Geographic Proximity of Medical Students to PM&R Residency Programs is Associated with Increased Match Rates into PM&R.

ABSTRACT: Despite the growing popularity of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation (PM&R) as a specialty among medical students, meaningful experiences and mentorship can be challenging to obtain and may significantly vary depending on opportunities available to interact with physiatrists. This study explores the association between the geographic proximity of PM&R residency programs to medical schools and the match rate of medical students into PM&R from 2019 to 2021. Data on US medical schools, graduates, and PM&R residency programs were collected from publicly available sources, and a sample of 1,193 PM&R residents from US medical schools was analyzed using a one-sample proportion test. The proportion of PM&R residents originating from medical schools with PM&R residency programs in the same metropolitan area was significantly greater than the corresponding proportion of expected residents based on medical school graduates, even when controlling for medical school affiliations with PM&R residency programs. These findings suggest that exposure and opportunities provided by PM&R residency programs may influence nearby medical students and that expanding residency programs into geographic regions without existing PM&R programs may foster interest and promote growth in the field of physiatry.

Safety and effectiveness of transsplenic access for portal venous interventions: a single-center retrospective study.

PURPOSE: To assess the safety and effectiveness of percutaneous transsplenic access (PTSA) for portal vein (PV) interventions among patients with PV disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Adult patients with PV disease were enrolled if they required percutaneous catheterization for PV angioplasty, embolization, thrombectomy, variceal embolization, or transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) placement for a difficult TIPS or recanalization of a chronically occluded PV. The procedures were performed between January 2018 and January 2023. Patients were excluded if they had an active infection, had a chronically occluded splenic vein malignant infiltration of the needle tract, had undergone splenectomy, or were under age 18 years. RESULTS: Thirty patients (15 women, 15 men) were enrolled. Catheterization of the PV through PTSA succeeded for 29 of 30 patients (96.7%). The main adverse effect recorded was flank pain in 5 of 30 cases (16.7%). No bleeding events from the spleen, splenic vein, or percutaneous access point were recorded. Two cases (6.7%) each of hepatic bleeding and rethrombosis of the PV were reported, and a change in hemoglobin levels (mean [SD], - 0.5 [1.4] g/dL) was documented in 14 cases (46.7%). CONCLUSION: PTSA as an approach to accessing the PV is secure and achievable, with minimal risk of complications. Minimal to no bleeding is possible by using tract closure methods.

Disproportionately High Aortic Valve Calcium Scores in Atrial Fibrillation: Implications for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement.

AIMS: Doppler mean gradient (MG) can underestimate aortic stenosis (AS) severity in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) compared to patients in sinus rhythm (SR), potentially delaying intervention in AF. This study compared outcomes in patients with AF and SR following transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and investigated delay in TAVR based on computed tomography aortic valve calcium score (AVCS). METHODS AND RESULTS: Patients who underwent TAVR from 2013 to 2017 for native valve severe AS were identified from an institutional database. Baseline characteristics and overall survival were compared between those in SR and AF. There were 820 patients (mean age 81 years; 41.6% female) included. AF was present in 356 patients. Patients in AF were older (82.2 vs. 80.5, p = 0.003), had lower MG compared to SR patients (42.0 vs. 44.9, p = 0.002) with similar indexed aortic valve area (0.4 vs. 0.4, p = 0.17). Median AVCS was higher in AF (males: AF 2850.0 vs. SR 2561.0, p = 0.044; females: AF 1942.0 vs. SR 1610.5, p = 0.025). Projected AVCS assuming same age of diagnosis was similar between AF and SR. Median survival post-TAVR was worse in AF compared to SR (3.2 vs 5.4 years, log rank p < 0.001). AF, lower MG, higher RVSP, dialysis, diabetes, and significant TR were associated with higher mortality (p < 0.05 for all). CONCLUSION: Older age and higher AVCS in patients with AF compared to SR suggests that AS was both underestimated and more advanced at TAVR referral.

A Holistic Evaluation of Multivariate Statistical Process Monitoring in a Biological and Membrane Treatment System.

