SMJ // February 2023, Volume 116 - Issue 2

Original Article

Diagnostic Yield of Endobronchial Ultrasound–Guided Mediastinal Lymph Node Transbronchial Forceps Biopsies (EBUS-TBFB)

Objective: The diagnostic accuracy and yield of endobronchial ultrasound–guided transbronchial needle aspiration (EBUS-TBNA) is not well established in lymphoma and other mediastinal-related diseases. The objective of this study was to examine the yield of a combined technique of EBUS-TBNA and endobronchial ultrasound–guided transbronchial forceps biopsies (EBUS-TBFB) compared with each modality…

Original Article

OPEN: Retaining Faculty from Underrepresented Groups in Academic Medicine: Results from a Needs Assessment

Objectives: Academic medical centers can improve the quality of care and address health inequities by recruiting and retaining faculty from underrepresented in medicine (URiM) groups; however, the retention of URiM faculty is a barrier to reaching equity-related goals because URiM faculty are less likely to remain in academia and be…

Original Article

Student-Produced Guides alongside First-Year Medical Curriculum: How Peer-Produced Textbooks Change Student Success within Neurology, Cardiopulmonary, and Mixed Systems Courses

Objectives: In the United States, medical schools do not have a unified curricular plan that integrates basic sciences and organ-based systems in undergraduate medical education. Instead, institutions rely on independently created lecture material during the first-year medical school curriculum. The drawback to this approach is that no commercial or organizational…

Original Article

Retrospective Study of Psychiatric Hospitalizations in a West Texas Mental Health Treatment Facility during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Objectives: The association between the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic and adverse mental health outcomes has been well documented; however, little is known about its impact in rural areas of the United States. This study aims to characterize and compare inpatient psychiatric admissions in West Texas before and during the initial…

Posted in: Infectious Disease136 Mental Health44

Original Article

CME Article: Association between Financial Barriers to Healthcare Access and Mental Health Outcomes in Tennessee

Objectives: A large number of people cannot afford healthcare services in the United States. Researchers have studied the impact of lack of affordability of health care on the outcomes of various physical conditions. Mental health disorders have emerged as a major public health challenge during the past decade. The lack…

Posted in: Mental Health44

Original Article

Women’s Health Provider Perspectives on Reproductive Services Provision in the Veterans Health Administration

Objectives: Women veterans are a fast-growing population in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), and ensuring reproductive service availability is a VHA priority. As such, we sought to explore barriers and facilitators to VHA reproductive service provision across a catchment area from women’s health providers’ perspectives. Methods: We performed a mixed-methods…

Posted in: Family Planning & Reproductive Health14

Original Article

Differences in Cardiometabolic Biomarkers between Elementary School–Age Latinx Children with Obesity versus Healthy Weight

Objectives: Low-income Latinx youth are disproportionately affected by obesity, which results in an increased risk of cardiometabolic abnormalities. Biomarker tracking may be useful for the early identification of obesity comorbidities in young Latinx children. Hence, we aimed to compare cardiometabolic biomarkers between age- and sex-matched pairs of elementary school-aged Latinx…

Original Article

Public Health Measures and SARS-CoV-2 Cases in the Juvenile Justice System: Implications for Pandemic Response in the Detention Setting

Objective: The purpose of this study was to examine severe acute respiratory syndrome-coronavirus-2 case positivity in juvenile justice facilities of two different states alongside institutional, local, and state public health policies during the first 6 months of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. Methods: This retrospective chart review examined two large,…

Posted in: Infectious Disease136

Review Article

Extensor Mechanism Reconstruction for Chronic Patellar Tendon Tears

Objectives: Reconstruction for a chronic patellar tendon rupture in a native knee is an uncommon surgical procedure. Although there have been case series investigating patient-reported outcomes, there is no systematic review of these studies to date. The purpose of this review is to synthesize the literature on this procedure to…

Posted in: Rheumatology and Orthopedics19

Original Article

CME Article: Reducing Infection Rates with Enhanced Preoperative Diabetes Mellitus Diagnosis and Optimization Processes

Objectives: Hyperglycemia and increased preoperative hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) are associated with perioperative morbidity and death. For nonurgent operations, adequate glycemic control before surgery is recommended. Our surgical practice needed a process for preoperative diabetes mellitus (DM) diagnosis and glycemic optimization. Methods: Our review of the existing preoperative evaluation process found…

Posted in: Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism35

Original Article

Tri-Site Academic Center Experience with Immunotherapy for Metastatic Skin Cancer in Solid Organ Transplant Patients

Objectives: Organ transplant recipients have an increased risk of skin cancer, but treatment options for metastatic skin cancer are limited because of their immunosuppressed state. We sought to qualify the clinical experience and patient safety of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) for skin cancer treatment in transplant recipients at one large…

Posted in: Dermatology13

Review Article

127 Years of New Orleans Radiology: The Evolution of Practice and Those Who Led It

The history of New Orleans radiology helps us understand how innovative medical ideas are transmitted and adopted and how the specialty evolved to incorporate these new ideas. As radiology became a required component of medical practice, additional expertise was needed. This resulted in the need for standardized specialized training and…

Original Article

Retrospective Analysis of Hospitalized Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Treated with Glucagon-Like Peptide 1 Receptor Agonist Therapy

 Objectives: The use and overall benefit of glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist therapy for hospitalized patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) with chronic kidney disease (CKD) has limited data regarding impact and safety. We studied the impact and safety of GLP-1 receptor agonist therapy in hospitalized DM patients with…

Posted in: Endocrinology, Diabetes, and Metabolism35

Review Article

Hypertension in Chronic Kidney Disease: An Update on Diagnosis and Management

Hypertension (HTN) and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are pathophysiologic states that are intimately related, such that long-term HTN can lead to poor kidney function, and renal function decline can lead to worsening blood pressure (BP) control. HTN in CKD is caused by an interplay of factors, including salt and water…

Posted in: Nephrology and Urology23 Chronic Kidney Disease5

Letter to the Editor

Banning Monoclonal Antibody Therapies for COVID-19 Using In Vitro Data

To the Editor: On January 24, 2022 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) revoked the emergency use authorization for REGEN-COV (casirivimab/imdevimab) for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The FDA’s press release stated that this treatment is “highly unlikely to be active against the Omicron variants” and expressed concerns about its…

Posted in: Infectious Disease136
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