Patients with Huntington’s disease (HD), an autosomal-dominant neurodegenerative disease, show substantial variability in age-of-onset, symptom severity and course of illness, warranting the need for biomarkers to anticipate and monitor these features. The HD gene encodes the disease protein huntingtin (Htt), a potentially useful biomarker for this disease. In the current study, we determined whether total Htt protein (normal plus mutant; “tHtt”) could be reliably measured in human saliva, a body fluid that is much more accessible compared to cerebral spinal fluid or even blood, and whether salivary levels of tHtt were clinically meaningful. We collected 146 saliva samples from manifest HD patients, early-premanifest individuals, late-premanifest patients, gene-negative family members and normal controls. We found that tHtt protein could be reliably and stably detected in human saliva and that tHtt levels were significantly increased in saliva from HD individuals compared to normal controls. Salivary tHtt showed no gender effects, nor were levels correlated with total protein levels in saliva. Salivary tHtt was significantly positively correlated with age, but not age-of-onset or CAG-repeat length. Importantly, salivary tHtt was significantly correlated with several clinical measures, indicating relevance to disease symptom onset and/or severity. Measurements of salivary tHtt offer significant promise as a relevant, non-invasive disease biomarker for HD, and its use could be implemented into clinical applications.

In the context of current U.S. racial justice movements, analysis of racism in medicine within medical education is a critical task for all institutions. To educate the next generation of physicians about racism in medicine and out of concern that the curriculum required critical assessment and change, a group of students and faculty at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) initiated a longitudinal curricular analysis through a vertical integration group, commissioned by the Medical Education Committee, from May 2019 to June 2020. The curriculum analysis and the major outcomes and guiding principles that emerged from it are described as a path forward, toward a more inclusive curriculum. The major elements of this analysis included a comprehensive internal curricular assessment and an external assessment of peer institutions that led to the development of key curricular recommendations and overarching equity and specific racially focused equity competencies. The curricular recommendations fall into the following domains: (1) challenging the persistence of biological/genetic notions of race, (2) embedding structural practices in medical education to dismantle racism in medicine, and (3) promoting institutional climate change. Initial steps to implement these recommendations are described. The authors believe that the historic and present reality of racism in America and in medicine has impacted medical education specifically, and more broadly, the practice of medicine, trainee experience, and patient outcomes. The key findings of the BUSM analysis are transferable to other medical education institutions, and the described review process can support peer institutions as they engage in the imperative work of institutional reflection and addressing the salient ideas and practices that uphold racism in medicine.

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Objective To understand why pediatric otolaryngology patients do not attend scheduled clinic appointments and identify factors correlated with no‐show status. Study Design Retrospective cohort study. Methods This is a retrospective cohort study that uses medical record data extraction of patients that was scheduled to attend new patient appointments at a pediatric otolaryngology clinic in 2018. Results Factors associated with no‐shows included complex psychiatric history (OR (95% CI) 0.789 (0.71–0.88), P < .001), increased appointment lead time (OR (95% CI) 0.981 (0.976–0.987), P < .001), afternoon appointments (OR (95% CI) 0.783 (0.64–0.99), P = .038), and complex maternal medical history (OR (95% CI) 0.987 (0.979–0.996), P < .005). In contrast, factors associated with attendance included complex patients’ medical history (OR (95% CI) 1.058 (0.98–1.02), P < .001), primary care physician at the same hospital (OR (95% CI) 2.766 (2.25–3.39), P < .001), and primary language being Spanish (OR (95% CI) 2.536 (1.75–3.67) P < .001). The factors of distance from the hospital (OR (95% CI) 1.001 (0.99–1.01), P = .868), season of appointment (P = .997), race (P = .623), and ethnicity (P = .804) were not associated with attendance or no‐shows. Conclusion Patient and maternal medical problems, mental health history, primary care location, appointment lead time, hour of appointment, and primary language, all contribute to appointment attendance, while appointment timing, race, and ethnicity are not associated with attendance. Further work must be performed to overcome these barriers to minimize healthcare risks and improve patient outcomes. Quality of Evidence Level 3 Laryngoscope, 132:895–900, 2022

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