Facilitating the emergence of intraverbal tacts by autistic children via joint control.

Rodriguez et al. (2022) discovered that teaching four component skills was sufficient to facilitate the emergence of intraverbal tacts across four applications with three participants. Our study replicated and evaluated an extension of this procedure that was directed at facilitating intraverbal tacts when a child learns the component skills but continues to fail to produce intraverbal tacts. The extension consisted of procedures to enhance the divergent control exerted by the auditory stimulus (i.e., the question) and the discriminability of joint control. Intraverbal tacts emerged for all three participants after undergoing the extension procedures. These results are discussed in the context of a conceptual analysis of intraverbal tacts and the potential role of joint control.

Extension of Tablo TrEatmeNt Duration (XTEND) study: successful 24 h prolonged therapy with Tablo in critical patients.

BACKGROUND: The Tablo® Hemodialysis System (Tablo) is an all in one, easy-to-learn device featuring integrated water purification, on demand dialysate production and two-way wireless data transmission and is approved for use in the acute, chronic, and home settings. Prior reports have demonstrated Tablo's ability to achieve clinical goals, seamlessly integrate into hospitals and reduce cost across a wide range of treatment times. Extension of the Tablo cartridge to 24 h allows prolonged therapy and even greater flexibility for prescribers in the acute setting. The objective is to report on the first ever experience with Tablo prolonged therapy between 12 and 24 h in critically ill patients treated at a single-center ICU. METHODS: Nursing staff were trained during a single training session on Tablo prolonged therapy. After a run-in period of five treatments, Tablo data were collected via real-time transmission to a cloud-based, HIPAA compliant platform and reviewed by site staff. Dialysis treatment delivery, clinically significant alarms, and clotting events were recorded. Sub-group analysis between COVID-19 positive and negative patients were reported. RESULTS: One hundred (100) consecutive Tablo prolonged treatments had a median prescribed treatment time of 24 h and a median achieved treatment time of 21.3 h. Median cartridge usage was 1.3 per treatment. The dialysis treatment time was delivered in 91% of treatments, with 6% ending early due to an alarm, and 3% ending due to clotting. Clinically significant alarms occurred at a median rate of 0.5 per treatment hour with a resolution time of 18 s. Median blood pump stoppage time related to these alarms was 2.3 min per treatment. Blood pump stoppage time was higher in the COVID-19 subgroup when compared to the non-COVID-19 subgroup. CONCLUSION: Tablo successfully achieves prescribed treatment time with minimal therapy interruptions from alarms or cartridge changes. This data demonstrates the effectiveness of Tablo in achieving personalization of treatments necessary for unstable patients and enabling successful delivery of extended therapy with minimal clotting. Tablo's prolonged therapy meets the needs of critically patients, including COVID-19 positive patients, requiring renal replacement therapy for greater than 12 h.

Hidden Costs Associated with Conversion from Peritoneal Dialysis to Hemodialysis.

Background: Increasing use of peritoneal dialysis (PD) will likely lead to increasing numbers of patients transitioning from PD to hemodialysis (HD). We describe the characteristics of patients who discontinued PD and converted to HD, trajectories of acute-care encounter rates and the total cost of care both before and after PD discontinuation, and the incidence of modality-related outcomes after PD discontinuation. Methods: We analyzed data in the United States Renal Data System to identify patients aged ≥12 years who were newly diagnosed with ESKD in 2001-2017, initiated PD during the first year of ESKD, and discontinued PD in 2009-2018. We estimated monthly rates of hospital admissions, observation stays, emergency department encounters, and Medicare Parts A and B costs during the 12 months before and after conversion from PD to HD, and the incidence of home HD initiation, death, and kidney transplantation after conversion to in-facility HD. Results: Among 232,699 patients who initiated PD, there were 124,213 patients who discontinued PD. Among them, 68,743 (55%) converted to HD. In this subgroup, monthly rates of acute-care encounters and total costs of care to Medicare sharply increased during the 6 months preceding PD discontinuation, peaking at 96.2 acute-care encounters per 100 patient-months and $20,701 per patient in the last month of PD. After conversion, rates decreased, but remained higher than before conversion. Among patients who converted to in-facility HD, the cumulative incidence of home HD initiation, death, and kidney transplantation at 24 months was 3%, 25%, and 7%, respectively. Conclusions: The transition from PD to HD is characterized by high rates of acute-care encounters and health-care expenditures. Quality improvement efforts should be aimed at improving transitions and encouraging both home HD and kidney transplantation after PD discontinuation.

