"(33%). Clinician-family prognostic discordance was present in 60% for hospital survival and 45% for 6-month independent function. Univariate analyses indicated associations between greater shared decision-making and younger clinician age, fewer years in practice, specialty (medical-surgical critical care > internal medicine > neurocritical care > other > trauma surgery), and higher clinician-family prognostic discordance for hospital survival. After adjustment, only higher clinician-family prognostic discordance for hospital survival remained independently associated with greater shared decision-making (p = 0.029). Conclusion: Fewer than 1 in 10 goals-of-care clinician-family meetings for critically ill neurological patients contained all shared decision-making elements. Our findings highlight gaps in shared decision-making. Interventions promoting shared decision-making for high-stakes decisions in these patients may increase patient-value congruent care; future studies should also examine whether they will affect decision quality and surrogates' health outcomes.

This info-comic is for high school students to help them understand what an Individualized Educational Plan or IEP is, what transition planning is, and the importance of the student being involved in them. Part 4 focuses on Mateo leading his IEP meeting. Parts 1 through 3 can be found on our website: https://www.umassmed.edu/TransitionsACR/publication/comic/

Screening mammography is the single most effective test to reduce breast cancer mortality. Despite improvements in mammography technology, including digital breast tomosynthesis, it remains an imperfect test, with one in eight cancers missed at time of interpretation. Supplemental imaging with US, contrast-enhanced MRI, or contrast-enhanced mammography has been recommended in women with higher-than-average risk to improve breast cancer detection. However, challenges arise for women who are not identified as being at higher-than-average risk or who may not have access to these tests. Artificial intelligence (AI) models using deep learning technology have the potential to find cancers not identified by humans, improving the efficacy of screening mammography.

Introduction: I am writing a short reflection below as a companion piece to last week's story by Merredith. It follows along the lines of sayings in our specialty, like - "Don't just do something, stand there." I created a whole lecture on the power of "Doing Nothing." We all know, it is not really nothing, it is a lot of something, just not things that can be billed for or objectively evaluated necessarily. But they can be powerful.

Objective: Flow diversion created a paradigm shift in the treatment of intracranial aneurysms. The new flow redirection endoluminal device with X technology (FRED X) is the latest update of the recent Food and Drug Administration-approved FRED. The FRED X is engineered to reduce material thrombogenicity and enhance vessel healing. In this study, the authors aimed to evaluate the feasibility and early safety and efficacy of the new FRED X. Methods: The authors retrospectively collected and analyzed data from patients who had undergone flow diversion with the new FRED X at four tertiary cerebrovascular centers in the United States from February 2022 through July 2022. Results: Forty-four patients with 45 aneurysms treated using 46 devices comprised the overall study cohort and were divided into two groups: 39 patients with unruptured aneurysms and 5 patients with ruptured aneurysms. The mean patient age was 57.7 ± 9.1 years, and most patients were female (84%). Ninety-one percent of the aneurysms were saccular, with the majority (93%) located in the anterior circulation, specifically the posterior communicating (27%) and carotid ophthalmic (27%) territories. The mean maximum aneurysm diameter was 5.6 ± 4.6 mm, and 20% of the lesions had been previously treated. The mean procedure time was 61.6 minutes, with a mean cumulative fluoroscopy time of 24.6 minutes. Additionally, 7% of the lesions received adjunct treatment. Stent placement was successful in 100% of cases, achieving good wall apposition and complete neck coverage. Further, immediate aneurysm contrast stasis > 90% was observed in 61% of cases. Symptomatic postoperative complications occurred in 3 patients in the unruptured cohort and 1 patient in the ruptured cohort. All patients in the study were discharged on dual antiplatelet regimens with a modified Rankin Scale score of 0. At 6 months after treatment, 89% of cases had adequate occlusion, with < 6% of cases having asymptomatic in-stent stenosis. All patients had excellent functional outcomes. Conclusions: FRED X for the treatment of an intracranial aneurysm is technically feasible alone or in conjunction with intrasaccular embolization. In addition, the study results showed very promising early safety and efficacy. Follow-up studies should establish the long-term safety and efficacy profiles of this new stent.

Introduction: Integrating equity considerations into bicycle infrastructure, planning, and programming is essential to increase bicycling and reduce physical inactivity-related health disparities. However, little is known about communities' experiences with activities that promote equity considerations in bicycle infrastructure, planning, and programming or about barriers and facilitators to such considerations. The objective of this project was to gain in-depth understanding of the experiences, barriers, and facilitators that communities encounter with integrating equity considerations into bicycle infrastructure, planning, and programming. Methods: We administered a web-based survey in 2022 to assess communities' experiences with 31 equity-focused activities in 3 areas: 1) community engagement, education, events, and programming (community engagement); 2) data collection, evaluation, and goal setting (data); and 3) infrastructure, facilities, and physical amenities (infrastructure). Respondents were people who represented communities in the US that participated in the League of American Bicyclists' Bicycle Friendly Community (BFC) Program. We then conducted 6 focus groups with a subset of survey respondents to explore barriers and facilitators to implementing equity-focused activities. Results: Survey respondents (N = 194) had experience with a mean (SD) of 5.9 (5.7) equity-focused activities. Focus group participants (N = 30) identified themes related to community engagement (outreach to and engagement of underrepresented communities, cultural perceptions of bicycling, and funding and support for community rides and programs); data (locally relevant data); and infrastructure (political will, community design, and infrastructure). They described barriers and facilitators for each. Conclusion: Communities are challenged with integrating equity into bicycle infrastructure, planning, and programming. Multicomponent strategies with support from entities such as the BFC program will be required to make progress.

Phosphaturic mesenchymal tumors are rare, usually benign neoplasms that occur in the soft tissue or bone and are the cause of nearly all cases of tumor-induced osteomalacia. Tumor-induced osteomalacia due to phosphaturic mesenchymal tumor is a challenging diagnosis to make-patients present with variable clinical and radiologic findings and the culprit neoplasm is often small and can occur anywhere head to toe. We present two cases of phosphaturic mesenchymal tumor in the scapular body and plantar foot. In both cases, the patient endured years of debilitating symptoms before a tissue diagnosis was eventually reached. Descriptions of clinical presentation, laboratory workup, surgical resection, and imaging characteristics, with a focus on CT, MRI, and functional imaging, are provided to assist with the diagnosis and management of this rare entity. A brief review of current literature and discussion of the differential diagnoses of phosphaturic mesenchymal tumor is also provided.

Parkinson's disease (PD) targets some dopamine (DA) neurons more than others. Sex differences offer insights, with females more protected from DA neurodegeneration. The mammalian vesicular glutamate transporter VGLUT2 and Drosophila ortholog dVGLUT have been implicated as modulators of DA neuron resilience. However, the mechanisms by which VGLUT2/dVGLUT protects DA neurons remain unknown. We discovered DA neuron dVGLUT knockdown increased mitochondrial reactive oxygen species in a sexually dimorphic manner in response to depolarization or paraquat-induced stress, males being especially affected. DA neuron dVGLUT also reduced ATP biosynthetic burden during depolarization. RNA sequencing of VGLUT+ DA neurons in mice and flies identified candidate genes that we functionally screened to further dissect VGLUT-mediated DA neuron resilience across PD models. We discovered transcription factors modulating dVGLUT-dependent DA neuroprotection and identified dj-1β as a regulator of sex-specific DA neuron dVGLUT expression. Overall, VGLUT protects DA neurons from PD-associated degeneration by maintaining mitochondrial health.