Evaluating acidic gastroesophageal reflux with wireless pH monitoring in French bulldogs with sliding hiatal herniation.

BACKGROUND: Sliding hiatal herniation (SHH) and gastroesophageal reflux (GER) commonly occur in French bulldogs. Wireless pH monitoring can quantitatively assess acidic GER in dogs affected by SHH. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: Measure acidic GER in French bulldogs with SHH, pre- and post-brachycephalic obstructive airway syndrome (BOAS) surgery, utilizing a wireless pH capsule (Bravo Calibration-free, Medtronic, Minnesota), and correlate with owners' observations of regurgitation. ANIMALS: Eleven French bulldogs diagnosed with SHH via swallowing fluoroscopy. METHODS: Prospective cohort study. A pH capsule was endoscopically placed in the esophagus. Up to 96 hours of data were acquired as the owner logged clinical signs. Spearman's correlation and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests evaluated factors correlated with acid exposure time (AET), defined by the % time pH < 4. In 4/11 dogs, Bravo monitoring was repeated 2-4 months after BOAS surgery. RESULTS: Medians (Q1-Q3) for age and weight were 21 months (17-35.5) and 10.0 kg (8.9-11.5). BOAS severity was mild (3), moderate (4), or severe (4). Medians (Q1-Q3) for AET and reflux events were 3.3% (2.6-6.4) and 70 (34-173). Clinical score (P = .82) and BOAS severity (P = .60) were not correlated with AET, but age was negatively correlated (rho = -.66, P = .03). Median probability (Q1-Q3) that regurgitation was associated with a reflux event was 72.5% (0-99). Percent AET numerically improved in all 4 dogs that underwent BOAS surgery although not statistically assessed. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Wireless pH monitoring documented acidic GER in French bulldogs with SHH, captured subclinical events, and showed improvements after BOAS surgery.

"Clinicians Are From Mars and Pathologists Are From Venus" Revisited: Synoptic Reports Improve Clinician Comprehension of Pathology Reports in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

CONTEXT.­: A prior study in this journal, "Clinicians Are from Mars and Pathologists Are From Venus," demonstrated that clinicians can erroneously interpret pathology reports up to 30% of the time. After noticing reporting heterogeneity in the setting of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), we speculated that a standardized synoptic report could improve gastroenterologist comprehension. OBJECTIVE.­: To investigate the effect of a synoptic table on gastroenterologist comprehension of IBD pathology reports. DESIGN.­: We recruited gastroenterology fellows and faculty to participate in this study. All participants were given 6 pathology reports and asked if the following were present: active inflammation, chronic inflammation, IBD, and dysplasia. Participants were also asked to rate their confidence. After a 6-week washout period, the same questionnaire was distributed with a synoptic report. We performed paired t-tests to compare the mean accuracy and confidence scores between the preintervention and postintervention responses. RESULTS.­: A total of 39 physicians participated: 9 fellows and 30 faculty. Mean accuracy scores were higher after the intervention (0.81 versus 0.86, P < .001). Mean confidence was also higher after intervention, but this was not statistically significant (3.91 versus 3.98, P = .24). CONCLUSIONS.­: The improvement in accuracy scores after intervention confirms that clinician comprehension improved with the synoptic table. A synoptic report may provide a standardized way of communicating diagnostic information to clinicians in the setting of IBD, and potentially other inflammatory conditions.

HipScreen mobile app for the measurement of hip migration percentage in children with cerebral palsy: Accuracy, reliability, and discriminatory ability.

AIM: To assess the accuracy, reliability, and discriminatory ability of a mobile app for measurement of migration percentage in hip surveillance radiographs of children with cerebral palsy (CP). METHOD: The free mobile app HipScreen (www.hipscreen.org) was utilized by a diverse group of users to measure the migration percentage of 40 hips at two time points after completing an online tutorial and competency test. The mean absolute error (MAE) was calculated against the reference standard obtained on a radiology workstation. Statistical analyses included linear regression, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and area under receiver-operating characteristic curve (AUC). RESULTS: Thirty-seven users completed the study, with 30 having a healthcare professional background, but only 15 with x-ray interpretation expertise. The overall MAE of migration percentage measurement using the HipScreen app was 5.72% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.38-6.06), with good reliability between time points (ICC = 0.83). With a migration percentage less than 30% considered as a positive case, the HipScreen app had a sensitivity of 94% (95% CI: 87-97), specificity of 66% (95% CI: 61-77), and an AUC of 0.92 (95% CI: 0.88-0.96). INTERPRETATION: Users from a broad range of backgrounds can utilize the HipScreen app to measure hip surveillance radiographs with clinically acceptable accuracy, reliability, and discriminatory ability. WHAT THIS PAPER ADDS: The HipScreen app can accurately and reliably measure migration percentage. As a screening tool, HipScreen has excellent sensitivity and discriminatory ability. A broad range of HipScreen users achieve clinically acceptable performance.

