All Publications

  • Nasopharyngeal Methicillin-Resistant <italic>Staphylococcus aureus</italic> Carriage and Risk of Percutaneous Endoscopic Gastrostomy-Related Infection: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Digestive diseases (Basel, Switzerland) Mohamed, I., Kim, S., Bhatia, M., Azim, S., Zhang, R., Malavia, M., Sappington, O., Abosheaishaa, H., Dahiya, D. S., Rahman, S. H., Ahmed, O. T., Duong, N., Shuja, A. 2026: 1-10

    Abstract

    Enteral feeding via percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) is commonly used for patients requiring long-term nutritional support. However, PEG insertion carries a risk of infection, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) peristomal infections. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the association between MRSA colonization and the risk of PEG-related infections.A systematic search was conducted in four major databases - Embase, MEDLINE, Cochrane, and Scopus - focusing on studies reporting MRSA colonization and PEG-related infections. Data were analyzed using RevMan v5.3. Odds ratios (OR) were calculated for dichotomous outcomes using a random-effects model. Statistical significance was defined as p < 0.05. Heterogeneity was assessed using the I2 statistic.Five studies encompassing 286 patients were included in the meta-analysis. Among them, 77 patients were nasopharyngeal MRSA-positive, and 209 were MRSA-negative. MRSA colonization was significantly associated with an increased risk of PEG-related peristomal infection (OR: 24.31; 95% CI: 5.20-113.65; p < 0.0001). Moderate heterogeneity was observed among studies (I2 = 69%, p = 0.01), likely reflecting differences in study design and infection definition; however, the overall association remained statistically significant.Nasopharyngeal MRSA colonization is strongly associated with a higher risk of PEG-site infection. These findings highlight the importance of MRSA screening and consideration of colonization status prior to PEG tube insertion. Enhanced infection control strategies should be implemented in MRSA-positive patients to reduce the risk of complications. However, given the limited number of included studies (n = 5; 286 patients), these conclusions should be interpreted with caution. Larger, well-designed studies are needed to validate these associations and identify the most effective preventive measures for MRSA-colonized individuals undergoing PEG placement.

    View details for DOI 10.1159/000550720

    View details for PubMedID 41632737

    View details for PubMedCentralID PMC13030897

  • PRO-READ IR:Enhanced PROcedural Information READability for Patient-Centered Care in Interventional Radiology with Large Language Models. Journal of the American College of Radiology : JACR Elhakim, T., Brea, A. R., Fidelis, W., Paravastu, S. S., Malavia, M., Omer, M., Mort, A., Ramasamy, S. K., Tripathi, S., Dezube, M., Smolinski-Zhao, S., Daye, D. 2024

    Abstract

    To evaluate the extent to which GPT-4 can educate patients by generating easily understandable information about the most common Interventional Radiology(IR) procedures.We reviewed 10 IR procedures and prepared prompts for GPT-4 to provide patient educational instructions about each procedure in layman's terms. The instructions were then evaluated by 4-clinical physicians and 9-nonclinical assessors to determine their clinical appropriateness, understandability and clarity utilizing a survey. A grade-level readability assessment was performed using validated metrics to evaluate accessibility to a wide patient population. The same procedures were also evaluated from the patient instructions available at radiologyinfo.org and compared to GPT-generated instructions utilizing a paired t-test.Evaluation by 4-clinical physicians shows that 9 GPT-generated instructions were fully appropriate, whereas arterial embolization instructions was somewhat appropriate. Evaluation by 9-nonclinical assessors shows that paracentesis, dialysis-catheter-placement, thrombectomy, ultrasound-guided-biopsy, and nephrostomy-tube instructions, were rated excellent by 57%, and good by 43%. The arterial-embolization and biliary-drain instructions were rated excellent by 28.6% and good by 71.4%. In contrast, thoracentesis, port-placement, and CT-guided-biopsy instructions received 43% excellent, 43% good, and 14% fair. The readability assessment across all procedural instructions showed a better Flesch-Kincaid mean grade of GPT-4 instructions compared to radiologyinfo.org(7.8±0.87 vs 9.6±0.83,p=0.007) indicating excellent readability at 7-8th grade level compared to 9-10th grade. Additionally there was a lower Gunning-Fog mean Index(10.4±1.2 vs. 12.7±0.93,p=0.006), and higher Flesch Reading Ease mean score (69.4±4.8 vs 51.3±3.9,p=0.0001) indicating better readability.IR procedural instructions generated by GPT-4 can aid in improving health literacy and patient-centered care in IR by generating easily understandable explanations.

    View details for DOI 10.1016/j.jacr.2024.08.010

    View details for PubMedID 39216782