Browsing by Subject "Early Medical Intervention"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    A Multifaceted Approach to Pulmonary Hypertension in Adults With Congenital Heart Disease.
    (Progress in cardiovascular diseases, 2018-09) Fathallah, Mouhammad; Krasuski, Richard A
    Advances in the management of congenital heart disease (CHD) in children have resulted in growing numbers of adults with CHD. Pulmonary arterial hypertension related to CHD (PAH-CHD) is a common complication, affecting up to 10% of patients; and can arise even after successful and complete defect repair, with severe and potentially fatal consequences. Careful work-up in these patients is essential, particularly hemodynamic assessment, and can help define the most appropriate therapeutic approach. Management can be challenging, but the therapeutic armamentarium is continually expanding and now includes surgical, transcatheter and medical options. Timely correction of defects along with early treatment with advanced medical therapies appears to improve quality of life and possible even improve survival. Interestingly most studies of PAH-CHD have focused on its most severely afflicted patients, those with Eisenmenger Syndrome, making it less certain how to manage PAH-CHD of milder degrees. This review summarizes our current understanding of PAH-CHD and emphasizes the need for close follow-up in specialized centers of care where close collaboration is common practice.
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    Can Genetics Predict Response to Complex Behavioral Interventions? Evidence from a Genetic Analysis of the Fast Track Randomized Control Trial.
    (J Policy Anal Manage, 2015) Albert, Dustin; Belsky, Daniel W; Crowley, D Max; Latendresse, Shawn J; Aliev, Fazil; Riley, Brien; Group, Conduct Problems Prevention Research; Dick, Danielle M; Dodge, Kenneth A
    Early interventions are a preferred method for addressing behavioral problems in high-risk children, but often have only modest effects. Identifying sources of variation in intervention effects can suggest means to improve efficiency. One potential source of such variation is the genome. We conducted a genetic analysis of the Fast Track randomized control trial, a 10-year-long intervention to prevent high-risk kindergarteners from developing adult externalizing problems including substance abuse and antisocial behavior. We tested whether variants of the glucocorticoid receptor gene NR3C1 were associated with differences in response to the Fast Track intervention. We found that in European-American children, a variant of NR3C1 identified by the single-nucleotide polymorphism rs10482672 was associated with increased risk for externalizing psychopathology in control group children and decreased risk for externalizing psychopathology in intervention group children. Variation in NR3C1 measured in this study was not associated with differential intervention response in African-American children. We discuss implications for efforts to prevent externalizing problems in high-risk children and for public policy in the genomic era.
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    Development and initial testing of the stroke rapid-treatment readiness tool.
    (J Neurosci Nurs, 2014-10) Olson, DaiWai M; Cox, Margueritte; Constable, Mark; Britz, Gavin W; Lin, Cheryl B; Zimmer, Louise O; Fonarow, Gregg C; Schwamm, Lee H; Peterson, Eric D
    No instruments are currently available to help health systems identify target areas for reducing door-to-needle times for the administration of intravenous tissue plasminogen activator to eligible patients with ischemic stroke. A 67-item Likert-scale survey was administered by telephone to stroke personnel at 252 U.S. hospitals participating in the "Get With The Guidelines-Stroke" quality improvement program. Factor analysis was used to refine the instrument to a four-factor 29-item instrument that can be used by hospitals to assess their readiness to administer intravenous tissue plasminogen activator within 60 minutes of patient hospital arrival.
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    Impacts of an opioid overdose prevention intervention delivered subsequent to acute care.
    (Injury prevention : journal of the International Society for Child and Adolescent Injury Prevention, 2019-06) Banta-Green, Caleb J; Coffin, Phillip O; Merrill, Joseph O; Sears, Jeanne M; Dunn, Chris; Floyd, Anthony S; Whiteside, Lauren K; Yanez, Norbert D; Donovan, Dennis M

    Background

    Opioid overdose is a major and increasing cause of injury and death. There is an urgent need for interventions to reduce overdose events among high-risk persons.

    Methods

    Adults at elevated risk for opioid overdose involving heroin or pharmaceutical opioids who had been cared for in an emergency department (ED) were randomised to overdose education combined with a brief behavioural intervention and take-home naloxone or usual care. Outcomes included: (1) time to first opioid overdose-related event resulting in medical attention or death using competing risks survival analysis; and (2) ED visit and hospitalisation rates, using negative binomial regression and adjusting for time at risk.

    Results

    During the follow-up period, 24% of the 241 participants had at least one overdose event, 85% had one or more ED visits and 55% had at least one hospitalisation, with no significant differences between intervention and comparison groups. The instantaneous risk of an overdose event was not significantly lower for the intervention group (sub-HR: 0.83; 95% CI 0.49 to 1.40).

    Discussion

    These null findings may be due in part to the severity of the population in terms of housing insecurity (70% impermanently housed), drug use, unemployment and acute healthcare issues. Given the high overdose and healthcare utilisation rates, more intensive interventions, such as direct referral and provision of housing and opioid agonist treatment medications, may be necessary to have a substantial impact on opioid overdoses for this high-acuity population in acute care settings.

    Trial registration number

    NCT0178830; Results.