Evaluation of Outcomes in Patients Receiving Amantadine to Improve Alertness After Traumatic Brain Injury.

Background: Amantadine has been used off-label to improve alertness after traumatic brain injury (TBI). The goal of this study is to assess the mean change at 72 hours and in course of therapy (COT) Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score after amantadine initiation and to correlate the change in GCS score with participation in physical therapy (PT) and occupational therapy (OT) among patients with TBI receiving amantadine during the first hospitalization. Methods: This single-center, retrospective, cohort study included patients ≥18 years old hospitalized for a TBI from August 2012 to February 2018 and received ≥1 dose of amantadine to increase alertness. The primary endpoint is the mean change in 72-hour GCS score after amantadine initiation. The secondary endpoint is the mean change in COT GCS score after amantadine initiation and the correlation between the change in GCS score and percent PT and OT participation at 72 hours and during the COT. Results: Seventy-nine patients were included. The mean age of patients was 41 years, and 79.8% of the patients were men. The mean change in 72-hour GCS score was +0.75 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.09-1.42, P = .027), and the mean change in COT GCS score was +2.29 (95% CI = 1.68-2.90, P < .001). There was no significant correlation between the increase in GCS score and percent PT/OT session participation at 72 hours and during the COT, r = -0.15 (P = .24) and r = -0.02 (P = .74), respectively. The percent PT/OT session participation at 72-hour post-amantadine initiation was 61.3% compared with 65.9% during the COT. Conclusion: There were small but statistically significant increases in the mean change at 72 hours and in COT GCS score; however, they were not correlated with percent PT/OT participation. Other studies are needed to determine the appropriate time and GCS score to initiate amantadine along with the optimal dose in the inpatient setting.

Impact of body mass index on 90-day warfarin requirements: a retrospective chart review.

BACKGROUND: Rates of obesity continue to rise worldwide as evidenced in the 2017 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that indicated over 35% of United States (US) citizens are obese, with Louisiana ranked as the fifth most obese state in America. Since large clinical trials tend to exclude obese patients, health care providers are faced with concerns of under- or overdosing these patients on warfarin. METHODS: This retrospective chart review evaluated patients who reported to a community anticoagulation clinic for warfarin management between 1 June 2017 and 30 September 2017. Along with baseline demographics, chronic use of drugs that have clinically significant interactions with warfarin, social activity such as tobacco use and alcohol consumption, were collected. Body mass indexes (BMI) were collected and categorized according to the World Health Organization definitions as follows: Normal (BMI 18-24.9 kg/m2), Overweight (25-29.9 kg/m2), Obesity Class I (30-34.9 kg/m2), Obesity Class II (35-39.9 kg/m2), Obesity Class III (⩾40 kg/m2). The primary outcome was the mean 90-day warfarin dose required to maintain "intermediate control" or "good control" of international normalized ratio (INR), stratified by BMI classifications. The secondary outcome was the time in therapeutic range (TTR) stratified by BMI classifications. RESULTS: A total of 433 patient encounters were included in this study. There was a total of 43 encounters in the Normal BMI category, 111 Overweight encounters, 135 Obesity Class I encounters, 45 Obesity Class II encounters, and 99 Obesity Class III encounters. Approximately 63% of the study population were male, and over 90% the patients were African American. The Obesity Class I and Obesity Class II class required an average of 11.47 mg and 17.10 mg more warfarin, respectively, to maintain a therapeutic INR when compared with the Normal BMI category. These findings were statistically significant with p values of 0.007 and <0.001, respectively. Additionally, upon comparing the Overweight BMI category with the Obesity Class II category, there was a mean warfarin dose difference of 11.22 mg (p = 0.010) more in Obesity Class II encounters to maintain a therapeutic INR. In the secondary analysis of TTR, Overweight category encounters had the highest TTR, whereas encounters in the Normal BMI category had the lowest TTR. CONCLUSION: As BMI increases, there is an increased chronic warfarin requirement to maintain "intermediate control" or "good control" of INR between 2 and 3 in an ambulatory care setting.

Correlation Between Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors and Statin Prescribing Patterns.

Background: In 2018, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association published an updated guideline introducing risk-enhancing factors and promoting a highly individualized approach to the primary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Although the benefit of the primary prevention of ASCVD is well-established within the literature, there are disparities that exist in statin prescribing patterns. Objective: To assess the use of optimal statin therapy for the primary prevention of ASCVD in high-risk populations, including patients with diabetes mellitus or with elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL), according to the average number of ASCVD risk factors. Methods: This single-center, retrospective chart review was conducted between January 2015 and November 2018 at a family medicine clinic. This study included 262 patients who were eligible for statin therapy based on the presence of diabetes, which was defined as an A1c level of ≥6.5% or an LDL level of ≥190 mg/dL. The primary outcome was the mean number of risk factors between these 2 groups of interest. These 2 groups were further classified by their 10-year ASCVD risk into 2 subgroups-patients with an ASCVD risk of ≥7.5% and patients with an ASCVD risk of <7.5%. Results: The subgroup with the highest average number of cardiovascular risk factors was patients with diabetes and an ASCVD risk of ≥7.5%. The mean number of risk factors for that group versus the group with an LDL level of ≥190 mg/dL and an ASCVD risk of ≥7.5% was nonsignificant, but the prescribing patterns for the 2 groups were different. Only 53.3% of patients in the diabetes group with an ASCVD risk of ≥7.5% were receiving a high-intensity statin, despite their increased number of risk factors. The difference in statin prescribing patterns between the diabetes group and the elevated LDL group was significant, at 70.6% versus 50%, respectively (P = .002). Conclusion: Patients with diabetes were more likely to be prescribed a statin than patients with an LDL level of ≥190 mg/dL. However, no significant difference was seen in optimal statin therapies between the 2 groups. Future research is warranted to identify the barriers to optimal statin therapy and to implement methods to improve statin use for the primary prevention of ASCVD in patients who are at significant risk.

