A cross-sectional study of healthcare provider perceptions of the management of epilepsy in pregnancy in sub-Saharan Africa.

BACKGROUND: Epilepsy prevalence in sub-Saharan Africa is high with a significant treatment gap. In this context, epilepsy presents substantial challenges to effective and safe reproductive and maternal healthcare. To improve this, it is important to understand the views and perceptions of healthcare professionals delivering epilepsy care to this population. METHODS: This study uses an online questionnaire which asked healthcare professionals (both from nursing and medical backgrounds) who work in sub-Saharan African countries to rate a set of pre-established options designed with the feedback of a local focus group of epilepsy experts from countries targeted. The questionnaire consisted of 21 questions and was a mix of multiple choice and Likert scale questions on managing reproductive health in women in local settings. RESULTS: Of 203 healthcare professionals respondents from over 10 countries majority were doctors (48%) or nurses (36%). The Gambia (28.6%), Nigeria (22.2%), Cameroon (13.3%) and Zambia (9.4%) accounted for nearly three-quarters of respondents. Over half (54%) felt that they have the necessary training to counsel women with epilepsy on reproductive health and pregnancy. Only 40% reported they regularly discuss family planning. Carbamazepine was reported to be the most used anti-seizure medication (ASM) for childbearing age women. Key challenges outlined were epilepsy awareness among patients and their families, information deficit on ASMs and pregnancy and access to a sufficient range of ASMs. CONCLUSION: Understanding the challenges faced by health professionals in sub-Sharan Africa, provides better comprehension of the specific "treatment-education gap" in counselling women with epilepsy on ASM risks and benefits.

Unravelling Guest Dynamics in Crystalline Molecular Organics Using 2H Solid-State NMR and Molecular Dynamics Simulation.

2H solid-state NMR and atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations are used to understand the disorder of guest solvent molecules in two cocrystal solvates of the pharmaceutical furosemide. Traditional approaches to interpreting the NMR data fail to provide a coherent model of molecular behavior and indeed give misleading kinetic data. In contrast, the direct prediction of the NMR properties from MD simulation trajectories allows the NMR data to be correctly interpreted in terms of combined jump-type and libration-type motions. Time-independent component analysis of the MD trajectories provides additional insights, particularly for motions that are invisible to NMR. This allows a coherent picture of the dynamics of molecules restricted in molecular-sized cavities to be determined.

Early success transplanting kidneys from donors with new SARS-CoV-2 RNA positivity: A report of 10 cases.

Transplantation of solid organs from donors with active SARS-CoV-2 infection has been advised against due to the possibility of disease transmission to the recipient. However, with the exception of lungs, conclusive data for productive infection of transplantable organs do not exist. While such data are awaited, the organ shortage continues to claim thousands of lives each year. In this setting, we put forth a strategy to transplant otherwise healthy extrapulmonary organs from SARS-CoV-2-infected donors. We transplanted 10 kidneys from five deceased donors with new detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA during donor evaluation in early 2021. Kidney donor profile index ranged from 3% to 56%. All organs had been turned down by multiple other centers. Without clear signs or symptoms, the veracity of timing of SARS-CoV-2 infection could not be confirmed. With 8-16 weeks of follow-up, outcomes for all 10 patients and allografts have been excellent. All have been free of signs or symptoms of donor-derived SARS-CoV-2 infection. Our findings raise important questions about the nature of SARS-CoV-2 RNA detection in potential organ donors and suggest underutilization of exceptionally good extrapulmonary organs with low risk for disease transmission.

Five years of the #RSCPoster Twitter conference.

The #RSCPoster Twitter conference is an annual, 24 hour poster conference held each March on Twitter. This original conference format has enabled hundreds of participants to share their research, with 32 million measurable impressions of #RSCPoster in 2020, participation growing each year and inspiring new conferences. Here, we will give a brief outline of the history, technicalities and content of the event.

Structure and physicochemical characterization of a naproxen-picolinamide cocrystal.

Naproxen (NPX) is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug with pain- and fever-relieving properties, currently marketed in the sodium salt form to overcome solubility problems; however, alternative solutions for improving its solubility across all pH values are desirable. NPX is suitable for cocrystal formation, with hydrogen-bonding possibilities via the COOH group. The crystal structure is presented of a 1:1 cocrystal of NPX with picolinamide as a coformer [systematic name: (S)-2-(6-methoxynaphthalen-2-yl)propanoic acid-pyridine-2-carboxamide (1/1), C14H14O3·C6H6N2O]. The pharmaceutically relevant physical properties were investigated and the intrinsic dissolution rate was found to be essentially the same as that of commercial naproxen. An NMR crystallography approach was used to investigate the H-atom positions in the two crystallographically unique COOH-CONH hydrogen-bonded dimers. 1H solid-state NMR distinguished the two carboxyl protons, despite the very similar crystallographic environments. The nature of the hydrogen bonding was confirmed by solid-state NMR and density functional theory calculations.

