Lutheran Medical Center

Unsupervised image-to-image translation is a task of learning the transformation between source and target domain images without paired training data. But Image stylist transfer is another challenging task and face the problem of content loss and model collapse. In order to solve these problems, this paper presents a novel local feature contrast method that can keep the content of images. The image encoder learns richer representations by extracting multi-layer deep features from the images using a feature extractor. Meanwhile, we introduce a local feature contrast loss for guiding the content generation favorable features learning. Experimental results show that proposed approach gives better [FID and KID] scores in comparison to the previous works, which eventually improves image generation ability.

Background:Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection disproportionally affects populations in sub-Saharan Africa. Lack of HBV awareness perpetuates disease burden in Africa.Objective:To promote HBV awareness in Tanzania using a systematic, measurable, and expandable approach to educating health care workers (HCW).Methods:We designed and implemented an HBV knowledge and teaching skills session in southern Tanzania to empower HCWs in leading education to promote disease awareness in their communities. Training was divided into two sessions: didactic and practical. A five-question anonymous survey was distributed in person immediately before and after the practical portion of the training to evaluate HBV knowledge as well as specific skills for teaching. Differences between responses before and after the sessions were evaluated by Chi-Square analysis. A sub-group of questions were further analyzed for differences based on HCW self-report of HBV serostatus awareness.Findings:130 HCWs participated in the didactic lecture and 30 HCWs participated in both portions. A pre-post training five-question survey showed an increase in correct answers for all questions, with two showing statistical significance: HBV is silent (7% pre vs. 87% post; p < 0.0001), and repetition as key to promote awareness (63% pre vs. 100% post; p = 0.0002).Conclusions:Our low-cost intervention is applicable to increase HBV awareness in low resource settings across Africa.

Perinatal care leaders at a community hospital located in the Denver, Colorado metropolitan area searched for an innovative way to provide a low-intervention option that promoted physiologic birth for women seeking intrapartum care.This reasonably priced project focused on the transformation of traditional labor and delivery rooms into birth suites and included installation of birth slings, full-size beds with home-like mattresses, new sleep sofas for the partners, and the removal of computer screens and electronic fetal monitors.In addition, the team wrote a specific birth suite policy, provided nurse education focused on intermittent auscultation and labor support techniques, and developed a birth suite curriculum for patient education.This innovative model of care demonstrated outcomes similar to those seen in community-based birth centers and received positive feedback from families who labored and gave birth in these suites. In the instance when the birth suite is no longer the appropriate environment for intrapartum care secondary to risk factors, a woman's preference, or obstetric emergency management, this model allows for expeditious transfer of the woman or newborn to a location where an appropriate higher level of care can be provided.Converting 2 labor and delivery rooms to low-intervention birth suites required minimal funding and enabled a community hospital in Colorado to expand its perinatal services to women who are seeking low-intervention birth options that promote physiologic birth.

BackgroundRemdesivir, a nucleotide analogue prodrug that inhibits viral RNA polymerases, has shown in vitro activity against SARS-CoV-2.MethodsWe provided remdesivir on a compassionate-use basis to patients hospitalized with Covid-19, the illness caused by infection with SARS-CoV-2. Patients were those with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection who had an oxygen saturation of 94% or less while they were breathing ambient air or who were receiving oxygen support. Patients received a 10-day course of remdesivir, consisting of 200 mg administered intravenously on day 1, followed by 100 mg daily for the remaining 9 days of treatment. This report is based on data from patients who received remdesivir during the period from January 25, 2020, through March 7, 2020, and have clinical data for at least 1 subsequent day.ResultsOf the 61 patients who received at least one dose of remdesivir, data from 8 could not be analyzed (including 7 patients with no post-treatment data and 1 with a dosing error). Of the 53 patients whose data were analyzed, 22 were in the United States, 22 in Europe or Canada, and 9 in Japan. At baseline, 30 patients (57%) were receiving mechanical ventilation and 4 (8%) were receiving extracorporeal membrane oxygenation. During a median follow-up of 18 days, 36 patients (68%) had an improvement in oxygen-support class, including 17 of 30 patients (57%) receiving mechanical ventilation who were extubated. A total of 25 patients (47%) were discharged, and 7 patients (13%) died; mortality was 18% (6 of 34) among patients receiving invasive ventilation and 5% (1 of 19) among those not receiving invasive ventilation.ConclusionsIn this cohort of patients hospitalized for severe Covid-19 who were treated with compassionate-use remdesivir, clinical improvement was observed in 36 of 53 patients (68%). Measurement of efficacy will require ongoing randomized, placebo-controlled trials of remdesivir therapy. (Funded by Gilead Sciences.)

Wandering gallbladder is a variation in the biliary anatomy described in the literature as being attached only by the cystic duct and its mesentery. Its propensity for torsion places it at risk for necrosis. There have been over 500 cases of gallbladder torsion reported in the literature but less than 10 reports of wandering gallbladder. To our knowledge there have been no reports of cholecystectomy for wandering gallbladder found incidentally. A 51-year-old male from Pakistan with hypertension, gastroesophageal reflux disease, high cholesterol, and renal stones presented with a chief complaint of right upper quadrant abdominal pain. Abdominal ultrasound was significant for a mildly distended gallbladder with small gallstones in the gallbladder fundus. The patient was discharged with a diagnosis of cholelithiasis and scheduled for laparoscopic cholecystectomy as an outpatient. During the procedure, upon entering the abdominal cavity, a gallbladder was not seen in the gallbladder fossa. It was attached to the cystic duct, thickened with a long mesentery and not attached to the liver. There were no signs of torsion. The patient was treated successfully and discharged home with an uncomplicated hospital course. Diagnosis can be challenging because the clinical presentation can be variable. Fewer than a dozen cases have been reported where the diagnosis was made preoperatively. Early diagnosis of gallbladder torsion with cholecystectomy is essential to avoid the deadly complications of perforation and bilious peritonitis. Understanding the pathophysiology, clinical findings, and treatment can have a broad impact across biliary surgery in preventing these complications.

To investigate the ability of a validated geriatric trauma risk prediction tool to stratify hospital quality metrics and inpatient cost for middle-aged and geriatric patients admitted from the emergency department for operative treatment of an ankle fracture. Prospective cohort study. Single Academic Medical Center. Patients 55 years of age and older who sustained a rotational ankle fracture and who were treated operatively during their index hospitalization. Calculation of validated trauma triage score, Score for Trauma Triage in Geriatric and Middle Aged (STTGMA), using patient demographics, injury severity, and functional status. Patients were stratified into groups based on scores to create a minimal-, low-, moderate-, and high-risk cohort. Length of stay, complications, need for intensive care unit-/step-down unit-level care, discharge location, and index admission costs. Fifty ankle fracture patients met inclusion criteria. The mean length of stay was 7.8 ± 5.2 days with a significant difference among the 4 risk groups (4.6-day difference between low and high risk). 73.1% of minimal-risk patients were discharged home compared with 0% of high-risk patients. There was no difference in complication rate or in need for intensive care unit-level care between groups. However, high-risk patients had a mean total inpatient cost 2 times greater than that of minimal-risk patients. The Score for Trauma Triage in Geriatric and Middle-Aged tool is able to meaningfully stratify older patients with ankle fracture who require operative fixation regarding hospital quality metrics and cost. This information may allow for efficient targeted reductions in costs while optimizing outcomes. Prognostic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.