Comparing neuropsychological, typical, and ADNI criteria for the diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment in Vietnam-era veterans.

OBJECTIVE: Neuropsychological criteria for mild cognitive impairment (MCI) more accurately predict progression to Alzheimer's disease (AD) and are more strongly associated with AD biomarkers and neuroimaging profiles than ADNI criteria. However, research to date has been conducted in relatively healthy samples with few comorbidities. Given that history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are risk factors for AD and common in Veterans, we compared neuropsychological, typical (Petersen/Winblad), and ADNI criteria for MCI in Vietnam-era Veterans with histories of TBI or PTSD. METHOD: 267 Veterans (mean age = 69.8) from the DOD-ADNI study were evaluated for MCI using neuropsychological, typical, and ADNI criteria. Linear regressions adjusting for age and education assessed associations between MCI status and AD biomarker levels (cerebrospinal fluid [CSF] p-tau181, t-tau, and Aß42) by diagnostic criteria. Logistic regressions adjusting for age and education assessed the effects of TBI severity and PTSD symptom severity simultaneously on MCI classification by each criteria. RESULTS: Agreement between criteria was poor. Neuropsychological criteria identified more Veterans with MCI than typical or ADNI criteria, and were associated with higher CSF p-tau181 and t-tau. Typical and ADNI criteria were not associated with CSF biomarkers. PTSD symptom severity predicted MCI diagnosis by neuropsychological and ADNI criteria. History of moderate/severe TBI predicted MCI by typical and ADNI criteria. CONCLUSIONS: MCI diagnosis using sensitive neuropsychological criteria is more strongly associated with AD biomarkers than conventional diagnostic methods. MCI diagnostics in Veterans would benefit from incorporation of comprehensive neuropsychological methods and consideration of the impact of PTSD.

Agent orange exposure and prostate cancer risk in the million veteran program.

BACKGROUND: The US government considers veterans to have been exposed to Agent Orange if they served in Vietnam while the carcinogen was in use, and these veterans are often deemed at high risk of prostate cancer (PCa). Here, we assess whether presumed Agent Orange exposure is independently associated with increased risk of any metastatic or fatal PCa in a diverse Veteran cohort still alive in the modern era (at least 2011), when accounting for race/ethnicity, family history, and genetic risk. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Participants in the Million Veteran Program (MVP; enrollment began in 2011) who were on active duty during the Vietnam War era (August 1964-April 1975) were included (n = 301,470). Agent Orange exposure was determined using the US government definition. Genetic risk was assessed via a validated polygenic hazard score. Associations with age at diagnosis of any PCa, metastatic PCa, and death from PCa were assessed via Cox proportional hazards models. RESULTS AND INTERPRETATION: On univariable analysis, exposure to Agent Orange was not associated with increased PCa (hazard ratio [HR]: 1.02, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.00-1.04, p = 0.06), metastatic PCa (HR: 0.98, 95% CI: 0.91-1.05, p = 0.55), or fatal PCa (HR: 0.94, 95% CI: 0.79-1.09, p = 0.41). When accounting for race/ethnicity and family history, Agent Orange exposure was independently associated with slightly increased risk of PCa (HR: 1.06, 95% CI: 1.04-1.09, <10-6) but not with metastatic PCa (HR: 1.07, 95% CI: 0.98-1.15, p = 0.10) or PCa death (HR: 1.02, 95% CI: 0.83-1.23, p = 0.09). Similar results were found when accounting for genetic risk. Agent Orange exposure history may not improve modern PCa risk stratification.

The Women: A Rarely Told War Story.

A gripping read about U.S. Army nurses during the Vietnam War.

Melioidosis and Activation from Latency: The "Time Bomb" Has Not Occurred.

Burkholderia pseudomallei, the causative agent of melioidosis has long been considered able to exist in a latent form. Seropositivity among U.S. soldiers returning from the Vietnam conflict led to melioidosis being dubbed "the Vietnamese time bomb." Cases assigned to "(re)activation from latency" over 30 years of the Darwin Prospective Melioidosis Study (DPMS) were reviewed and reassessed and additional cases from DPMS years 31-34 were added. Historical reports of melioidosis attributed to activation from latency were reviewed. Some earlier DPMS cases and most historical cases described as activation from latency more accurately reflect undiagnosed chronic melioidosis, often with relapsing-remitting courses, rather than truly latent, asymptomatic infection. Such protracted disease should now be diagnosable much earlier, provided melioidosis is considered and laboratory facilities are available. The longest plausible duration of asymptomatic latency remains 29 years. In conclusion, activation from latency is a rare event in melioidosis, accounting in our analysis for under 3% of DPMS cases, consistent with why the Vietnamese time bomb never eventuated.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Obstructive Sleep Apnea in Twins.

