RESUMEN
Objectives: Due to the limitations of the Coronavirus disease pandemic, medical applicants have relied on remote means of information, such as a program's website, to decide where to apply. However, studies have shown that many residency and fellowship websites lack information. Vascular neurology fellowship websites have not yet been studied. This study evaluates the availability and accessibility of information on vascular neurology fellowship websites. Methods: From 2021 to 2022, a total of 109 U.S. vascular neurology fellowship programs from the Fellowship and Residency Electronic Interactive Database were investigated to determine whether they had websites. Each website was evaluated on the immediate availability of 34 different criteria, which were deemed important by past studies. These criteria were reviewed under four categories: program overview, application information, fellow life, and curriculum. The comprehensiveness of the information among these different categories were analyzed. Programs were grouped by geographic region and electronic residency application service (ERAS)-participation status and comparisons were made within these groups. Results: There were 107 programs with websites (98%). ERAS-participating programs fulfilled more criteria on average than non-participating programs (P = 0.004). All websites provided information on general descriptions of their programs, but information on board exam pass rates, fellow testimonials, history of the fellowship program, responsibility progression, family and social events, parking availability, and application deadline were provided by less than 25% of websites. Conclusion: This study found that there was a large lack of information on vascular neurology fellowship websites, which could be improved to attract more applicants.
RESUMEN
Opioids have long been used for clinical pain management, but also have addictive properties that have contributed to the ongoing opioid epidemic. While opioid activation of opioid receptors is well known to contribute to reward and reinforcement, data now also suggest that opioid activation of immune signaling via toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) may also play a role in addiction-like processes. TLR4 expression is enriched in immune cells, and in the nervous system is primarily expressed in microglia. Microglial phagocytosis is important for developmental, homeostatic, and pathological processes. To examine how morphine impacts microglial phagocytosis, we isolated microglia from adult male and female rat cortex and striatum and plated them in vitro at 10,000 (10K) or 50,000 cells/well densities. Microglia were incubated with neutral fluorescent microbeads to stimulate phagocytosis in the presence of one of four morphine concentrations. We found that the brain region from which microglia are isolated and plating density, but not morphine concentration, impacts cell survival in vitro. We found that 10-12 M morphine, but not higher concentrations, increases phagocytosis in striatal microglia in vitro independent of sex and plating density, while 10-12 M morphine increased phagocytosis in cortical microglia in vitro independent of sex, but contingent on a plating density. Finally, we demonstrate that the effect of 10-12 M morphine in striatal microglia plated at 10 K density is mediated via TLR4, and not µORs. Overall, our data suggest that in rats, a morphine-TLR4 signaling pathway increases phagocytic activity in microglia independent of sex. This may is useful information for better understanding the possible neural outcomes associated with morphine exposures.