HJNO Jul/Aug 2023

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS I  JUL / AUG 2023 41 For weekly eNews updates and to read the journal online, visit HealthcareJournalNO.com “This study showed that women who did not eat fruits, dark-green vegetables, and beans had a significantly higher risk of genital high-risk-HPV infection,” notes Hui-Yi Lin, PhD, professor of bio- statistics at LSU Health New Orleans School of Public Health and lead author of the study. “In addition, intake of whole grains and dairy was inversely associated with low-risk-HPV infection.” LSU Health New Orleans authors also include Doctors Tung-sung Tseng, Krzysztof Reiss and Michael E. Hagensee, Qiufan Fu, Xiaodan Zhu, along with L. Joseph Su, MD, from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. CIS Names Ryan Hebert as CEO Cardiovascular Institute of the South (CIS) has announced Ryan Hebert, MHA, RT(R), CCIR, as its CEO, effective July 1. For the past two years, Hebert has served as CIS’s chief operating officer. He joined CIS in 2014, beginning as a cath lab director and prac- tice administrator in Luling, and moving into a leadership role as an executive vice president of Cardiovascular Services. Hebert holds a Master of Healthcare Adminis- tration from Louisiana State University in Shreve- port and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Phoenix. He is also a certified radiologic technologist. Study Results Validate a Rapid Diagnostic Test for Sepsis in ER Critical care physician Hollis O'Neal, MD, MSc, associate professor of medicine at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine’s Baton Rouge campus, presented data that validate a rapid diagnostic test for sepsis at the American Thoracic Society 2023 International Conference. O’Neal is the national principal investigator of the CV-SQulSH-ED trial, a multi-site prospective study to evaluate the diagnostic performance of the investigational Cytovale System & IntelliSep Test for patients presenting to the emergency department with signs or suspicion of infection. The IntelliSep Test is a microfluidic test that mea- sures the biophysical properties of white blood cells (leukocytes) in conjunction with other labo- ratory findings and clinical assessments to aid in the early detection of sepsis. O’Neal led the prospective, multicenter study of adults presenting to the ED with signs or sus- picion of infection to assess the IntelliSep Test. It provides a test result, called the IntelliSep Index (ISI), in less than 10 minutes in three interpreta- tive bands from a low (Band 1) to high (Band 3) probability of sepsis. IntelliSep results were com- pared to retrospective judgement of sepsis-3 by an independent panel of critical care, infectious disease, and emergency medicine physicians. Research and clinical personnel were blinded to the ISI results. Clinical outcomes were extracted from the medical record. A total of 572 patients were enrolled in EDs from medical centers in four states. Sepsis was the final diagnosis in 152 patients (26.6%). The prevalence of sepsis in Band 3 was 79 of 160 (49.4%); Band 2, 45 of 160 (28.12%); and Band 1, 28 of 252 (11.1%). Emergency Department phy- sicians diagnosed sepsis in 52 of 152 patients with sepsis and 24 of 420 (5.7%) of patients with- out sepsis. The study showed that ISI provided a rapid, reliable diagnostic aid for sepsis in a popu- lation of patients with signs or suspicion of infec- tion. Based on these data, the United States Food & Drug Administration granted the system 510(k) clearance in December 2022. LSUHealth NewOrleans Researchers Discover Potential NewRx Strategy for Ischemic Stroke A study conducted by scientists at LSU Health New Orleans’ Neuroscience Center of Excel- lence reports that the additive neuroprotection of a combination of two omega-3 fatty acid- derived signaling molecules is more effective in protecting brain cells and increasing recovery from stroke in an experimental model than a sin- gle drug. Results were published online in Cellu- lar and Molecular Neurobiology . The research team examined the bioactivity of Neuroprotectin D1 (NPD1 - discovered by the Bazan lab in 2003) combined with Resolvin D1 (RvD1) in experimental stroke. These two naturally occurring neuroprotective molecules in the brain derived from docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) called docosanoids have been shown to limit excessive inflammatory responses, regulate metabolism and immune cell functions, decrease the production of proinflam- matory factors, and promote tissue repair and sta- bility. Under Bazan’s guidance, LSU Health New Orleans graduate student and first author Madi- gan Reid designed and performed gene expres- sion studies that showed the combination treat- ment elicited the selective expression of genes contributing to cell survival. The scientists found that the combination ther- apy boosted the uptake of an anti-inflammatory stroke-associated gene by 123-fold, a gene that regulates new brain cell and blood vessel growth by 100-fold, and two markers of the stability of the brain cells that regulate brain development, main- tenance of neuronal networks, and injury repair by ten- and five-fold, respectively. “We show that NPD1 + RvD1 remarkably improves neurological function and reduces lesion volume in acute ischemic stroke when administered promptly in moderate doses,” said Ludmila Belayev, MD, professor of neurosurgery, neurology, and neuroscience at LSU Health New Orleans Neuroscience Center. “We also demon- strated a broad therapeutic window of neuropro- tection with moderate doses of NPD1 + RvD1, such that treatment initiated even 6 hours after stroke onset is highly effective. This combinatorial therapy may promise future therapeutic develop- ment against ischemic stroke.” “The biological activity of NPD1 plus RvD1 is due to specific activation and modulation of sig- naling pathways associated with the immune system, inflammation, cell survival, and cell-cell interactions,” concluded Bazan. “These findings provide a major conceptual advance of broad therapeutic relevance for cell survival, brain func- tion and, particularly, stroke and neurodegenera- tive diseases.” n Ryan Hebert, MHA, RT(R), CCIR