Active Circulating Blood Volume During Hemodialysis: A Bench Model.

Intradialytic hypotension due to excessive fluid removal is a common complication of hemodialysis. A bench model was constructed to evaluate quantification of active circulating blood volume (ACBV). The model included a central pump representing the heart and compartments to represent the central and peripheral circulation. A blood oxygenator was used to simulate lung volume and two containers represented fast and slow circulation compartments. A separate dialysis circuit with a blood pump and two ultrasound flow-dilution probes was incorporated. Vascular access was simulated with both a shunt (fistula or graft) and a central venous catheter. Hypertonic saline (5%) was circulated in the system. A bolus of isotonic saline was introduced in the dialysis circuit, which dispersed through the physiologic model. ACBV was measured by comparing the baseline dilution curve to the curve as it returned to the probes. To evaluate the sensitivity of this technique, we investigated changing cardiac output, central venous volume, shunt flow, vascular access type, and HD pump flow. Overall percentage error (mean ± SD) across all tests (n = 15 conditions, each in triplicate) was 2.6% ± 7.4%. This study demonstrates the ability to accurately measure ACBV on the bench.

Facilitating the emergence of intraverbal tacts in children with autism spectrum disorder: A preliminary analysis.

Intraverbal tacts are an example of multiply controlled verbal behavior. More specifically, they are verbal responses under control of both a nonverbal (visual) stimulus (e.g., a green ball) and a verbal (auditory) stimulus (e.g., "What color?" vs. "What shape?"). Studies have shown that verbal behavior training can be arranged in a way that would lead to the emergence of other verbal operants, including multiply controlled (convergent) intraverbals. Our study sought to evaluate the relevance of a specific set of component skills on the emergence of intraverbal tacts in children with an autism spectrum disorder. Intraverbal tacts were observed only when all component skills were mastered, suggesting that this set of skills was sufficient to produce emergent verbal performance. Preliminary data were obtained on the necessity of 4 of the 6 component skills and tentatively suggest that they may be necessary to produce emergent intraverbal tacts, at least under some conditions.

Severe methanol poisoning treated with a novel hemodialysis system: a case report, analysis, and review.

In May and June 2020, an outbreak of methanol poisoning arose in the southwest United States linked to ingestion of contaminated hand sanitizer imported during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, ultimately resulting in over a dozen hospitalizations and at least four deaths in New Mexico and Arizona. In this report, we describe one of these cases in which profound methanol intoxication was successfully treated with the Tablo® Hemodialysis System, the first reported case of toxic alcohol poisoning treated with this novel device. We carry out a formal regression analysis of the serial methanol levels obtained in this case to conservatively estimate that intermittent hemodialysis with Tablo achieved a clearance of methanol of 239 mL/min (95% confidence interval, 173-305 mL/min), a clearance that is well within the previously published standard of care. We conclude by reviewing both the treatment of toxic alcohol poisoning and the determinants of small molecule clearance with hemodialysis, emphasizing the importance of optimizing the dialytic treatment of intoxications with extended treatment times and the use of high-efficiency dialyzers.

Self-care training using the Tablo hemodialysis system.

INTRODUCTION: Recently published results of the investigational device exemption (IDE) trial using the Tablo hemodialysis system confirmed its safety and efficacy for home dialysis. This manuscript reports additional data from the Tablo IDE study on the training time required to be competent in self-care, the degree of dependence on health care workers and caregivers after training was complete, and participants' assessment of the ease-of-use of Tablo. METHODS: We collected data on the time required to set up concentrates and the Tablo cartridge prior to treatment initiation. We asked participants to rate system setup, treatment, and takedown on a Likert scale from 1 (very difficult) to 5 (very simple) and if they had required any assistance with any aspect of treatment over the prior 7 days. In a subgroup of 15 participants, we recorded the number of training sessions required to be deemed competent to do self-care dialysis. FINDINGS: Eighteen men and 10 women with a mean age of 52.6 years completed the study. Thirteen had previous self-care experience using a different dialysis system. Mean set up times for the concentrates and cartridge were 1.1 and 10.0 minutes, respectively. Participants with or without previous self-care experience had similar set-up times. The mean ease-of-use score was 4.5 or higher on a scale from 1 to 5 during the in-home phase. Sixty-five percent required no assistance at home and on average required fewer than four training sessions to be competent in managing their treatments. Results were similar for participants with or without previous self-care experience. CONCLUSIONS: Participants in the Tablo IDE trial were able to quickly learn and manage hemodialysis treatments in the home, found Tablo easy to use, and were generally independent in performing hemodialysis.