Pancreas transplant for diabetes mellitus.

Pancreas transplant is an option for patients with type 1 diabetes and for some patients with type 2 diabetes and advanced diabetic kidney disease. The procedure has a high success rate, and performing it earlier in the course of diabetes could help prevent or reverse the long-term complications of diabetes.

Implementation of a novel living-donor kidney transplant preoperative checklist within the electronic medical record: a pilot study.

BACKGROUND: Checklist utilization in surgery has contributed to improved patient safety and reduced numbers of preventable complications. A living-donor kidney transplant (LDKT) preoperative checklist embedded within electronic medical record (EMR) was developed to enhance patient safety and prevent "never" events including: unexpected donor-recipient blood (ABO) incompatibility, positive (XM) cross match, infectious disease transmission, or procurement of an anatomically inappropriate allograft. Review of the initial 2 years of checklist utilization was performed. FINDINGS: This safety instrument operates by facilitating critical review and referencing of source documentation to confirm ABO, XM, infectious risk, and organ anatomy compatibility. It was met with high compliance rates and no "never events" have occurred following its inception. The checklist is readily available in the EMR and is accessible by all members of the LDKT recipient healthcare team. CONCLUSIONS: Checklist utilization was associated with zero LDKT "never event" occurrences. Surgeons felt the checklist was easy to use.

Utilization of vascular conduits to facilitate renal transplantation in patients with significant aortoiliac calcification.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the use of vascular conduits (donor iliac artery or saphenous vein) in renal transplantation recipients with extensive aortoiliac calcification. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Vascular conduits were used in 10 renal transplants with severe vascular calcification at Cleveland Clinic from 2009 to 2013. Both iliac artery (N = 8) and saphenous vein (N = 2) grafts were used. Surgical technique is reviewed in detail. Surgical complications, patency on renal transplant ultrasonography, and serum creatinine level at multiple time points were reviewed. RESULTS: Mean follow-up time was 26 months (7-44 months). Mean serum creatinine level was 1.42 mg/dL (1.04-1.74 mg/dL) at 6 months, 1.35 mg/dL (0.83-1.86 mg/dL) at 12 months, and 1.43 mg/dL (0.79-1.81 mg/dL) at last follow-up. All patients were demonstrated postoperatively to have patent vasculature on renal ultrasonography. No patients experienced lower extremity vascular complications. Death-censored graft survival was 100%. One patient died from complications after mitral valve replacement, and one patient died from metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue. Both patients had functioning grafts at the time of death. CONCLUSION: Vascular conduits can be used to facilitate renal transplantation in the setting of severe recipient aortoiliac calcification, thus allowing for successful transplantation of these complex recipients.

Renal transplantations in African Americans: a single-center experience of outcomes and innovations to improve access and results.

OBJECTIVE: To report a single-center 10-year experience of outcomes of kidney transplantation in African Americans (AAs) vs Caucasian Americans (CA) and to propose ways in which to improve kidney transplant outcomes in AAs, increased access to kidney transplantation, prevention of kidney disease, and acceptance of organ donor registration rates in AAs. METHODS: We compared outcomes of deceased donor (DD) and living donor (LD) renal transplantation in AAs vs CAs in 772 recipients of first allografts at our transplant center from January 1995 to March 2004. For DD and LD transplants, no significant differences in gender, age, body mass index, or transplant panel reactive antibody (PRA) existed between AA and CA recipients. RESULTS: Primary diagnosis of hypertension was more common in AA, DD, and LD recipients. Significant differences for DD transplants included Medicaid insurance in 23% AA compared with 7.0% CA (P<.0001) and more frequent diabetes mellitus type 2 in AAs (15% vs 4.1%, P=.0009). Eighty-three percent of AAs had received hemodialysis compared with 72% of CAs (P=.02). AAs endured significantly longer pretransplant dialysis (911±618 vs 682±526 days CA, P=.0006) and greater time on the waiting list (972±575 vs 637±466 days CA, P<0001). In DD renal transplants, AAs had more human leukocyte antigen (HLA) mismatches than CAs (4.1±1.4 vs 2.7±2.1, P<.0001). Mean follow-up for survivors was 7.1±2.5 years. Among LD transplants, graft survival and graft function were comparable for AAs and CAs; however, among DD transplants, graft function and survival were substantially worse for AAs (P=.0003). In both LD and DD transplants, patient survival was similar for AAs and CAs. CONCLUSION: Our data show that AAs receiving allografts from LDs have equivalent short- and long-term outcomes to CAs, but AAs have worse short- and long-term outcomes after DD transplantation. As such, we conclude that AAs should be educated about prevention of kidney disease, the importance of organ donor registration, the merits of LD over DD, and encouraged to seek LD options.