Importance: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common condition in older adult (aged >65 years) populations, but more mechanistic research is needed to individualize treatments. Previous evidence has suggested an association between OSA and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but is limited by possible selection bias. High-quality research on this association with a careful evaluation of possible confounders may yield important mechanistic insight into both conditions and improve treatment efforts. Objective: To investigate the association of current PTSD symptoms and PTSD diagnosis with OSA. Design, Setting, and Participants: This cross-sectional study of twin pairs discordant for PTSD, which allows for adjustment for familial factors, was conducted using in-laboratory polysomnography from March 20, 2017, to June 3, 2019. The study sample comprised male veteran twins recruited from the Vietnam Era Twin Registry. The data analysis was performed between June 11, 2022, and January 30, 2023. Exposure: Symptoms of PTSD in twins who served in the Vietnam War. Diagnosis of PTSD was a secondary exposure. Main Outcomes and Measures: Obstructive sleep apnea was assessed using the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) (≥4% oxygen saturation criterion as measured by events per hour) with overnight polysomnography. Symptoms of PTSD were assessed using the PTSD Checklist (PCL) and structured clinical interview for PTSD diagnosis. Results: A total of 181 male twins (mean [SD] age, 68.4 [2.0] years) including 66 pairs discordant for PTSD symptoms and 15 pairs discordant for a current PTSD diagnosis were evaluated. In models examining the PCL and OSA within pairs and adjusted for body mass index (BMI) and other sociodemographic, cardiovascular, and psychiatric risk factors (including depression), each 15-point increase in PCL was associated with a 4.6 (95% CI, 0.1-9.1) events-per-hour higher AHI. Current PTSD diagnosis was associated with an adjusted 10.5 (95% CI, 5.7-15.3) events-per-hour higher AHI per sleep-hour. Comparable standardized estimates of the association of PTSD symptoms and BMI with AHI per SD increase (1.9 events per hour; 95% CI, 0.5-3.3 events per hour) were found. Conclusions and Relevance: This cross-sectional study found an association between PTSD and sleep-disordered breathing. The findings have important public health implications and may also enhance understanding of the many factors that potentially affect OSA pathophysiology.

Associations between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Diabetes in Vietnam-Era Women Veterans in the HealthViEWS Study.

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with incident diabetes. However, past studies have often included predominantly male samples, despite important sex and gender differences in diabetes. To address this limitation, this study examined the association between PTSD and diabetes in older Veteran women, a population with a high burden of PTSD. Materials and Methods: Data were collected from 4,105 women (Mage = 67.4 years), participating in the Health of Vietnam-Era Veteran Women's Study (HealthViEWS; Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program #579). Participants completed self-report measures of demographics, health conditions, and health behaviors. Information on military service was obtained through service records. A structured clinical interview was conducted by telephone to assess current and lifetime PTSD and other mental health disorders. Weighted descriptive and logistic regression analyses were used to examine associations between PTSD and diabetes. Results: The prevalence of diabetes was 28.4% among women with current full PTSD compared to 23.4%, 17.6%, and 17.5% for current subthreshold, remitted, and no PTSD. In unadjusted analyses, women with current full and subthreshold PTSD were 1.87 [1.49; 2.33] and 1.44 [1.11; 1.85] times more likely to have diabetes compared to women with no PTSD. Remitted PTSD was not associated with increased odds of diabetes. Effects were attenuated but remained significant after adjustment for relevant covariates. Conclusions: Vietnam-era women with current PTSD, including subthreshold symptoms, had a greater likelihood of diabetes compared to women without PTSD. These findings suggest that women with PTSD may benefit from increased diabetes prevention efforts.

The long-term association between exposure to wartime bombing earlier in life and post-traumatic stress later in life among today's older Vietnamese population.

This analysis examines the relationship between exposure to American wartime bombardments earlier in life and later-life PTSD among current surviving Vietnamese aged 59+. It also assesses whether the relationship varies by military status during the war - formal military, informal military, or civilian - and whether associations are explained by exposure to violence and malevolent conditions. Data link survey responses from the 2018 Vietnam Health and Aging Study to provincial-wide level bombing intensity using U.S. Department of Defense records from the Theater History of Operations Vietnam database. PTSD measured using nine items from the PTSD Checklist. Analyses employ multivariate logistic quantile regression. Findings examined for a sample of 2290 Vietnamese survivors and a subsample of 736 Vietnamese that moved at least once during wartime. Results show a robust and significant positive association between province-wide bombing intensity and later-life PTSD scores. Interaction effects indicate civilians have overall lower levels of PTSD than those that were in the formal or informal military, but the association between bombing and PTSD is stronger among civilians. Much of the association is a function of exposure to violence and less is a function of exposure to malevolent conditions. Findings confirm earlier studies that have shown severe deleterious impacts of war trauma, and arial bombardments particularly, on long-term psychological health, while extending extant literature to civilian populations living in Vietnam during intense aerial bombing episodes.

