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ABSTRACT Justice-impacted persons may inconsistently access HIV testing. This cross-sectional secondary analysis investigates lifetime HIV testing prevalence among adults with prior histories of incarceration in Southern California, United States, participating in health-focused programming ( n  = 3 studies). Self-reported demographic and lifetime HIV testing data were collected between 2017-2023; descriptive analyses were conducted. Across the three samples, at least 74% of participants were male; Latino and African American individuals accounted for nearly two-thirds of participants. Lifetime HIV testing ranged from 72.8% to 84.2%. Males were significantly more likely than females to report never being tested in two samples and accounted for >95% of those never tested. No statistically significant differences in testing were observed by race/ethnicity. Single young adults (ages 18-26) were less likely than their partnered peers to report testing. HIV testing is critical for ensuring that individuals access prevention and treatment. HIV testing among justice-impacted adults in this study was higher than in the general population, potentially due to opt-out testing in correctional settings. Nevertheless, these findings underscore the importance of implementing targeted interventions to reduce structural (e.g., health insurance, access to self-testing kits) and social barriers (e.g., HIV stigma) to increase HIV testing among justice-impacted males and single young adults.

Background: Low health literacy is costly and observed among justice-impacted adults (JIA), a group that often faces numerous barriers in accessing healthcare and a disproportionate burden of illness. Health literacy interventions for JIA are critically needed to improve healthcare access and related outcomes., Methods: This manuscript describes the protocol for a longitudinal mixed-methods randomized clinical trial that assesses the effectiveness of a coach-guided health literacy intervention on JIA's healthcare access. The intervention was previously piloted with justice impacted adults. We will recruit 300 JIA ages 18 + in San Diego, California. Participants will be randomized 1:1 to the Treatment Group (i.e., coach-guided intervention providing 12 sessions of individualized health coaching and service navigation over 6 months) or the Control Group (i.e., self-study of the health coaching program, and brief service navigation support). We will quantitatively assess JIA's healthcare access defined as: use of healthcare, health insurance status, and regular source of care at 6-months as the primary outcomes. Participants will also be surveyed at 12-months. Statistical analyses will incorporate the intent-to-treat (ITT) principle and we will estimate mixed-effects logistic regression for the primary outcomes. We will also conduct qualitative interviews at 6 and 12-months with 40 purposively sampled participants, stratified by study arm, who reported healthcare access barriers at baseline. Interviews will explore participants' satisfaction with the intervention, healthcare attitudes, self-efficacy for and barriers to healthcare access over time, perceived contribution of the intervention to health and well-being, and diffusion of intervention-related information within participants' social networks. We will conduct deductive thematic analyses of qualitative data., Discussion: Low health literacy among JIA is a foundational challenge requiring tailored intervention strategies. Findings from this trial may inform policies and the structure of service delivery models to build health literacy among JIA in institutional and community settings throughout the United States and elsewhere., Trial Registration: This study is registered with the United States' ClinicalTrials.gov registry under protocol # 161,903., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

Intravenous leiomyomatosis is a rare condition that has been described as being associated with venous occlusion by direct intravascular tumor extension, typically from a pelvic organ. We report an exceedingly rare case of intravenous leiomyomatosis extending into the inferior vena cava, leading to pulmonary embolism, hepatic venous outflow obstruction, and an acute Budd-Chiari syndrome. This is the second reported patient with intravenous leiomyomatosis with Budd-Chiari syndrome and, to our knowledge, the first reported patient who survived with surgery. Correlative images, illustrating computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging findings characteristic of intravenous leiomyomatosis with secondary Budd-Chiari syndrome, are presented and discussed., (Published by Mosby, Inc.)

Erectile dysfunction, a problem estimated to affect up to 30 million American men, is associated with a number of systemic illnesses and drugs. Age is not thought to be an independent risk factor for the disorder, but accompanying illnesses and their treatments may contribute to its onset. Newer classes of antihypertensive agents are less frequently associated with sexual dysfunction than diuretics or beta-blockers. However, nearly every first-line antihypertensive drug has been reported to cause some degree of erectile dysfunction. Management options include lifestyle modification, dosage reduction, discontinuation of the offending agent, switching to an alternative drug, and pharmacologic therapy.

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the effects of a 15-week exercise training program on cardiovascular and blood lipid variables in black adolescents. Subjects consisted of black males with 12 of these participating in an exercise conditioning program and 5 designated as the control group participating in a team sports program. The mean +/- SD age was 12.8 +/- 0.97 yrs. Training for the exercise group was conducted 5 d.wk-1 for 15 weeks (weight training 2 d.wk-1 and aerobic training 3 d.wk-1). The following mean +/- SD significant changes were found for pre- to post-training for the exercise group (P < 0.05) with no significant change for controls: high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) 1.11 +/- 0.18 to 1.28 +/- 0.17 (mmol.l-1), low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) 2.73 +/- 0.74 to 2.41 +/- 0.81 (mmol.l-1), maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) 43.7 +/- 9.4 to 48.2 +/- 9.7 (ml.kg-1.min-1), and maximal ventilation (VE max) 70.59 +/- 16.8 to 80.93 +/- 14.6 (L.min-1). In addition, no significant changes were found for blood pressure or other blood lipid parameters for either group. Results of this study show that exercise training can favorably alter blood lipid and VO2max values. Therefore, a vigorous exercise training program for young black males can favorably affect their cardiovascular risk profile.

This investigation evaluated the iron and nutritional status of 12 highly trained aerobic dance instructors who did not take iron supplements (ANS) and 8 who did (AS). A control group (C) consisted of 10 age matched controls. The aerobic instructors had exercised for approximately 3.8 days/wk, 56 min/session for the past 7 yrs. There were no significant differences among groups for energy intake, carbohydrate, protein, fat, nonheme iron, heme iron, or total iron intake (excluding supplemental iron). But both exercise groups had lower ferritin values than the control group. There was also a significant difference in mean cell volume (MCV), with both exercise groups having greater values than the control group. There were no differences among groups for serum iron, total iron binding capacity, transferrin saturation, hematocrit, or hemoglobin. One in three aerobic dance instructors had serum ferritin values below 12 micrograms.L-1. Results indicate that women exercise leaders have iron profiles that are similar to other groups of female athletes. The increased MCV values suggest runners' macrocytosis or an exercise induced macrocytosis.

A number of N-benzenesulfonylglycines, alanines, sarcosine, and prolines, which contain the minimum pharmacophore moieties necessary for aldose reductase inhibitory activity, were prepared and tested in the rat lens assay. In this assay, the benzenesulfonylglycines are considerably more potent than the corresponding alanine and sarcosine derivatives which, in turn, are more active than the proline analogues. Of the monosubstituted benzenesulfonylglycines, the 2-nitro and 4-amino derivatives were most active with 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 13 and 16 microM, respectively. The most potent derivatives evaluated were the beta- and alpha-naphthylenesulfonylglycines with IC50 values of 0.4 and 1.3 microM, respectively. The structure-activity data obtained from evaluation of the benzenesulfonylamino acids suggests that the aromatic ring and ring substituents, as well as the sulfonamide group and carboxylate moiety, all contribute to the inhibitory potency through direct interaction with complimentary binding sites present on aldose reductase.