Examining the Impact of Breast Augmentation vs Hormone Therapy on Chest Femininity of Transgender Women.

BACKGROUND: For transgender women, there is often the innate assumption that surgical breast augmentation will increase perceived chest femininity beyond hormone therapy alone. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate whether lay individuals found surgically augmented breasts more feminine than breast development from hormone replacement therapy alone in transgender patients. METHODS: We obtained preoperative (maximal breast growth on hormone therapy) and postoperative chest (after primary augmentation) images of 22 transgender patients, and age- and BMI-matched cisgender male (n = 17) and female (n = 21) control patients. Survey respondents (n = 271) rated each image on a scale of 1 (very feminine) to 5 (very masculine). Results were compared by survey respondent gender identity and sexual orientation. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in mean femininity score between all image types. Mean score for transgender patients fell by 0.478 points after surgery (P < .0001). Subgroup analysis looking at transgender participants revealed the same significance trend postoperatively. Transgender respondents also found no difference in femininity between female controls and postoperative transgender patients (P = .132). We also compared mean femininity scores across 4 self-identified respondent subgroups: cisgender and heterosexual, cisgender and lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB), transgender and heterosexual, and transgender and LGB. The cisgender and heterosexual subgroup rated the postoperative transgender patients more feminine than any of the other respondent subgroups (LGB P < .001, transgender and LGB P < .001, transgender only P = .018). CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that breast augmentation significantly increased the perception of femininity. Furthermore, gender identity and sexual orientation are important in how lay persons perceive transgender patients.

Pulmonary vein thrombosis: Clinical presentation and outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary vein thrombosis (PVT) is a rare thromboembolic disease with potential high-risk complications related to arterial embolization, but little is known regarding risk factors and outcomes. OBJECTIVE: To describe the etiology, management, and clinical course of PVT. METHODS: Institutional health records were queried (1/1/2001-12/30/2023) to identify patients ≥18 years of age diagnosed with PVT. Thrombosis, bleeding, respiratory failure, and all-cause mortality were analyzed. Suspected tumor thrombus cases were excluded. RESULTS: 72 patients with PVT were identified (median age 62 years, 50 % female), and PVT was overall rare at 3.1 diagnosed cases per year at our institution. PVT primarily affected a single vein (89 %), most commonly the left upper PV (40 %). Of these, 37 % occurred while on therapeutic anticoagulation. The most common risk factors included cancer (55 %) and related surgical lobectomy (21 %). Extrinsic vein compression (17 %) and recent surgery (19 %) were also common; 19 % were deemed idiopathic. Most patients (76 %) were treated with anticoagulation and frequently indefinite duration (80 %). During a median follow-up of 11.7 months (IQR 39.5 months), serial imaging (available for 68 %) revealed PVT resolution in 64 %. Four-year Kaplan-Meier probability of outcome included: left atrial thrombus (21 %), need for mechanical ventilation (14 %), pneumonia (9 %), and ischemic stroke (9 %). The mortality rate was 46 % with median survival 14 months after PVT diagnosis. CONCLUSION: PVT is often associated with active malignancy, lobectomy, recent surgery, and extrinsic vein compression; 1 in 5 cases were idiopathic. Notable complications include left atrial thrombus with arterial embolism including stroke. With anticoagulation, most thrombi resolve over time. Mortality rates are high, reflecting the high the prevalence of cancer.

Medicaid policy data for evaluating eligibility and programmatic changes.

OBJECTIVES: Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provide health insurance coverage to more than 90 million Americans as of early 2023. There is substantial variation in eligibility criteria, application procedures, premiums, and other programmatic characteristics across states and over time. Analyzing changes in Medicaid policies is important for state and federal agencies and other stakeholders, but such analysis requires data on historical programmatic characteristics that are often not available in a form ready for quantitative analysis. Our objective is to fill this gap by synthesizing existing qualitative policy data to create a new data resource that facilitates Medicaid policy research. DATA DESCRIPTION: Our source data were the 50-state surveys of Medicaid and CHIP eligibility, enrollment, and cost-sharing policies, and budgets conducted near annually by KFF since 2000, which we coded through 2020. These reports are a rich source of point-in-time information but not operationalized for quantitative analysis. Through a review of the measures captured in the KFF surveys, we developed five Medicaid policy domains with 122 measures in total, each coded by state-quarter-1) eligibility (28 measures), 2) enrollment and renewal processes (39 measures), 3) premiums (16 measures), 4) cost-sharing (26 measures), and 5) managed care (13 measures).

Single-cell meta-analysis of SARS-CoV-2 entry genes across tissues and demographics.

Angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and accessory proteases (TMPRSS2 and CTSL) are needed for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) cellular entry, and their expression may shed light on viral tropism and impact across the body. We assessed the cell-type-specific expression of ACE2, TMPRSS2 and CTSL across 107 single-cell RNA-sequencing studies from different tissues. ACE2, TMPRSS2 and CTSL are coexpressed in specific subsets of respiratory epithelial cells in the nasal passages, airways and alveoli, and in cells from other organs associated with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission or pathology. We performed a meta-analysis of 31 lung single-cell RNA-sequencing studies with 1,320,896 cells from 377 nasal, airway and lung parenchyma samples from 228 individuals. This revealed cell-type-specific associations of age, sex and smoking with expression levels of ACE2, TMPRSS2 and CTSL. Expression of entry factors increased with age and in males, including in airway secretory cells and alveolar type 2 cells. Expression programs shared by ACE2+TMPRSS2+ cells in nasal, lung and gut tissues included genes that may mediate viral entry, key immune functions and epithelial-macrophage cross-talk, such as genes involved in the interleukin-6, interleukin-1, tumor necrosis factor and complement pathways. Cell-type-specific expression patterns may contribute to the pathogenesis of COVID-19, and our work highlights putative molecular pathways for therapeutic intervention.