Sex differences in guideline-consistent diagnostic testing for acute pulmonary embolism among adult emergency department patients aged 18-49.

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary embolism (PE) is a frequent diagnostic consideration in emergency department (ED) patients, yet diagnosis is challenging because symptoms of PE are nonspecific. Guidelines recommend the use of clinical decision tools to increase efficiency and avoid harms from overtesting, including D-dimer screening in patients not at high risk for PE. Women undergo testing for PE more often than men yet have a lower yield from testing. Our study objective was to determine whether patient sex influenced the odds of received guideline-consistent care. METHODS: We performed a retrospective cohort study at two large U.S. academic EDs from January 1, 2016, to December 31, 2018. Nonpregnant patients aged 18-49 years were included if they presented with chest pain, shortness of breath, hemoptysis, or syncope and underwent testing for PE with D-dimer or imaging. Demographic and clinical data were exported from the electronic medical record (EMR). Pretest risk scores were calculated using manually abstracted EMR data. Diagnostic testing was then compared with recommended testing based on pretest risk. The primary outcome was receipt of guideline-consistent care, which required an elevated screening D-dimer prior to imaging in all non-high-risk patients. RESULTS: We studied 1991 discrete patient encounters; 37% (735) of patients were male and 63% (1256) were female. Baseline characteristics, including revised Geneva scores, were similar between sexes. Female patients were more likely to receive guideline-consistent care (70% [874/1256] female vs. 63% [463/735] male, p < 0.01) and less likely to be diagnosed with PE (3.1% [39/1256] female vs. 5.3% [39/735] male, p < 0.05). The most common guideline deviation in both sexes was obtaining imaging without a screening D-dimer in a non-high-risk patient (75% [287/382] female vs. 75% [205/272] male). CONCLUSIONS: In this cohort, females were more likely than males to receive care consistent with current guidelines and less likely to be diagnosed with PE.

The classical and alternative circulating renin-angiotensin system in normal dogs and dogs with stage B1 and B2 myxomatous mitral valve disease.

BACKGROUND: The behavior of the comprehensive circulating renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in dogs with myxomatous mitral valve disease (MMVD) before to the onset of congestive heart failure remains largely unexplored. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: The classical and alternative RAS activity and aldosterone concentrations will be significantly higher in dogs with American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine (ACVIM) stage B2 MMVD compared to normal dogs and dogs with ACVIM stage B1 MMVD. ANIMALS: One-hundred seventeen client-owned dogs (normal = 60; B1 = 31; B2 = 26). METHODS: Prospective observational study. Angiotensin peptides (AP) and aldosterone concentrations were measured using liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry. Angiotensin converting enzymes 1 and 2 (ACE, ACE2) and renin activity surrogates were calculated from AP concentrations. Equilibrium dialysis (ED) and immediate protease inhibition (PI) methods of AP quantification were compared in 14 healthy dogs. RESULTS: Core RAS activity and aldosterone concentrations did not differ among the 3 groups. However, the balance between the alternative and classical RAS differed, with dogs with stage B2 MMVD having significantly higher ACE2 activity surrogate (ACE2surr ) when compared to normal dogs (adjusted P = .02; ratio of medians for ACE2surr [B2:normal], 1.89; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.4-2.6). The ED and PI methods of AP quantification were highly correlated (AngI, r = .9, P < .0001; AngII, r = .8, P = .001). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Circulating alternative RAS activity, specifically the surrogate measure of ACE2 activity, was increased in dogs with stage B2 MMVD as compared to normal dogs. Equilibrium dialysis results are analogous to immediate protease inhibition in dogs.

Evaluation of standard versus reduced dose apixaban for the treatment of venous thromboembolism in patients with severe renal disease (ESRD-VTE).