Patient-reported outcomes from the investigational device exemption study of the Tablo hemodialysis system.

INTRODUCTION: We recently completed an Investigational Device Exemption (IDE) study in which 30 patients were enrolled (13 patients previously on home hemodialysis (HHD) and 17 patients new to HHD) and treated with the Tablo Hemodialysis System (Outset Medical, Inc., San Jose, CA) for 8 weeks in-center and 8 weeks in-home with an interim 2-4 week transition period for home training. METHODS: In addition to assessments of urea kinetics, events related to safety, and operational issues (e.g., alarm resolution), we obtained data on several parameters of health-related quality of life, including time to recovery (TTR), the EQ-5D-5L (a well-validated measure of general health status), and the quality of sleep and related symptoms, to further assess the safety of HHD with Tablo. We compared results obtained during the in-center and in-home phases of the trial. RESULTS: Twenty-eight of 30 patients (93%) completed all trial periods. Adherence to the prescribed four treatments per week schedule was 96% in-center and 99% in-home. Median TTR was 1.5 hours (10th, 90th percentile range 0.17 to 12, mean TTR 3.68 ± 5.88 hours) during the in-center and 2 hours (10th, 90th percentile range 0 to 6.0, mean TTR 3.04 ± 5.14 hours) during the at-home phase (Wilcoxon signed rank p = 0.57). Median index values on the EQ-5D-5L were similar during the in-center (0.832, 10th, 90th percentile range 0.617 to 1, mean 0.817 ± 0.165) and in-home (0.826, 10th, 90th percentile range 0.603 to 1, mean 0.821 ± 0.163) trial phases (Wilcoxon signed rank p = 0.36). Patients reported feeling alert or well-rested with little difficulty falling or staying asleep or feeling tired and worn out when using Tablo in either environment. CONCLUSION: When using Tablo in-home, patients reported similar TTR, general health status, and sleep quality and related symptoms compared to using Tablo in-center. (294 words).

Safety and efficacy of the Tablo hemodialysis system for in-center and home hemodialysis.

INTRODUCTION: Home hemodialysis remains underutilized despite observational data indicating more favorable outcomes with home compared with in-center hemodialysis. The Tablo Hemodialysis system is designed to be easy to learn and use and to facilitate adoption of home hemodialysis. The objective of the current investigational device exemption (IDE) study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Tablo managed in-center by health care professionals and in-home by patients and/or caregivers. METHODS: A prospective, multicenter, open-label, crossover trial comparing in-center and in-home hemodialysis using Tablo. There were 4 treatment periods during which hemodialysis was prescribed 4 times per week: 1-week Run-In, 8-week In-Center, 4-week Transition, and 8-week In-Home. The primary efficacy endpoint was weekly standard Kt/Vurea ≥ 2.1. The secondary efficacy endpoint was delivery of ultrafiltration (UF) within 10% of prescribed UF. We collected safety and usability data. FINDINGS: Thirty participants enrolled and 28 completed all trial periods. Adherence to the protocol requirement of 4 treatments per week was 96% in-center and 99% in-home. The average prescribed and delivered session lengths were 3.4 hours for both the In-Center and the In-Home periods. The primary efficacy endpoint for the intention-to-treat cohort was achieved in 199/200 (99.5%) of measurements during the In-Center period and 168/171 (98.3%) In-Home. The average weekly standard Kt/Vurea was 2.8 in both periods. The secondary efficacy UF endpoint was achieved in the ITT cohort in 94% in both in-center and in-home. Two prespecified adverse events (AEs) occurred during the In-Center period and 6 in the In-Home period. None of the AEs were deemed by investigators as related to Tablo. The median resolution time of alarms was 8 seconds in-center and 5 seconds in-home. CONCLUSION: Primary and secondary efficacy and safety endpoints were achieved during both In-Center and In-Home trial periods. This study confirms that Tablo is safe and effective for home hemodialysis use.