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Background: Polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is suggested to be likely associated with underlying immunological dysregulation. This lymphopenia poses a risk of viral infection. Data to elucidate the herpes virus infection risk in patients with PKD are lacking; therefore, we conducted a national‐wide population‐based cohort study to investigate the herpes virus risk in PKD patients. Methods: From the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), patients who were hospitalised with a diagnosis of polycystic kidney disease were defined as case group of PKD patients; patients without any diagnosis of PKD during the study period were grouped into the non‐PKD cohort. The index date was set as the date when the patients were newly diagnosed with PKD. All study patients were followed up until the occurrence of herpes zoster infection, death, withdrawal from the NHIRD for other reasons, or until December 31, 2013. Results: We included 4366 PKD patients and 4366 non‐PKD patients. The incidence rate and the risk of developing herpes zoster infection were estimated using multivariate stratified analyses. PKD patients had a 1.97‐fold risk of herpes zoster virus infection (aHR = 1.97, 95% CI 1.17‐3.31) compared with the non‐PKD cohort. On multilayer stratification, PKD patients without any comorbidities had a significantly increased risk of herpes zoster infection (aHR = 3.10, 95% CI 1.37‐7.00). Conclusion: This is the first study to reveal a high risk of severe herpes zoster infection in patients with PKD. High index suspicion of severe herpes zoster infection should be maintained in clinical professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Season of birth has been hypothesized to be a risk factor for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). However, the evidence has been mixed and limited due to methodological challenges. We examine ASD birth trends for 5,464,628 births across 5 countries. ASD birth prevalence data were obtained from the International Collaboration for Autism Registry Epidemiology database, including children born in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, and Western Australia. Empirical mode decomposition and cosinor modeling were used to assess seasonality. We show seasonal variation in ASD births for the countries of Finland and Sweden. There was a modest increase in risk for children born in the fall and a modest decrease in risk for children born in the spring. Solar radiation levels around conception and the postnatal period were inversely correlated with seasonal trends in ASD risk. In the first multinational study of birth seasonality of ASD, there was evidence supporting the presence of seasonal trends in Finland and Sweden. The observations that risk was highest for fall births (i.e., conceived in the winter) and lowest for spring births (i.e., conceived in the summer), and sunlight levels during critical neurodevelopmental periods explained much of the seasonal trends, are consistent with the hypothesis that a seasonally fluctuating risk factor may influence risk of ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background The clinical significance of positive cultures in shoulder surgery remains unclear. This study determined the rate and characteristics of positive intraoperative cultures in a cohort of patients undergoing primary shoulder arthroplasty. Methods From February 2015 to March 2016, 94 patients, without prior surgery, underwent primary shoulder arthroplasty. Before surgery, all shoulders were prospectively enrolled and consented to obtain standardized intraoperative cultures. All patients received standard preoperative antibiotic prophylaxis. Standardized fluid and tissue locations were sampled and sent for aerobic and anaerobic cultures and held for 13 days. Patients and surgeon were blinded to the culture results. Results Average age at surgery was 70.5 years (range, 50-91 years), and 41 patients (47%) were male. At least 1 positive culture was found in 33 shoulders (38%), with 17 patients (19%) having ≥2 positive cultures. Cutibacterium (formerly Propionibacterium ) acnes was the most common organism (67%), followed by coagulase-negative Staphylococcus (21%), Staphylococcus aureus (3%), and other organisms (18%). The rate of positive culture was higher in men (51%) than in women (26%, P  = .016). Cutibacterium acnes was more common in men with positive cultures (95% vs. 17%, P  < .001) and coagulase-negative Staphylococcus and Staphylococcus epidermidis were more common in women with positive cultures (42% vs. 10%, P  = .071). Conclusion Positive deep tissue cultures develop in a high percentage of patients undergoing primary shoulder arthroplasty despite antibiotic prophylaxis. The long-term clinical implication of this finding requires further study, especially with regard to the risk of late failures of shoulder arthroplasty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Maternal pre-gestational diabetes (PGDM), gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM), and overweight/obesity have been associated with increased risks of offspring neurodevelopmental conditions (NDCs) including autism, intellectual disability (ID), and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Less is known about whether and how obstetric and neonatal complications (e.g., preterm birth, neonatal asphyxia) could mediate these associations. Methods: In this Swedish register-based cohort study, we examined complications during pregnancy, delivery, and the neonatal period as potential mediators of the relationships between maternal metabolic conditions and offspring NDCs. We quantified the extent to which these obstetric and neonatal factors could mediate the associations of maternal metabolic conditions with offspring NDCs by applying parametric regression models for single mediation analyses and weighting-based methods for multiple mediation analyses under counterfactual frameworks. Results: The study sample included 2,352,969 singleton children born to 1,299,692 mothers from 1987–2010 who were followed up until December 31, 2016, of whom 135,832 children (5.8%) were diagnosed with at least one NDC. A substantial portion of the association between maternal PGDM and children's odds of NDCs could be explained by the combined group of obstetric and neonatal complications in the multiple mediation analysis. For instance, these complications explained 44.4% of the relationship between maternal PGDM and offspring ID risk. The proportion of the relationship between maternal overweight/obesity and children's risk of NDCs that could be explained by obstetric and neonatal complications was considerably smaller, ranging from 1.5 to 8.1%. Some complications considered on their own, including pregnancy hypertensive diseases, preterm birth, neonatal asphyxia, and hematological comorbidities, could explain at least 10% of the associations between maternal PGDM and offspring NDCs. Complications during the neonatal period showed a stronger joint mediating effect for the relationship between PGDM and offspring NDCs than those during pregnancy or delivery. Conclusions: Obstetric and neonatal complications could explain nearly half of the association between maternal PGDM and offspring risk of