BACKGROUND: There are no clear dosing recommendations when using apixaban for venous thromboembolism (VTE) treatment in patients with severe or end-stage renal disease; clinical trials excluded patients with a creatinine clearance (CrCl) <25 mL/min or on dialysis. This study compares bleeding rates in patients with severe or end-stage renal disease taking standard versus reduced dose apixaban for VTE treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a multicenter, retrospective cohort study using electronic medical records between January 1, 2013, and August 31, 2021. This study included patients 18 years or older who had severe or end-stage renal disease when prescribed apixaban for VTE treatment. Severe or end-stage renal disease was defined as at least one of the following: CrCl <25 mL/min, SCr >2.5 mg/dL, CKD stage 4 or 5, or on dialysis. The primary endpoint was rate of clinically relevant bleeding within six months of starting apixaban. Secondary endpoints were VTE recurrence within six months of starting apixaban, time to clinically relevant bleed, and time to VTE recurrence. RESULTS: A total of 203 patients were included in the final analysis (n = 125 on 5 mg; n = 78 on 2.5 mg). Clinically relevant bleeding rate was significantly higher in the standard dose group (14.4 % vs 3.8 %, p = 0.02). Rates of VTE recurrence appear similar (6.4 % vs 7.7 %, p = 0.21). CONCLUSIONS: A reduced dose of apixaban may be considered when treating VTE in patients with severe or end-stage renal disease.

Twitter Usage Among Physicians From 2016 to 2020: Algorithm Development and Longitudinal Analysis Study.

BACKGROUND: Physicians are increasingly using Twitter as a channel for communicating with colleagues and the public. Identifying physicians on Twitter is difficult due to the varied and imprecise ways that people self-identify themselves on the social media platform. This is the first study to describe a reliable, repeatable methodology for identifying physicians on Twitter. By using this approach, we characterized the longitudinal activity of US physicians on Twitter. OBJECTIVE: We aimed to develop a reliable and repeatable methodology for identifying US physicians on Twitter and to characterize their activity on Twitter over 5 years by activity, tweeted topic, and account type. METHODS: In this study, 5 years of Twitter data (2016-2020) were mined for physician accounts. US physicians on Twitter were identified by using a custom-built algorithm to screen for physician identifiers in the Twitter handles, user profiles, and tweeted content. The number of tweets by physician accounts from the 5-year period were counted and analyzed. The top 100 hashtags were identified, categorized into topics, and analyzed. RESULTS: Approximately 1 trillion tweets were mined to identify 6,399,146 (<0.001%) tweets originating from 39,084 US physician accounts. Over the 5-year period, the number of US physicians tweeting more than doubled (ie, increased by 112%). Across all 5 years, the most popular themes were general health, medical education, and mental health, and in specific years, the number of tweets related to elections (2016 and 2020), Black Lives Matter (2020), and COVID-19 (2020) increased. CONCLUSIONS: Twitter has become an increasingly popular social media platform for US physicians over the past 5 years, and their use of Twitter has evolved to cover a broad range of topics, including science, politics, social activism, and COVID-19. We have developed an accurate, repeatable methodology for identifying US physicians on Twitter and have characterized their activity.

Incidentally Detected Focal Fundal Gallbladder Wall Thickening at Contrast-Enhanced Computed Tomography: Prevalence and Computed Tomography Features of Malignancy.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence and computed tomography (CT) features of malignancy in incidental focal fundal gallbladder wall thickening. METHODS: Patients with incidental focal fundal gallbladder wall thickening on CT were included if they had an ultrasound or magnetic resonance imaging diagnostic of the etiology (n = 19), stability on CT for 1 year (n = 84), or pathological correlation (n = 13). Morphologies were classified as type 1 (nodular/pinched intramural low attenuation), type 2 (intramural low attenuation), type 3 (homogeneous enhancement), type 4 (nodular/pinched homogeneous enhancement), type 5 (intramural cystic spaces), or type 6 (hyperenhancing/heterogeneous enhancement). RESULTS: One hundred sixteen patients had the following morphologies: type 1 (n = 57), type 2 (n = 10), type 3 (n = 6), type 4 (n = 19), type 5 (n = 14), and type 6 (n = 10). Four cases (3.4%; 95% confidence interval, 0.9%-8.6%) of malignancy were identified (type 6 in 3 and type 3 in 1). CONCLUSIONS: Incidental focal fundal gallbladder wall thickening is usually benign. Computed tomography features help distinguish benign from malignant etiologies.