Improving Asthma-Related Outcomes Among Children Participating in the Head-Off Environmental Asthma in Louisiana (HEAL), Phase II Study.

PURPOSE: Pediatric asthma disproportionately affects low-income and minority children. The HEAL (Head-Off Environmental Asthma in Louisiana), Phase II Project was a collaborative effort with a primary focus to improve pediatric asthma management in New Orleans, Louisiana. The purpose of this article is to report clinical outcomes captured at baseline and 12-month follow-up. METHOD: HEAL (Head-off Environmental Asthma in Louisiana), Phase II was a pre-post intervention study that enrolled children ages 2 to 18 years of age with a diagnosis of asthma to receive asthma education within the clinic setting. Enrollees received an asthma education intervention, an environmental evaluation, and a 12-month follow-up session. Endpoints included symptom days, level of asthma control, asthma exacerbations, emergency room visits, hospitalizations, and missed school days. RESULTS: The majority of participants were aged 5 years and older, male, Black, and persistent asthmatics. Emergency room visits decreased from 41% to 20% ( p < .001). Improvements in coughing (83% to 62%, p < .001), wheezing (50% to 26%, p < .001), and chest tightness (29% to 18%, p < .001) were also seen. CONCLUSION: The novel intervention was associated with improved asthma outcomes among pediatric patients receiving care at the clinical sites in the Greater New Orleans area.

Recent advances in cancer drug discovery targeting RAS.

Mutated RAS is present in 30% of human tumors, appearing in 90% of pancreatic, 45% of colon and 35% of lung cancers. These high occurrences make RAS one of the most important drug targets in oncology. Three decades of effort to target RAS have been unsuccessful in generating drug therapies suggesting that it might represent an 'undruggable' target. However, recent reports highlighting new approaches for targeting RAS have uncovered more information on protein structure and identified new binding pockets. Efforts to target the KRAS G12C mutation specifically have shown promising results whereas other approaches have targeted various protein complexes. These advances could lead to development of new effective cancer drugs targeting RAS.

The HEAL, Phase II Project: enhancing features of an electronic medical record system to improve adherence to asthma guidelines.

This article describes the implementation of an enhanced electronic medical record (EMR) system in three community health care centers in the Greater New Orleans area of Louisiana. This report may aid efforts directed at the implementation of enriched tools, such as decision support, in an EMR with the goal of improving pediatric asthma outcomes.

Dealing with colon cancer: one woman's emotional journey.

Although death is inevitable, it continues to remain a taboo issue for society. A failure to discuss the unavoidable may represent a safeguard to avoid dealing with mortality and related fears. Many patients who are terminally ill spend their days feeling alone, misunderstood, and afraid. Kubler-Ross attempted to strip death of its negative connotations and to provide a venue for the terminally ill to have a voice. Using information from more than 200 clinical interviews, Kubler-Ross revealed a trend in emotions over time in most, but not all, of her patients, which enabled her to formulate a model of coping with death that included 5 interdependent emotional stages: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. This model has become the most widely accepted and popularized model on death and dying, often cited as the Five Stages of Grief." However, given the lack of research concerning Kubler-Ross's model, completing work in this area seems warranted. The purpose of this case study was to examine one individual's emotional journey after being diagnosed with terminal colon cancer. More specifically, the goals were twofold: (1) to provide the participant with a voice and to allow her story to be told by examining the major external events (ie,surgery, chemotherapy) occurring since the diagnosis that affected her emotional and physical well-being and (2) to determine whether the participant's emotional journey paralleled Kubler-Ross's model, to what extent, and whether new emotions or stages occurred. The participant, a 50-year-old female, was diagnosed with stage 4 Duke Stage D colon cancer. Qualitative information was collected in face-to-face interviews, newspaper articles about the participant, and e-mail correspondence (as form letters to a group of friends and supporters) and subsequently analyzed for trends. The overall results revealed clear existence of the 5 stages of grief as outlined in the Kubler-Ross model. Analyses also revealed that the stages often overlapped or occurred simultaneously. Additionally, the participant regressed to earlier stages when subjected to negative external factors. Four other highly salient emotions were also prevalent throughout the participant's experience with colon cancer, namely joy, fear, hope, and numbness. The findings from this case study help to validate Kubler-Ross's stages. Further, the importance of the voice of the participant cannot be overemphasized. This case study clearly depicts the unique thoughts and emotions during one woman's struggle with colon cancer, sentiments that are often overlooked in quantitative analysis.