Unsupervised process monitoring for fault detection and data cleaning is underdeveloped for municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) due to the complexity and volume of data produced by sensors, equipment, and control systems. The goal of this work is to extensively test and tune an unsupervised process monitoring method that can promptly identify faults in a full-scale decentralized WWTP prior to significant system changes. Adaptive dynamic principal component analysis (AD-PCA) is a dimension reduction method modified to address autocorrelation and nonstationarity in multivariate processes and is evaluated in this work for its ability to continuously detect drift, shift, and spike faults. For spike faults, univariate drift faults, and multivariate shift faults, implementing AD-PCA on data that are subset by treatment processes and operating states with significant differences in covariates and whose model parameters use week-long training windows, moderate cumulative variance, and a high threshold for detection was found to detect faults prior to existing operational thresholds. To improve the consistency with which the AD-PCA method detects out-of-control conditions in real time, additional work is needed to remove outliers prior to model fitting and to detect multivariate drift faults in which the covariates change slowly.

Effects of Patient Demographics and Examination Factors on Patient Experience in Outpatient MRI Appointments.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this article is to describe the effects of patient demographics and examination factors on patient-reported experience in outpatient MRI examinations. METHODS: This institutional review board-waived, HIPPA-compliant quality improvement study evaluated outpatient MRI appointments from March 2021 to January 2022 using a postappointment survey consisting of a 5-point emoji scale and text-based feedback. Patient demographics and examination information were extracted from electronic medical records. Ratings ≤ 3 were categorized as negative, and ratings ≥ 4 were categorized as positive. Continuous variables were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test, and categorical variables were analyzed using the Fisher's exact test. A P value less than .05 was considered significant. A natural language processing algorithm was trained and validated to categorize patient feedback. RESULTS: A total of 3,636 patients responded to the survey. Positive ratings had a higher proportion of male respondents compared with negative ratings (47.9% versus 37.0%, P = .004). Examination characteristics were also grouped by positive or negative rating. Patients who endured longer examination time (median 54.0 min versus 44.0 min, P < .001) and longer wait time after check-in (median 61.6 min versus 46.2 min, P < .001) were more likely to give negative ratings. The most common themes of free text feedback included excellent service (84.3%), on-time service (8.4%), and comfortable intravenous line placement (0.4%). Most common negative feedback included long wait times (10.5%), poor communication (8.4%), and physical discomfort during the examination (4.2%). CONCLUSION: Male gender, short examination duration, and on-time start were associated with positive patient ratings.

Outpatient Motor Retraining for Functional Movement Disorder: Predictors of a Favorable Short-Term Response.

Background: Treating functional movement disorder (FMD) with motor retraining is effective but resource intensive. Objectives: Identify patient, disease, and program variables associated with favorable treatment outcomes. Methods: Retrospective review of the 1 week intensive outpatient FMD program at Mayo Clinic in Minnesota from February 2019 to August 2021. Outcomes included patient-reported measures (Canadian Occupational Performance Measure-Performance and Satisfaction subscales [COPM-P and COPM-S, range 0-10] and Global Rating of Change [GROC, -7 to +7]) and a retrospective investigator-rated scale (0-3, worse/not improved to significantly improved/resolved). Linear regression models identified variables predicting favorable outcomes. Results: Participants (n = 201, 74% female, mean age = 46) had median FMD duration of 24 months. The commonest FMD subtypes were gait disorder (65%), tremor (41%) and weakness (17%); 53% had ≥2 subtypes. Most patients (88%) completed a therapeutic screening process before program entry. Patient-reported outcomes at the end of the week improved substantially (COPM-P average change 3.8 ± 1.9; GROC post-program average 5.5 ± 1.7). Available investigator-rated outcomes from short-term follow-up were also positive (102/122 [84%] moderately to significantly improved/resolved). Factors predicting greater improvement in COPM-P were completing therapeutic screening, higher number of non-motor symptoms, shorter FMD duration, earlier program entry, lower baseline COPM scores, and (among screened patients) higher GROC between therapeutic screening and program start. Conclusion: Patients with diverse FMD subtypes improved substantially over a 1 week period. Utilization of therapeutic screening and greater improvement between therapeutic screening and program start were novel predictors of favorable outcomes. Non-motor symptoms did not preclude positive responses, although patients with predominant non-motor burden were excluded.

Systematic Identification of Copositivity Groups in Standard Series Patch Testing Through Hierarchical Clustering.

