Medical Student Perception of Strabismus in Race Implicit Association Test.

PURPOSE: To determine whether the appearance of strabismus is noted in a race implicit association test by medical students. METHODS: Medical students participated in a survey evaluating for the appearance of strabismus in photographs from a commonly used race implicit association test. Analysis was performed to determine whether strabismus was perceived equally between both groups tested. RESULTS: Photographs of six individuals of African descent were perceived as having strabismus more frequently (62%) than photographs of individuals of European descent (31%; odds ratio: 3.85; 95% CI: 3.34 to 4.44; P < .0001). Participants who identified as Black or African American similarly perceived strabismus more frequently in individuals of African descent (58%) than those of European descent (24%; odds ratio: 4.36; 95% CI: 2.13 to 8.96; P < .0001). CONCLUSIONS: Photographs used in a common race implicit association test appear to differ not only in ethnicity but also in extraocular alignment. Because extraocular alignment is a known cause of negative prejudice, results of this particular implicit association test should be interpreted with caution. [J Pediatr Ophthalmol Strabismus. 2023;60(5):372-376.].

Sugen-morphine model of pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a fatal disease associated with pulmonary vascular remodeling and right ventricular hypertrophy. Pre-clinical animal models that reproduce the human pulmonary arterial hypertension process and pharmacological response to available therapies are critical for future drug development. The most prevalent animal model reproducing many aspects of angioobliterative forms of pulmonary arterial hypertension is the rat Sugen/hypoxia model in which Sugen, a vascular endothelial growth factor receptor antagonist, primarily causes initiation of endothelial injury and later in the presence of hypoxia promotes proliferation of apoptosis-resistant endothelial cells. We previously demonstrated that exposure of human pulmonary microvascular endothelium to morphine and HIV-proteins results in initial apoptosis followed by increased proliferation. Here, we demonstrate that the double-hit of morphine and Sugen 5416 (Sugen-morphine) in rats leads to the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension with significant medial hypertrophy of pre-acinar pulmonary arteries along with neo-intimal thickening of intra-acinar vessels. In addition, the pulmonary smooth muscle and endothelial cells isolated from Sugen-morphine rats showed hyperproliferation and apoptotic resistance, respectively, in response to serum starvation. Our findings support that the dual hit model of Sugen 5416 and morphine provides another experimental strategy to induce significant pulmonary vascular remodeling and development of severe pulmonary arterial hypertension pathology in rats without exposure to hypoxia.

Assessment of the completeness of intervention reporting of randomized clinical trials for alcohol use disorders: Effect of the TIDieR checklist and guide.

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: Properly designed randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are the gold standard in patient-centered clinical research. Incomplete intervention reporting affects the readers' ability to evaluate treatment efficacy. Previous studies show that detailed descriptions of trial interventions remains insufficient for reliable replication. Understanding reporting areas in need of improvement can improve the quality of intervention reporting. METHODS: This cross-sectional review uses the Template for Intervention Description and Replication (TIDieR) checklist to evaluate the quality of intervention reporting in RCTs. The primary outcome was to investigate the completeness of intervention reporting of RCTs reporting outcomes for patients with alcohol use disorder (AUD) published in highly ranked addiction journals. The secondary outcomes were to: 1) evaluate whether publication of the TIDieR checklist resulted in better intervention reporting practices and 2) determine whether particular trial characteristics were associated with the completeness of intervention reporting. RESULTS: The final analysis included 56 records. The mean number of reported TIDieR items was 5.1 (SD = 1.47) of a possible 12. TIDieR checklist publication did not increase the average completion of the TIDieR checklist items (p = 0.76). Improved TIDieR adherence was associated with trials with double blinding, non-drug interventions, and CONSORT endorsement. DISCUSSION/CONCLUSIONS: We found the reporting of interventions to be inadequate in our sample of AUD-related RCTs. Fundamental details were often not reported, hampering both clinical and research reproducibility. Moving forward, it may be necessary to consider additional mechanisms to either improve TIDieR uptake or to find other solutions to improve intervention reporting.

Do oncology researchers adhere to reproducible and transparent principles? A cross-sectional survey of published oncology literature.

OBJECTIVES: As much as 50%-90% of research is estimated to be irreproducible, costing upwards of $28 billion in USA alone. Reproducible research practices are essential to improving the reproducibility and transparency of biomedical research, such as including preregistering studies, publishing a protocol, making research data and metadata publicly available, and publishing in open access journals. Here we report an investigation of key reproducible or transparent research practices in the published oncology literature. DESIGN: We performed a cross-sectional analysis of a random sample of 300 oncology publications published from 2014 to 2018. We extracted key reproducibility and transparency characteristics in a duplicative fashion by blinded investigators using a pilot tested Google Form. PRIMARY OUTCOME MEASURES: The primary outcome of this investigation is the frequency of key reproducible or transparent research practices followed in published biomedical and clinical oncology literature. RESULTS: Of the 300 publications randomly sampled, 296 were analysed for reproducibility characteristics. Of these 296 publications, 194 contained empirical data that could be analysed for reproducible and transparent research practices. Raw data were available for nine studies (4.6%). Five publications (2.6%) provided a protocol. Despite our sample including 15 clinical trials and 7 systematic reviews/meta-analyses, only 7 included a preregistration statement. Less than 25% (65/194) of publications provided an author conflict of interest statement. CONCLUSION: We found that key reproducibility and transparency characteristics were absent from a random sample of published oncology publications. We recommend required preregistration for all eligible trials and systematic reviews, published protocols for all manuscripts, and deposition of raw data and metadata in public repositories.

Drug abuse and HIV-related pulmonary hypertension: double hit injury.

: Improved survival among HIV-1-infected individuals with the advent of antiretroviral therapy has clearly led to a greater prevalence of noninfectious complications. One of the most devastating sequelae in these individuals is the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Various epidemiological studies suggest worse survival of HIV-PAH patients when compared with other forms of PAH. Given that only a subset and not all HIV-infected individuals develop HIV-PAH, it is suggested that an additional second-hit of genetic or environmental trigger is needed for the development of PAH. In this context, it has been well documented that HIV patients who abuse illicit drugs such as stimulants, opioids, and the like, are more susceptible to develop PAH. In this review, we highlight the studies that support the significance of a double hit of HIV and drug abuse in the incidence of PAH and focus on the research that has been undertaken to unravel the pathobiology and vascular remodeling mechanisms underlying the deleterious synergy between HIV infection and drugs of abuse in orchestrating the development of PAH.