Cardiovascular disease in Filipino American men and women: A 2023 update.

With more than 4.2 million people, Filipino Americans are the third largest Asian group in the US and the largest Southeast Asian group in the country. Despite relatively favorable average socioeconomic indicators compared to the general US population, Filipino Americans face a significant burden of traditional cardiovascular risk factors, particularly among men. Moreover, Filipino Americans have high rates of cardiovascular death, often occurring at a younger age compared to other minority groups and Non-Hispanic White adults. In view of these trends, in 2010 the American Heart Association designated Filipino Americans as a high cardiovascular risk group. Despite this, in 2023, Filipino Americans remain underrepresented in landmark cardiovascular cohort studies and are often over looked as a group at increased cardiovascular risk. In this updated narrative review, we summarize the current state of knowledge about the burden of cardiovascular risk factors and diseases experienced by the Filipino American population. Our aim is to inform enhanced clinical, population, and policy-level prevention interventions and boost research in this space.

Perceptions and Likelihood of Medical Students to Pursue a Career in Neurosurgery: Findings from the Philippines.

BACKGROUND: The number of neurosurgeons in the Philippines is less than ideal for its population, so there is a need to recruit and train more. This study aimed to determine medical students' perception of neurosurgery and their likelihood of pursuing a career in this specialty. METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted of medical students in the Philippines to assess their perceptions and likelihood of pursuing a career in neurosurgery. Data obtained were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a χ2 test with a significance level of 0.05. RESULTS: A total of 627 medical students completed the survey, with a response rate of 72.4%. The mean age was 23.8 years, and almost half (49.1%) were women. They had mostly negative perceptions of neurosurgery, and only 18.7% were likely to pursue a career in this specialty. Reasons included poor work-life balance, poor understanding of neuroscience and neurosurgery, and the self-perceived lack of manual dexterity. The most common sources of their perceptions included lectures, movies, and neurosurgery residents and consultants whom they met in hospital. Previous exposure to neurosurgery lectures or rotations, going back to their hometown to work, and having a physician parent were associated with a higher likelihood of pursuing neurosurgery. CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that medical students' perceptions of neurosurgery were generally negative and that only 18.7% were likely to pursue it as a career. Major changes would have to be made to improve students' perceptions to attract more students to the field and increase the neurosurgical workforce.

Evaluation of crude adult Ascaris suum intestinal tract homogenate in inducing protective IgG production against A. suum larvae in BALB/c mice.

Globally, ascariasis ranks as the second leading intestinal helminth infection. However, progress in developing better control strategies, such as vaccines, remains slow-paced. This study aims to measure antibody production and parasite load in male BALB/c mice immunized with crude Ascaris suum intestinal tract homogenate. Thirty-two (32) mice were randomized into: (1) unvaccinated, uninfected (UU); (2) unvaccinated, infected (UI); (3) vaccinated, uninfected (VU); and (4) vaccinated, infected (VI) groups. A 100-µL vaccine containing 50 µg of homogenized A. suum intestines and Complete Freund's Adjuvant (1:1) were introduced intraperitoneally. Immunizations were done on days 0, 10, and 20. Oral gavage with 1000 embryonated eggs was done on day 30. Blood was obtained at day 40. To measure serum IgG levels, indirect ELISA was done. Microtiter plates were coated with 100 µg larval homogenate, and HRP-conjugated anti-mouse IgG was used as secondary antibody. Parasite load was measured in lung and liver tissues. Tukey's HSD of signal to cut-off ratios of absorbance readings obtained in indirect ELISA procedure for the 1:200 serum dilution showed statistically significant difference between the UU and VI (p = 0.026) as well as between UI and VI (p = 0.003) groups. No statistically significant difference in parasite load was observed in the lungs (p = 0.074), liver (p = 0.130), and both lungs and liver (p = 0.101). Immunization elicited a significant larva-directed IgG production. However, there is no significant difference in parasite loads in either lung or liver tissues across all treatment groups as the larval counts obtained from the study were very low and may not be indicative of the actual parasite load in mice.