Impact of dedicated outpatient pulmonary follow-up for hospitalized patients with acute pulmonary embolism.

Pulmonary embolism (PE) response teams are the standard of care for the management of acute PE. The complications of PE extend far beyond the initial hospitalization period. In this study, we examined the role and potential benefits of dedicated pulmonary follow-up after hospital discharge for patients with PE.

Patient Perceptions of Cardiac Electrophysiology Procedural Postponement at an Urban Center During the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.

To curb transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and preserve hospital resources, elective procedures were postponed in the United States, affecting patients previously scheduled for electrophysiology (EP) procedures. We aimed to understand patients' perceptions related to procedural postponements during the first wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. We performed a telephone survey between May 1-15 2020, of consecutive patients who experienced procedural postponement from March-April. Of 112 patients, 20% may have been lost to follow up and 12% lost interest in having their procedures done. The level of anxiety related to postponement was moderate to high in more than two thirds of patients.

Background noise decreases both prepulse elicitation and inhibition of acoustic startle blink responding.

Prepulse inhibition of startle (PPI) has proved to be useful in distinguishing between schizophrenia patients and normal controls, although not all studies in this area find such group differences. One reason for this inconsistency may be the fact that some research labs present the startle eliciting and inhibiting stimuli over a steady background noise (70 dB), whereas others present stimuli in ambient noise conditions (30-56 dB). The present study tested the impact of background noise (30, 50, and 70 dB) on PPI in normal college adults, with prepulses at intensities of 75, 80, and 85 dB, and with prepulse rise times of 1 or 10 ms. Background noise decreased the amount of PPI caused by the prepulses, and also decreased the ability of the prepulses to themselves elicit blink responses. We conclude that background noise interferes with the processing of the prepulse, attenuating its effect as both an elicitor and inhibitor of the startle reflex. By elevating the difficulty of prepulse processing, this attenuation may be a necessary condition for observing differences in PPI between patient and control groups.

Potent Irreversible Inhibitors of LasR Quorum Sensing in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Antagonism of quorum sensing represents a promising new antivirulence approach for the treatment of bacterial infection. The development of a novel series of non-natural irreversible antagonists of P. aeruginosa LasR is described. The lead compounds identified (25 and 28) display potent LasR antagonist activity and inhibit expression of the P. aeruginosa virulence factors pyocyanin and biofilm formation in PAO1 and PA14.