Importance: Patients are frequently copositive for multiple allergens simultaneously, either due to chemical similarity or simultaneous sensitization. A better understanding of copositivity groups would help guide contact avoidance. Objective: To use patient data to systematically determine copositivity groups in the Mayo Clinic Standard Series. Design, Setting, and Participants: In this retrospective cross-sectional analysis, the Mayo Clinic patch test database was queried for pairwise copositivity rates in the 80 allergen Mayo Clinic Standard Series between 2012 and 2021. Data were collected from 3 tertiary care sites of the Mayo Clinic Contact Dermatitis Group and a total of 5943 patients were included, comprising all patients undergoing patch testing to the Mayo Clinic Standard Series allergens. Main Outcomes and Measures: Copositivity rates between every 2 allergens in the 80-allergen Mayo Clinic Standard Series were estimated. After background correction, copositivity rates were analyzed using unsupervised hierarchical clustering to systematically identify copositivity groups in an unbiased manner. Results: Overall, 394 921 total patches were applied to 5943 patients (4164 [70.1%] women, 1776 [29.9%] men, with a mean [SD] age of 52.3 [18.8] years ), comprising 9545 positive reactions. After background correction based on overall positivity rates, hierarchical clustering revealed distinct copositivity groups. Many were supported by prior literature, including formaldehyde releasers, cobalt-nickel-potassium dichromate, acrylates, 3-dimethylaminopropylamine-amidoamine-oleamidopropyl dimethylamine, alkyl glucosides, budesonide-hydrocortisone-17-butyrate, certain fragrances, compositae-sesquiterpene lactone mix, mercapto mix-mercaptobenzothiazole, carba mix-thiuram mix, and disperse orange-p-phenylenediamine. However, novel associations were also found, including glutaraldehyde-sorbitan sesquioleate, benzalkonium chloride-neomycin-bacitracin, bronopol-methylchloroisothiazolinone-methylisothiazolinone, and benzoic acid-iodopropynyl butylcarbamate. Conclusions and Relevance: This retrospective cross-sectional analysis found that copositivity rates varied between allergens; allergens with extremely high positivity rates demonstrated nonspecific copositivity to multiple other allergens. Background correction based on positivity rates followed by hierarchical clustering confirmed prior known copositivity groups, contaminants and/or excipients leading to copositivity, and novel associations to guide contact avoidance.

Clinical utility of somatostatin receptor positron emission tomography imaging biomarkers for characterization of meningioma among incidental central nervous system lesions.

OBJECTIVES: Somatostatin receptor (SSTR) PET imaging is utilized with increasing frequency in the clinical management of neuroendocrine tumors. Incidental PET-avid CNS lesions are commonly noted and presumed to be meningiomas. However, SSTR PET lacks specificity for meningioma identification. This study aimed to clarify the role of SSTR-based imaging in the classification of incidental CNS lesions based on current clinical practice. METHODS: Patients who underwent both Ga-68-DOTATATE PET and brain MRI and had an incidental CNS lesion identified with a radiographic prediction of meningioma via one (discordant prediction) or both (concordant prediction) imaging modalities were retrospectively analyzed. Imaging indication, semiquantitative measures, and clinical history were recorded. RESULTS: Among 48 patients with a CNS lesion identified on both imaging modalities, most scans were performed for a history of neuroendocrine tumor (64.6%). Cases with concordant lesion-type prediction of meningioma between imaging modalities ( N = 24) displayed a significantly higher SUV max (median 7.9 vs. 4.0; P = 0.008) and Krenning score (median 3.0 vs. 2.0; P = 0.005) on Ga-68-DOTATATE PET compared with cases with a discordant prediction of meningioma ( N = 24). In cases with lower SUV max values, Ga-68-DOTATATE was more likely to discordantly predict meningioma without agreement by the corresponding MRI. Prior cranial radiation or use of somatostatin mimetics did not affect quantitative radiographic measures, and MRI-based tumor size was similar across groups. CONCLUSION: Lesions with increased avidity may be more confidently predicted as meningioma in Ga-68-DOTATATE PET scans, whereas there is more discrepancy in prediction among low SUV cases.

Who Is Most Burdened in Health Care? An Analysis of Responses to the ICAN Discussion Aid.

OBJECTIVE: To create a model based on patients' characteristics that can predict the number of burdens reported using the ICAN Discussion Aid, to target use of this tool to patients likeliest to benefit. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Six hundred thirty-five patients (aged ≥18 years) completed the ICAN Discussion Aid at a Scottsdale, Arizona, family medicine clinic. Patient characteristics were gathered from their health records. Regression trees with Poisson splitting criteria were used to model the data. RESULTS: Our model suggests the patients with the most burdens had major depressive disorder, with twice as many overall burdens (personal plus health care burdens) than patients without depression. Patients with depression who were younger than 38 years had the highest number of personal burdens. A body mass index (BMI) of 26 or greater was associated with increased health care burden versus a BMI below 26. CONCLUSION: The number of burdens a patient will report on the ICAN Discussion Aid can be approximated based on certain patient characteristics. Adults with major depression, a BMI of 26 or greater, and younger age may have greater reported burdens on ICAN, but this finding needs to be validated in independent samples.

