Background The novel coronavirus pandemic has drastically affected healthcare organizations across the globe. Methods We sought to summarize the current telemedicine environment in order to highlight the important changes triggered by the novel coronavirus pandemic, as well as highlight how the current crisis may inform the future of telemedicine.Results At many institutions, the number of telemedicine visits dramatically increased within days following the institution of novel coronavirus pandemic restrictions on in-person clinical encounters. Prior to the pandemic, telemedicine utilization was weak throughout surgical specialties due to regulatory and reimbursement barriers. As part of the pandemic response, the USA government temporarily relaxed various telemedicine restrictions and provided additional telemedicine funding. Discussion The post-pandemic role of telemedicine is dependent on permanent regulatory solutions. In the coming decade, telemedicine and telesurgery are anticipated to mature due to the proliferation of interconnected consumer health devices and high-speed 5G data connectivity.

BackgroundMuscle wasting is a profound side effect of advanced cancer. Cancer-induced cachexia decreases patient quality of life and is associated with poor patient survival. Currently, no clinical therapies exist to treat cancer-induced muscle wasting. Although cancers commonly associated with cachexia occur in older individuals, the standard animal models used to elucidate the causes of cachexia rely on juvenile mice.MethodsIn an effort to better model human cancer cachexia, we determined whether cachectic features seen in young mice could be achieved in adult, pre-sarcopenic mice following colon 26 (C-26) tumor cell inoculation.ResultsBoth young and adult mice developed similar-sized tumors and progressed to cachexia with similar kinetics, as evidenced by losses in body mass, and adipose and skeletal muscle tissues. Proteolytic signaling, including proteasome and autophagy genes, was also increased in muscles from both young and adult tumor-bearing animals. Furthermore, tumor-associated muscle damage and activation of Pax7 progenitor cells was induced in both young and adult mice.ConclusionsAlthough cancer cachexia generally occurs in older individuals, these data suggest that the phenotype and underlying mechanisms can be effectively modeled using the currently accepted protocol in juvenile mice.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s13539-014-0141-2) contains supplementary material.

In recent years, white sharks (Carcharodon carcharias) have become more accessible to researchers off the northeastern U.S. as feeding aggregation sites have emerged and the population has increased. However, there has been limited research on young-of-the-year (YOY) sharks relative to older age classes in this region. Previous research indicated that YOY white sharks were most frequently observed in the New York Bight, suggesting the region serves a nursery role. To further examine the species’ use of this area, we deployed satellite and acoustic tags on ten YOY white sharks (138–166 cm total length) off Long Island, New York. The sharks remained resident in New York Bight waters through summer (August through October), further supporting the notion that the region is a nursery area. Southward movements were observed during fall, with overwintering habitat identified off North and South Carolina shelf waters. Return migrations toward the New York Bight were observed in some individuals the following spring. YOY white sharks in this heavily-populated region are exposed to anthropogenic impacts such as fisheries bycatch and coastal habitat degradation. As juvenile survival rates are important for long-term population sustainability, further research is necessary to assess the potential impacts of these activities on the western North Atlantic white shark population.

Objectives: Adults with decreased muscle mass experience worse outcomes and more frequent complications. The effects of sarcopenia on pediatric outcomes are unknown. Our objective was to define reference values for lean muscle mass in a healthy pediatric population to facilitate future studies on the impact of lean muscle mass on pediatric outcomes. Patients and Methods: Bilateral psoas muscle surface area was measured by computed tomography in a healthy pediatric population undergoing evaluation after trauma. Pearson correlation coefficients (PCCs) were calculated for age, weight, height, body mass index (BMI), total psoas muscle area, and psoas muscle index (PMI; defined as psoas muscle area divided by height squared). Quantile regression was used to determine age- and sex-specific percentiles of psoas muscle area and PMI. Results: Analysis of 494 male and 288 female patients with available imaging (median age: 9.3 years, interquartile range: 5.4–13.4; 63.1% male) was performed. For males, age correlated strongly with total psoas volume (PCC = 0.87), height (0.95), and weight (0.88) and poorly with BMI (0.45). In females, age correlated strongly with total psoas volume (0.88), height (0.92), weight (0.88) and poorly with BMI (0.19). Gender-specific curves and charts were created using output from the quantile regression from reference values of the total psoas muscle area corresponding to the 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles across all ages. Conclusions: We created gender-specific reference charts for total and height-normalized psoas muscle area in healthy children based on age. These results can be used in future studies to establish the effects of sarcopenia in pediatric patients.