Cognitive function following early life war-time stress exposure in a cohort of Vietnamese older adults.

Although Alzheimer's Disease is a leading cause of death in Vietnam and other post-conflict, low- and middle-income countries, aside from studies of veterans in western populations, research on war-related violence and deprivation as risk factors for cognitive disorders remains sparse. Using data from the Vietnam Health and Aging Study, which relied upon a multistage probability sample of 2447 older adults residing in districts of northern Vietnam differentially exposed to wartime bombing and numerous war-related stressors, this paper investigates associations between early-life war-related stressors and later-life cognitive function in a cohort whose transition to adulthood took place during the American-Vietnam War. Relationships among experiences of severe childhood hunger, war-related violence and environmental hardships, military service, and cognitive function in an analytical sample of 2162 Vietnamese older adults are estimated using quantile regression. Cognitive function is assessed by a modified Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score. Analyses also address posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cardiovascular health, and health behaviors as potential mediators between early life war-related stressors and current cognitive function. Results indicate that experiences of severe hunger in childhood and environmental hardships are associated with poorer cognitive function in older adulthood. PTSD, cardiovascular risk (i.e., hypertension) and disease (i.e., stroke), each of which is heightened by exposure to wartime stressors, are associated with lower cognitive scores. Results suggest that certain war exposures, like involvement in combat duties, are associated with higher cognitive function scores, suggesting that military service either positively selects for cognitive function, or certain forms of service may impart cognitive resilience. Following recent calls to incorporate population-specific stressors to advance explanatory models of cognitive function, these findings suggest that it is critical to assess the enduring scars and resilience of armed conflict in global efforts to understand, prevent, and treat cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's Disease, and related dementias.

Entre vecinos: Retos de la justicia transicional a nivel local: el caso de la sierra de la Macarena, Colombia / Between neighbors: challenges in the local transitional justice: the case of the “ la sierra de la macarena, ” colombia

El actual proceso de paz entre el Gobierno Colombiano y las FARC- EP en la Habana ha reavivado el debate en torno a los límites y alcances de la justicia transicional. Fenómenos como la victimización horizontal, consecuencia de la participación indirecta de los civiles en el conflicto, plantea una serie de retos para el modelo de justicia transicional que sedefina en la mesa; en particular cómo proceder cuando la violencia ha sido utilizada entre vecinos. Este artículo se centra en esta tensión y para ello presenta una caracterización de los límites de la justicia transicional y analiza los contextos de oportunidad donde la victimización horizontal ha tenido lugar en una región colombiana fuertemente afectada por el conflicto armado, la Sierra de La Macarena. El artículo concluye con la formulación de una hipótesis orientada a proponer una posible alternativa para superar la violencia horizontal en el post conflicto: la posible complementariedad entre los mecanismos de transición y las experiencias locales de justicia comunitaria.

The current peace process between the Colombian Government and FARC - EP in Havana has rekindled the debate over the limits and scope of transitional justice. Phenomena suchas horizontal victimization, result of the indirect participation of civilians in the conflict, poses a number of challenges for the transitional justice model, which is defined at the table; in particular how to proceed when violence has been used among neighbors. This article focuses on this tension and, for that, this presents a description of the boundariesof transitional justice and discusses the contexts of opportunity where the horizontal victimization has taken place in a Colombian region strongly affected by the armed conflict, la Sierra de La Macarena. The article concludes with the formulation of a hypothesis aimedat proposing a possible alternative in order to overcome the horizontal violence in the post conflict:, which is the possible complementarity between transitional mechanisms and thelocal experiences of community justice.