Resident factors associated with American board of internal medicine certification exam failure.

INTRODUCTION: Performance on the certifying examinations such as the American Board of Internal Medicine Certification Exam (ABIM-CE) is of great interest to residents and their residency programs. Identification of factors associated with certification exam result may allow residency programs to recognize and intervene for residents at risk of failing. Despite this, residency programs have few evidence-based predictors of certification exam outcome. The change to pass-or-fail score reporting of the USA Medical Licensing Exam (USMLE) Step 1 removes one such predictor. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a retrospective study of residents from a medium-sized internal medicine residency program who graduated from 1998 through 2017. We used univariate tests of associations between ABIM-CE result and various demographic and scholastic factors. RESULTS: Of 166 graduates, 14 (8.4%) failed the ABIM-CE on the first attempt. Failing the first attempt of the ABIM-CE was associated with older median age on entering residency (29 vs 27 years; P = 0.01); lower percentile rank on the Internal Medicine In-Training Examination (IM-ITE) in each of the first, second, and third years of training (P < 0.001 for all); and lower scores on the USMLE Steps 1, 2 Clinical Knowledge, and 3 (P < 0.05 for all). No association was seen between a variety of other scholastic or demographic factors and first-attempt ABIM-CE result. DISCUSSION: Although USMLE step 1 has changed to a pass-or-fail reporting structure, there are still other characteristics that allow residency programs to identify residents at risk of ABIM-CE first time failure and who may benefit from intervention.

Fluconazole Failure in the Treatment of Coccidioidal Meningitis.

INTRODUCTION: Coccidioidal meningitis (CM) is the most lethal form of disseminated coccidioidomycosis. Current guidelines recommend fluconazole as initial therapy but there has been a paucity of data regarding failure of fluconazole and optimal fluconazole dosage in the treatment of CM. We conducted this study to understand risk factors for fluconazole failure. METHODS: We conducted a single-center retrospective chart review of patients diagnosed with coccidioidal meningitis between 1 January 1988 and 15 May 2021. Relevant demographic and clinical variables were collected, along with outcomes including treatment failure and death at any point. Univariate tests were conducted using the chi-squared goodness of fit test and analysis of variance. RESULTS: Among 71 patients who began treatment for CM with fluconazole, 22 (31%) developed worsening meningitis at a median time of 206 days. Longer time from symptom onset to diagnosis of CM was a risk factor for fluconazole failure. Although the absolute failure rate of fluconazole starting dose of 400 mg daily was higher than that of 800 mg daily, the differences did not achieve statistical significance (p = 0.39). CONCLUSION: Fluconazole failure is not uncommon in the treatment of CM. A dose of 800 mg daily was not superior to a dose of 400 mg daily. All patients on fluconazole for CM require close monitoring.

Quantity and duration of exposure to general anesthesia for pediatric patients with retinoblastoma.

PURPOSE: To quantify the duration of anesthesia required for optimal management of retinoblastoma (Rb), stratified by clinical factors. METHODS: The medical records of Rb patients treated at Phoenix Children's Hospital between January 2011 and January 2022 were reviewed retrospectively. Demographic, tumor, and treatment data were collected. Anesthesia time was recorded for procedures requiring general anesthesia, including intra-arterial chemotherapy (IAC), enucleation, brainstem auditory evoked response testing (BAER), port placement, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and examination under anesthesia (EUA). Descriptive statistics were used to summarize patient and clinical characteristics. RESULTS: Total anesthesia time was 48,991 minutes for 610 procedures in 43 patients. The median follow-up time was 36 months (range, 12-114 months). Average anesthetic durations per exposure were 274, 152, 81.8, 62.5, 60.7, and 45 minutes for IAC, enucleation, BAER, port placement, MRI, and EUA, respectively. Patients with bilateral Rb underwent a median of 1,659 minutes of total anesthesia, compared with 397 minutes for those with unilateral disease. In patients with unilateral Rb, median total anesthesia time was 2,651, 1681, 312, 397 minutes for International Classification of Retinoblastoma grades B, C, D, and E tumors, respectively. Patients who received IAC as their primary treatment had the highest median anesthesia duration (2,100 minutes), followed by systemic chemo (654 minutes) and enucleation (289 minutes). CONCLUSIONS: Treatment of Rb requires prolonged and repeated exposure to general anesthesia. Future studies are required to determine the potential effects of these childhood anesthetic exposures.