NDCs. The mediating effects were more pronounced for complications during the neonatal period and for specific complications such as pregnancy hypertensive diseases, preterm birth, neonatal asphyxia, and hematological comorbidities. Effective preventive strategies for offspring NDCs should holistically address both the primary metabolic issues related to PGDM and the wide array of potential complications, especially those in the neonatal period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explored the radiographic and anatomical differences in normal shoulders between men and women, as well as factors such as race, height, weight, and age. A total of 205 patients with documented normal anatomical radiographs comprised the study population. Five fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeon reviewers measured head diameter, humeral head size, head to tuberosity distance, greater tuberosity width, neck-shaft angle, surface-arc angle, glenoid neck length, and distance from the lateral acromion process to the greater tuberosity on anteroposterior radiographs with the shoulder in external rotation. After the reviewers identified and marked defined anatomical landmarks, a comprehensive automated calculator was used to compute all parameters. Between men and women, head diameter (P<.001), humeral head size (P<.001), greater tuberosity width (P<.001), distance from the lateral acromion process to the greater tuberosity (P<.001), and glenoid neck length (P<.001) were significantly different, whereas race was not significantly different for any anatomical parameter. Using Spearman's rho, there was a strong correlation between head diameter/humeral head height and height (rs=0.77/rs=0.68), weight (rs =0.62), and greater tuberosity width (rs=0.66/rs= 0.61); there also was a strong negative correlation between head to tuberosity distance and neck-shaft angle (rs=-0.80). This study demonstrated precisely defined proximal humeral anatomical relationships and sizes using an advanced standardized imaging software program. With these data, orthopedic surgeons and implant designers can better understand the anatomy and glenohumeral relationships to re-create when performing total shoulder arthroplasty. [Orthopedics. 2017; 40(3):155-160.]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Importance: Depression is a common cause of morbidity and disability worldwide. Parental depression is associated with early-life child neurodevelopmental, behavioral, emotional, mental, and social problems. More studies are needed to explore the link between parental depression and long-term child outcomes.Objective: To examine the associations of parental depression with child school performance at the end of compulsory education (approximately age 16 years).Design, Setting, and Participants: Parental depression diagnoses (based on the International Classification of Diseases, Eighth Revision [ICD-8], International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision [ICD-9], and the International Statistical Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision [ICD-10]) in inpatient records from 1969 onward, outpatient records beginning in 2001, and school grades at the end of compulsory education were collected for all children born from 1984 to 1994 in Sweden. The final analytic sample size was 1,124,162 biological children. We examined the associations of parental depression during different periods (before birth, after birth, and during child ages 1-5, 6-10, and 11-16 years, as well as any time before the child's final year of compulsory schooling) with the final school grades. Linear regression models adjusted for various child and parent characteristics. The dates of the analysis were January to November 2015.Main Outcome and Measure: Decile of school grades at the end of compulsory education (range, 1-10, with 1 being the lowest and 10 being the highest).Results: The study cohort comprised 1,124,162 children, of whom 48.9% were female. Maternal depression and paternal depression at any time before the final compulsory school year were associated with worse school performance. After covariate adjustment, these associations decreased to -0.45 (95% CI, -0.48 to -0.42) and -0.40 (-0.43 to -0.37) lower deciles, respectively. These effect sizes are similarly as large as the observed difference in school performance between the lowest and highest quintiles of family income but approximately one-third of the observed difference between maternal education of 9 or less vs more than 12 years. Both maternal depression and paternal depression at different periods (before birth, after birth, and during child ages 1-5, 6-10, and 11-16 years) generally were associated with worse school performance. Child sex modified the associations of maternal depression with school performance such that maternal depression had a larger negative influence on child school performance for girls compared with boys.Conclusions and Relevance: Diagnoses of parental depression throughout a child's life were associated with worse school performance at age 16 years. Our results suggest that diagnoses of parental depression may have a far-reaching effect on an important aspect of child development, with implications for future life course outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Periodic Risk Evaluation (PRE) is a new questionnaire-based tool to identify autistic adults enrolled in Medicaid programs who are at risk for adverse outcomes including mental health and medical conditions, law enforcement interaction, stressful life events, substance use, presence of natural supports, and suboptimal living conditions. The PRE is completed by direct service providers and informs case conceptualization to drive changes in needed supports. The PRE was tested in a sample of 674 autistic adults with a mean age of 31 years across a large, northeastern state. A random forest model was developed to predict complex case status using the PRE items. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, and negative predictive value for different PRE score cutoffs were evaluated as the performance measures of interest. Expert clinical assessment, the gold standard for case status, identified 131 individuals (19.4 %) as complex cases in need of modified services and supports. The final PRE model identified complex cases in unseen data with 75.5 % accuracy, 71.9 % sensitivity, 76.3 % specificity, 41.8 % positive predictive value, and 92.0 % negative predictive value. The PRE may be a useful tool for triaging service needs and delivery to adults on the spectrum. The use of the PRE in the Medicaid system is critical because Medicaid is among the only insurers available during the transition to and throughout adulthood for autistic individuals. Adequate planning and assessment of risk can assist direct support staff in triaging and mitigating risk to minimize adverse outcomes. • The Periodic Risk Evaluation assesses risk among Medicaid-enrolled autistic adults. • Risk assessed in the PRE include mental health crisis and police interaction. • The PRE exhibited acceptable but not high sensitivity and specificity to identify complex cases. • Initial findings show the PRE has the potential to triage service needs for autistic individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]