WMJ : official publication of the State Medical Society of Wisconsin最新文献

With the continued rise in mental health concerns, including suicide on college campuses nationwide, many academic institutions have developed peer-support programs. Correspondingly, the Medical College of Wisconsin developed and evaluated Seeking Peer Outreach* as its pioneer suicide prevention initiative. Seeking Peer Outreach* is an innovative approach to provide all medical students near-peer support and outreach encouraging engagement and conversations in effort to reduce the stigma and isolation often associated with mental health concerns in professional education. This study explores the effectiveness and efficacy of Seeking Peer Outreach* - a 3-tiered peer-support system. A survey of medical students, faculty, and staff demonstrated that the program increased knowledge on suicidal thoughts and behaviors and improved self-efficacy in talking about mental health with peers. It also showed that effective training helps individuals gain confidence with mental health interventions and suicide prevention.

Introduction: In this report, we describe a case of anisocoria following uncomplicated cataract surgery. Clinicians should consider postoperative mechanical and tonic pupils when evaluating patients with anisocoria.

Case presentation: A 69-year-old White female underwent uncomplicated cataract surgery of her left eye. No intraoperative pupil expansion devices were used, and no floppy iris or iris prolapse occurred during the surgery. Postoperatively, she was found to have anisocoria. Pharmacologic pupillary testing confirmed a tonic and mechanical left pupil.

Discussion: There have been no reported causes of anisocoria from a tonic pupil after cataract surgery. Based on reports of tonic pupils following other eye surgeries, our case likely occurred from a combination of parasympathetic dysfunction and mechanical trauma.

Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first report of a tonic pupil following cataract surgery, thus expanding the literature of causes of anisocoria that may be underrecognized in the clinical setting.

Introduction: In this report, we describe a rare case of a cranial nerve VI palsy secondary to herpes zoster infection with polyneuropathic involvement.

Case presentation: An 82-year-old male was seen by ophthalmology for acute onset of double vision. Fourteen days before presenting, he was diagnosed with herpes zoster ophthalmicus. He was suspected to have zoster polyneuropathy also involving cranial nerve IX and X given a sore throat that began prior to the characteristic trigeminal dermatomal rash. He was diagnosed with cranial nerve VI palsy secondary to herpes zoster infection.

Discussion: Ophthalmic complications of herpes zoster ophthalmicus are many; however, extraocular nerve palsies secondary to herpes zoster infection and zoster polyneuropathy are documented infrequently in the literature.

Conclusions: Extraocular muscle palsies are a rare complication of herpes zoster infection. This case reviews the most current literature surrounding this condition and discusses the significance of polyneuropathic involvement in varicella zoster virus reactivation.

Background: Cure Violence interruption programs are evidence-based interventions aimed at reducing the transmission of gun violence and its related injuries. Assessing the implementation of these programs can include the metric of "reach." This study evaluated one such program - 414LIFE - in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The evaluation reconceptualized "reach" as a metric for reaching the individuals and neighborhoods at greatest risk for gun violence.

Methods: 414LIFE's reach was analyzed descriptively and geospatially through its program evaluation dataset from May 2019 through September 2020 using a cross-sectional design. Program referral criteria includes patients who sustained a gunshot wound, are less than 36 years old, and a resident of, or injured in, the city of Milwaukee. A choropleth map visualized location of participants' residence, which justified a global Moran's I, and then a local Moran's I calculation to identify statistically significant clustering of referrals.

Results: In the first 1.5 years of the program's partnership with the local level I trauma center and affiliated academic medical institution, 398 patients were referred. Three hundred referrals (75.4%) met program criteria; 53.8% were Black men. Statistically significant clusters were identified and mapped. Half of the top 10 neighborhoods with referrals were the city's identified priority neighborhoods.

Conclusions: 414LIFE successfully reaches its intended population and geographic locations. Geospatial reach should be considered routinely in program evaluations of Cure Violence programs to track growth and reach over time.

Introduction: Tanning bed use has been directly correlated with increased risk of melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers with greater duration and frequency of use. Despite this, complete bans for minors accessing indoor tanning devices are active in less than half of the states in the United States.

Case presentation: A 65-year-old female presented to our Mohs surgery clinic with a history of left temporal T2a melanoma, multiple untreated advanced keratinocyte carcinomas, and innumerable smaller untreated keratinocyte carcinomas on her legs, arms, and back after more than 40 years of weekly tanning bed use.

Discussion: Reports from the literature indicate that first exposure under age 35 to tanning devices increases the risk for melanoma and non-melanoma skin cancers. Several programs currently focus on prevention, education, and legislative change surrounding this topic.

Conclusions: Highlighting such severe cases may provide an effective form of education for the public regarding the potential disease burden that results from indoor tanning.

Introduction: Chagas disease caused by Trypanosoma cruzi (T cruzi) found in the Americas is often missed during the early stage of infection due to lack of sensitive diagnostic tests. The classic immunological and parasitological tests often fail in the acute phase due to the nonspecific and low antibody level nature of the infection and in the chronic phase due to low levels of trypanosomes in the blood. For successful control strategies, there must be a sensitive and specific diagnostic test.

Objective/methods: We have demonstrated the possibility (proof of concept) of detecting T cruzi-specific repeat DNA via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) by (1) spiking 15 urine samples collected from volunteers free of prior infection with 3 different concentrations of T cruzi (3 strains), Trypanosoma brucei, and Trypanosoma rhodesiense (African strain) genomic DNA and (2) from filtered collected clinical samples from Argentina. Three sets of primers were used.

Results: Our approach detected repeat DNA specific for T cruzi strains from 1 clinical sample by 2 sets of primer and from spiked urine by all 3 sets of primer but not the African species. A serial dilution (spiking) also was performed on T cruzi strains to detect sensitivities of the assay. One set of primers constantly detected satellite DNA for all T cruzi strains from 70 pg/μl to 175 fg/μl.

Conclusions: We were able to demonstrate the feasibility of detecting T cruzi-specific DNA from filtered urine samples by sensitive and specific PCR assay. Besides the evident increased sensitivity and specificity of primers, our approach can be used to explore Chagas prevalence in endemic areas - especially in congenital Chagas newborn screening - and in the acute phase.