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Background: With the increasing prevalence of wildfire smoke in the Pacific Northwest, it is important to quantify health impacts to plan for adequate health services. The Rogue Valley region has historically faced some of the greatest wildfire threats in the state. Health impacts from smoke have been estimated in several recent studies that include Oregon's Rogue Valley, but the results between studies are conflicting. Objective: The objective is to critically examine impacts of wildfire smoke on health in the Rogue Valley area and translate the results to support hospital staffing decisions. Study design: The study adopts a case-crossover approach. Methods: Apply a conditional Poisson regression to analyze time stratified counts while controlling for mean temperature. Results: Every 10 μ/m3 increase in PM2.5 is associated with a 2% increase in same-day hospital or emergency room admission rates for respiratory conditions during fire season after adjusting for temperature and time (OR = 1.020; 95% CI: 1.004–1.034); a 10 μ/m3 increase in PM2.5 lasting nine days is associated with a 4% increase in admission rates (OR = 1.041; 95% CI: 1.018–1.065). In other words, for each 10 μ/m3 single day increase in pollution from smoke, an additional 0.26 respiratory patients would be expected in the area hospitals. With a single day increase from 10 μ/m3 to 150 μ/m3, hospitals could expect an additional four patients. Conclusions: There are small but significant health impacts in the Rogue Valley. These impacts are smaller than some statewide estimates. We need further research to understand these differences.

Objective: Mobile low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) lung screenings are part of an outreach program in rural Appalachia to detect early lung cancer. Coronary artery calcium (CAC) scoring on LDCT can identify calcium deposits in coronary arteries and can prompt consideration of risk modification for prevention of cardiovascular disease (CVD) events. It is not known if Lung CT Screening Reporting & Data System (Lung-RADS) scoring correlates with CAC scores. There is no clear guidance for patients undergoing LDCT screenings to receive follow-up regarding CAC or prevention of associated CVD risk. Methods: This was a retrospective review of mobile LDCT LCS in adults with no known history of CVD. CT images were obtained at 100 kVp with a slice thickness of 3 mm. Agatston CAC scoring was performed retroactively. Lung-RADS scores were categorized as: Negative (1), Benign (2), Probably Benign (3), and Suspicious (4). CAC scoring was grouped as 0, 1–100, 101–399, and ≥400. Descriptive statistics and chi-square analyses were utilized. Results: A total of 526 LDCT screenings were included. Over 54 % of patients had coronary calcification on LDCT LCS. 161 patients (30.6 %) had a CAC score of ≥100 and 75 patients (14.3 %) had a CAC score ≥400. Of patients with a CAC score ≥100, 7.5 % received referrals for follow-up after the LDCT screen and 9.3 % had additional cardiac testing. Of those with a CAC score ≥100 not already on a statin (45.3 %) and not already on aspirin (63.3 %), few were started within 3 months of LDCT for prevention (8.2 % and 5.9 % respectively). Among patients with a Lung-RADS score of 4, 17 % had a CAC score >400, whereas only 12 % with a Lung-RADS score of 1 fell into the same CAC category. Higher Lung-RADS scores correlated with fewer patients with CAC of 0. A significant correlation was observed between higher Lung-RADS scores and elevated CAC scores (p = 0.02). Conclusion: In patients with no CVD history, coronary artery calcification was frequently identified on mobile LDCT lung screenings in rural communities. Patients with higher probabilities of malignant lung nodules may also be at increased risk for significant coronary artery disease. Calcium scoring from LDCT screenings allowed for simultaneous assessment of lung cancer and CVD risk. Unfortunately, few referrals or CVD prevention medications were initiated. Awareness of CAC score utility, follow-up for identified coronary calcifications, and consideration of primary prevention medications when indicated, would be beneficial in patients undergoing LDCT lung screenings, especially in rural areas with limited healthcare access.

