Rush Medical College is the medical school of Rush University, located in the Illinois Medical District, about 3 km (2 miles) west of the Loop in Chicago. Offering a full-time Doctor of Medicine program, the school was chartered in 1837, and today is affiliated primarily with Rush University Medical Center, and nearby John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County. In 2021, Rush Medical College was ranked 64th among research institutions in the U.S. by U.S. News & World Report.
Patients with rheumatic diseases have unique reproductive health needs. Recent guidelines have been established by various soceities on this topic. However, the education received by women’s health providers pertaining to the recognition and management of common rheumatic diseases in patients of childbearing age is not well-defined. This study aims to assess knowledge gaps, specify aspects of care with greatest uncertainty, and assess current resources used by women’s health providers in the management of their patients with rheumatic disease. An electronic survey was distributed nationally to physicians and allied health professionals who care for reproductive age women. The survey scored participants on their correct responses and confidence ratings in three sections: (1) patients presenting with a new rheumatic disease, (2) contraception in those with a known rheumatic diagnosis, and (3) preconception/antepartum rheumatology medication management. Participants were also asked about resource utilization. Survey questions and scenarios were based on American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology Committee Opinions and the American College of Rheumatology Guidelines for the Management of Reproductive Health in Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Diseases. Data were captured using RedCap© and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The survey was completed by 200 participants with majority being academic obstetricians and gynecologists. Respondents scored the lowest in recognizing new rheumatic disease presentations in peri-and post-partum periods (28.7
Anticancer therapies have been increasingly associated with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy (TTC). As prior reports remain fragmented across case studies and drug-specific reviews, this paper offers one of the most comprehensive reviews to date of cancer therapy-associated TTC. While classically triggered by emotional or physical stress, TTC has been increasingly associated with chemotherapy and other cancer-directed therapies. This literature review explores the pathophysiology, clinical features, and evolving evidence linking anticancer agents to TTC, with a focus on cytotoxic cancer therapy, hormonal therapy, targeted treatments, and immune checkpoint inhibitors.We describe the proposed mechanisms of cancer therapy-associated TTC, the diagnostic challenges, particularly in patients with cancer, and the complex management strategies, especially regarding the decision to resume oncologic treatment after TTC recovery.Given the increasing use of cardiotoxic agents, a multidisciplinary approach to cardio-oncology care among patients with suspected TTC is crucial. More research is needed to understand the role of TTC in cardiac dysfunction among patients with cancer, clarify risk stratification methods, and improve outcomes for patients at risk of TTC during cancer treatment.
Cardiac amyloidosis (CA) is increasingly recognized but remains substantially underdiagnosed, because its clinical and imaging phenotype overlaps with more common cardiomyopathies. Definitive subtype assignment and management further require integration of multimodal evidence to distinguish transthyretin from light chain disease. Machine learning and deep learning have been applied across the diagnostic and management pathway. These applications span ECG, echocardiography, and health record-based case finding, as well as CMR and nuclear interpretation, including SPECT/CT biomarker quantification, prognostic modeling, and treatment response assessment. This narrative review synthesizes these studies by clinical tasks, namely screening, detection, quantification, prognosis, and treatment response monitoring, rather than by input modality. This task-based organization clarifies why apparently similar AI models require different cohorts, reference standards, evaluation metrics, and implementation thresholds. The evidence reveals a maturity gradient. Binary detection and AI assisted quantification on bone scintigraphy and SPECT/CT are closest to clinical translation. Detection is supported by large externally validated cohorts, and quantification by interpretable, outcome linked measurement of myocardial tracer burden. By contrast, subtype aware classification, prognostic risk stratification, and treatment response monitoring remain at an early stage. These tasks are limited by small cohorts, enriched retrospective designs, heterogeneous labels, incomplete external validation, and uncertain calibration in realistic prevalence settings. Across tasks, high discrimination alone is insufficient.
Purpose/Objective(s) Stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) is a cornerstone of vestibular schwannoma treatment, yet radiation-induced cochlear injury remains a major cause of hearing decline. Current planning relies on mean cochlear dose, a global metric that does not fully address the cochlea’s tonotopic organization. We evaluated whether radiation dose to frequency-specific cochlear regions independently predicts post-treatment hearing thresholds after accounting for baseline hearing and inter-patient confounders. Materials/Methods Seventeen patients with pre- and post-treatment audiometry contributed 102 tonotopic observations (six frequencies per patient). For each frequency, the corresponding regional cochlear dose was extracted. Post-treatment thresholds were modeled using (1) pooled regression, (2) patient fixed-effects models accounting for within-patient comparisons, and (3) models allowing the effect of dose to vary with baseline hearing. Results Baseline hearing strongly predicted post-treatment thresholds (r = 0.69). In pooled regression, dose showed a statistically significant negative association with post-treatment threshold (−0.021 dB/cGy; p = 0.0005), a paradoxical effect resulting from between-patient confounding. After incorporating patient-specific intercepts and adjusting for baseline hearing, local cochlear dose showed a positive association with greater hearing loss: 5.9 dB/Gy (95% CI −0.90 to 12.72). Models allowing for varying sensitivity demonstrated that the dose–response becomes stronger with poorer baseline hearing: approximately 3.16 dB/Gy at 20 dB HL, 4.41 dB/Gy at 40 dB HL, 5.65 dB/Gy at 60 dB HL, and 6.90 dB/Gy at 80 dB HL. Conclusion Tonotopic analyses that do not adjust for patient-level heterogeneity may obscure the true cochlear dose–response relationship. After appropriate adjustment, higher radiation dose to specific cochlear regions appears associated with greater hearing loss, with this effect increasing with worsening baseline hearing thresholds. These results may inform future cochlear sparing strategies to better preserve functional hearing.