Use of remifentanil to reduce propofol injection pain and the required propofol dose in upper digestive tract endoscopy diagnostic tests / Uso do remifentanil para redução da dor à injeção de propofol e a dose necessária de propofol em exames de endoscopia digestória alta diagnóstica

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The introduction of propofol (2,6-diisopropylphenol) as a sedative agent has transformed the area of sedation for endoscopic procedures. However, a major drawback of sedation with the use of propofol is its high incidence of injection pain. The most widely used technique in reducing propofol injection pain is through the association of other drugs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of remifentanil-propofol combination on the incidence of propofol injection pain and its influence on the total dose of propofol required for sedation in upper digestive tract endoscopy (UDE) diagnostic tests. METHOD: One hundred and five patients undergoing upper digestive tract endoscopy were evaluated and randomly divided into 3 groups of 35 patients each. The Control Group received propofol alone; Study-group 1 received remifentanil at a fixed dose of 0.2 mg/kg combined with propofol; Study-group 2 received remifentanil at a fixed dose of 0.3 mg/kg combined with propofol. The incidence of propofol injection pain and the total dose of propofol required for the test were evaluated. The sample was very similar regarding age, weight, height, sex, and physical status. Statistical analysis was performed according to the nature of the evaluated data. Student'st-test was used to compare the mean of age, weight, height (cm), and dose (mg/kg) variables between groups. The χ2 test was used to compare sex, physical status, and propofol injection pain between groups. The significance level was a < 0.05. RESULTS: There was significant statistical difference between the study groups and the control group regarding the parameters of propofol injection pain and total dose of propofol (mg/kg) used. However, there were no statistical differences between the two study groups for these parameters. CONCLUSION: We conclude that the use of remifentanil at doses of 0.2 mg/kg and 0.3 mg/kg was effective for reducing both the propofol injection pain and the total dose of propofol used.

JUSTIFICATIVA E OBJETIVOS: A introdução do propofol (2,6-di-isopropilfenol) como agente sedativo tem transformado a área da sedação para procedimentos endoscópicos. Entretanto, um grande inconveniente da sedação com o uso do propofol é sua alta incidência de dor à injeção. A técnica mais usada na redução da dor à injeção do propofol tem sido a associação com outros fármacos. O objetivo deste estudo foi avaliar a repercussão da associação do remifentanil com o propofol na incidência de dor à injeção de propofol e a influência na dose total de propofol necessária para sedação em endoscopia digestória alta (EDA) diagnóstica. MÉTODO: Foram avaliados 105 pacientes, submetidos à EDA diagnóstica e divididos aleatoriamente em três grupos de 35. O Grupo Controle foi sedado apenas com propofol. O Grupo de Estudo 1 foi sedado com remifentanil em dose fixa de 0,2 µg/kg associado ao propofol. E o Grupo de Estudo 2 foi sedado com remifentanil em dose fixa de 0,3 µg/kg associado ao propofol. Foram avaliadas a incidência de dor à injeção de propofol e a dose de propofol necessária para o exame. A amostra se mostrou bastante similar em relação às variáveis idade, peso, altura, sexo e estado físico. De acordo com a natureza dos dados estudados, procedeu-se ao tratamento estatístico julgado adequado. Usou-se o teste t para comparação, entre os grupos analisados, das médias das variáveis idade, peso, altura (cm) e dose (mg/kg). Foi usado o teste ?2 para comparação, entre os grupos analisados, das variáveis sexo, estado físico e dor à injeção de propofol. O nível de significância adotado foi a < 0,05. RESULTADO: Houve diferença estatística significativa entre os grupos de estudo e o grupo controle tanto no parâmetro dor à injeção de propofol quanto no parâmetro dose de propofol usada (mg/kg). Entretanto, não houve diferenças estatísticas entre os dois grupos de estudo para esses parâmetros. CONCLUSÃO: O uso do remifentanil nas doses de 0,2 µg/kg e de 0,3 µg/kg mostrou-se efetivo tanto sobre o parâmetro redução da dor à injeção de propofol quanto sobre o parâmetro dose de propofol usada.

Paz, la tarea es fortalecer la participación social y popular / Peace, the task is to strengthen the social and popular participation

Asistimos a un momento histórico en Colombia, se marca posiblemente, el cierre de una cruenta confrontación armada de más de 50 años, entre las Farc-Ep y el gobierno Colombiano, este solo hecho ya de por sí, es bien importante, pero no suficiente.

We are witnessing a historic moment in Colombia. It possibly marks the end of a bloody armed confrontation of more than fifty years, between FARC-EP and the Colombian government. This very fact per se is very important, but not enough.

Razões de estado / For reasons of state

Razões de Estado é um registro essencial das idéias políticas e sociais de Noam Chomsky. O livro inclui artigos sobre as guerras do Vietnã e do Laos e Camboja, uma extensa análise de documentos do Pentágono, reflexões sobre o papel da força na política internacional, ensaios sobre desobediência civil e o papel da universidade, além de uma clássica introdução ao anarquismo.