Abstract Background Despite its importance, teaching at the bedside is declining over time. This purported decline has not been quantified. Quantifying bedside teaching is challenging, and we found only one study quantifying bedside teaching on a hospitalist service. Objective We conducted a study to understand the prevalence of bedside teaching in our medical intensive care unit. Methods We conducted a single-center single-unit study in the medical intensive care unit of an academic tertiary care institution. We used a survey tool to assess perceived time spent on bedside teaching, quality of teaching, and total rounding time. In parallel, independent observers objectively measured time spent on rounds and on bedside teaching. Residents were asked to complete the survey once a week. Independent observers collected data daily and weekly averages were obtained. Results 43 responses were collected over a 4-month period. Most respondents (73%) reported a total rounding time of either 90–120 min or greater than 120 min. Median reported bedside teaching time was 16–20 min with 16 respondents (37%) reporting less than 15 min and 27 respondents (63%) reporting 16 min or more. The amount of time spent on bedside teaching was reported as adequate or more than adequate by 77% (33) of respondents with 58% (25) reporting that bedside teaching was very or extremely effective in helping them learn. Mean census reported by the independent observers was 12.75 patients per team. Bedside teaching represented an average of 12% of total rounding time, 16.85 min per day. While total rounding time increased with increasing census, there was no decline in bedside teaching time. Conclusion It is reported that bedside teaching has decreased over time. Our study has demonstrated that bedside teaching occurs in our Medical ICU, and though it represents a minority of the time spent on rounds, residents still reported teaching in the ICU to be adequate.

Objectives To assess the incidence of barotrauma and its impact on mortality in COVID-19 patients admitted to ICU. Design Single-center retrospective study of consecutive COVID-19 patients admitted to a rural tertiary-care ICU. The primary outcomes were incidence of barotrauma in COVID-19 patients and all-cause 30-day mortality. Secondary outcomes were the length of stay (LOS) in the hospital and ICU. Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were used in the survival data analysis. Setting Medical ICU, West Virginia University Hospital (WVUH), USA. Patients All adult patients were admitted to the ICU for acute hypoxic respiratory failure due to coronavirus disease 2019 between September 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020. Historical controls were ARDS patients admitted pre-COVID. Intervention Not applicable. Measurements and main results One hundred and sixty-five consecutive patients with COVID-19 were admitted to the ICU during the defined period, compared to 39 historical non-COVID controls. The overall incidence of barotrauma in COVID-19 patients was 37/165 (22.4%) compared to 4/39 (10.3%) in the control group. Patients with COVID-19 and barotrauma had a significantly worse survival (HR = 1.56, p = 0.047) compared to controls. In those requiring invasive mechanical ventilation, the COVID group also had significantly higher rates of barotrauma (OR 3.1, p = 0.03) and worse all-cause mortality (OR 2.21, p = 0.018). COVID-19 with barotrauma had significantly higher LOS in the ICU and the hospital. Conclusions Our data on critically ill COVID-19 patients admitted to the ICU shows a high incidence of barotrauma and mortality compared to the controls. Additionally, we report a high incidence of barotrauma even in non-ventilated ICU patients.

Black pleural effusions (BPE) are rare, exudative pleural effusions that produce a black fluid on thoracentesis. While the name and definition of this pathology is undeniably simple, the etiologies, outcomes, and treatments for BPE are incredibly complex. Currently, BPE is not well-demonstrated in the literature. This case series reports three patients with different etiologies, past medical histories, presenting symptoms, treatments, and outcomes. BPE caused by pancreatic-pleural fistula and opportunistic infections are demonstrated in this case series. This report shows that early identification and treatment of the underlying cause of BPE is critical to the recovery of the patients.

In this paper, we consider fixed edgelength n-step random walks in . We give an explicit construction for the closest closed equilateral random walk to almost any open equilateral random walk based on the geometric median, providing a natural map from open polygons to closed polygons of the same edgelength. Using this, we first prove that a natural reconfiguration distance to closure converges in distribution to a Nakagami random variable as . We then strengthen this to an explicit probabilistic bound on the distance to closure for a random n-gon in any dimension with any collection of fixed edgelengths wi. Numerical evidence supports the conjecture that our closure map pushes forward the natural probability measure on open polygons to something very close to the natural probability measure on closed polygons; if this is so, we can draw some conclusions about the frequency of local knots in closed polygons of fixed edgelength. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a new algorithm, the reflection method, to generate off-lattice random walks of specified, though arbitrarily large, thickness in and prove that our method is ergodic on the space of thick walks. The data resulting from our implementation of this method is consistent with the scaling of the squared radius of gyration of random walks, with no thickness constraint. Based on this, we use the data to describe the complex relationship between the presence and nature of knotting and size, thickness and shape of the random walk. We extend the current understanding of excluded volume by expanding the range of analysis of how the squared radius of gyration scales with length and thickness. We also examine the profound effect of thickness on knotting in open chains. We will quantify how thickness effects the size of thick open chains, calculating the growth exponent for squared radius of gyration as a function of thickness. We will also show that for radius , increasing thickness by 0.1 decreases the probability of knot formation by 50% or more. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]