Low testosterone at time of transplantation is independently associated with poor patient and graft survival in male renal transplant recipients.

PURPOSE: Low testosterone is common in men with renal disease and it increases the risk of death in those on dialysis. We studied serum testosterone at transplantation and correlated it with patient and graft outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We identified serum samples collected and frozen at the time of transplantation in male recipients of primary kidney transplants done more than 6 years ago at our institution. In 197 recipients there was sufficient serum to determine total testosterone. We analyzed contingency outcomes by the Fisher exact test, continuous values by the Student t-test and survival by the Gehan-Breslow-Wilcoxon test. RESULTS: Mean patient age was 48.9 years (range 14 to 75). There were 100 living and 97 cadaveric donors, and 53 recipients (27%) had diabetes. Mean ± SD serum testosterone was 477 ± 251.3 ng/dl (range 48 to 2,013). Testosterone was low (less than 220 ng/dl) in 24 patients. Age did not correlate with testosterone. Low testosterone recipients had worse 1-year patient survival (75% vs 95%, p = 0.003), 3-year patient survival (62.5% vs 86.1%, p = 0.008), 1-year graft survival (62.5% vs 92.4%) and 3-year graft survival (50% vs 76.3%, p = 0.01). Survival curves showed significantly worse patient survival (p = 0.004) and graft survival (p = 0.02) for low testosterone. On multivariable analysis low testosterone was independently associated with patient death (HR 2.27, 95% CI 1.19-4.32) and graft loss (HR 2.05, 95% CI 1.16-3.62). CONCLUSIONS: Low testosterone at transplantation is associated with patient death and graft loss. If due to causality, testosterone therapy may impact survival. Without causality low testosterone may still be a marker for posttransplant risk.

The use of bovine pericardium for complex urologic venous reconstruction.

OBJECTIVE: To describe the use of bovine pericardium (BP) in several scenarios for venous patching and as a tubularized graft in urologic surgery. METHODS: BP was used as patch or tubularized graft in 7 patients between 2010 and 2013. Clinical scenarios and operative indications were reviewed. We used BP as a patch graft for the inferior vena cava (IVC) (N = 3) and for the iliac venous system (N = 1) to restore venous outflow. Tubularized grafts were used (N = 2) to replace the left renal vein in oncology procedures and during renal autotransplantation (N = 1). Surgical technique is reviewed in detail. RESULTS: We used BP as a venous patching in 4 cases and as a tubularized graft in 3 cases. There was no evidence of venous thrombosis of the replaced system with a mean of 14.8 months (range, 9-26) follow-up. CONCLUSION: The use of BP as a patch or tubularized graft is an option for complicated urologic venous reconstruction. Although the follow-up interval is relatively short and this initial series small, our initial results are promising.

Clinical phenotyping of urologic pain patients.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Urologic pain conditions such as chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome, interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome and chronic orchialgia are common, yet diagnosis and treatment are challenging. Current therapies often fail to show efficacy in randomized controlled studies. Lack of efficacy may be due to multifactorial causes and heterogeneity of patient presentation. Efforts have been made to map different phenotypes in patients with urologic pain conditions to tailor more effective therapies. This review will look at current literature on phenotype classification in urologic pain patients and their use in providing effective therapy. RECENT FINDINGS: There has been validation of the 'UPOINT' system (urinary symptoms, psychosocial dysfunction, organ specific findings, infection, neurologic/systemic and tenderness of muscle) to better categorize male chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome and interstitial cystitis/bladder pain syndrome. Refinement of domain systems and recent cluster analysis has suggested possible central processes involved in urologic pain conditions similar to systemic pain syndromes such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue and irritable bowel syndrome. SUMMARY: Domain characterization of urologic pain conditions via phenotype mapping can be used to better understand causes of chronic pain and hopefully provide more effective, targeted and multimodal therapy.