HJNO Jan/Feb 2020

40 JAN / FEB 2020  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF NEW ORLEANS   Healthcare Briefs nutrition, and stress management. The program offers nutrition, exercise, and behavioral work- shops, including cooking demonstrations, one- on-one consultations with a dietician and health coach, fitness assessments, exercise training, and classes with clinical exercise physiologists. “Intensive cardiac rehab has proven to increase life expectancy by up to five years,” explained Dr. Wade May, CIS cardiologist and medical direc- tor of the CIS Intensive Cardiac Rehab. “It gives patients the opportunity to improve their health, lose weight and feel better, boost their energy, increase endurance and strength, and improve physical and emotional wellbeing. It also teaches self-care techniques that will help patients long after rehab is complete.” Patients must have a physician referral to join the program. Dr. Shivani Gupta Joins Culicchia Neurological Medical Staff Shivani Gupta, DO, has joined the medical staff of Culicchia Neurological Clinic. As a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation, Gupta is trained in a wide array of therapies to increase function and movement to patients. She is a graduate of the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa. and completed a residency in physical medicine and rehabilitation and a fel- lowship in interventional spasticity management at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Phila- delphia. She is now seeing patients at the Culic- chia Neurological Marrero and Uptown offices, as well as providing inpatient rehab care for patients at Cobalt Rehab Hospital in New Orleans. JayneWeiss, MD, Receives Top Global Honor Jayne S. Weiss, MD, professor and chair of oph- thalmology at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine and chief medical officer of LSU Health- care Network, was selected as the recipient of the 2020 Castroviejo Award. The award is given annu- ally by the Cornea Society to “the most outstand- ing individual in the field of cornea and anterior segment.” Since the award was first given in 1975, only two other women have received it; Weiss is the third. The announcement was made at the American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting in San Francisco. According to the Society, each year the Society names the recipient of the Castroviejo Medal who will deliver the Castroviejo Lecture at the Society’s scientific symposium at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting. This is the Soci- ety’s highest award and is given in recognition of exceptional contributions in support of the Soci- ety’s mission--to promote knowledge, research, and understanding in cornea, external disease and refractive surgery. The award is named for Ramon Castroviejo, MD, the father of modern corneal transplant surgery and the inspiration for the founding of the Cornea Society. Her honors include the Advisory Commit- tee Service Award from the FDA; two Secretar- iat Awards from the American Academy of Oph- thalmology; Knight of Sight from the Louisiana Lions Eye Foundation; Best Doctors in America; Best Doctors in New Orleans; and Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. She is also a Ful- bright Association Lifetime Member. Study Shows Biomarker Accurately Diagnoses Deadly Infant Disease A diagnostic study of 136 premature infants found that a protein involved in managing harm- ful bacteria in the human intestine is a reliable biomarker for the noninvasive detection of nec- rotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Led by researchers and clinicians at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, this is one of the largest prospective clinical studies in premature infants yet. According to the National Institutes of Health, necrotizing enterocolitis is a life-threatening ill- ness almost exclusively affecting neonates. NEC has a mortality rate as high as 50 percent. Inflam- mation of the intestine leads to bacterial invasion causing cellular damage and cell death, which causes necrosis of the colon and intestine. As NEC progresses, it can lead to intestinal perfo- ration causing peritonitis, sepsis and death. To date, no clinical test has been established as the gold standard to diagnose NEC. X-rays are used to diagnose advanced disease, but their sensitiv- ity can be as low as 44 percent. The gut disease is one of concern in Louisi- ana, as it has one of the highest rates of prema- ture birth in the country, and it disproportionately affects African-American infants. “This study exemplified academic medicine at its best,” notes Sunyoung Kim, PhD, profes- sor of biochemistry and molecular biology at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine and senior author. “It creates linkages between unexplained patient presentations and scientific inquiry. We were driven by the desire to build unique and usable tools to fight a disease that has been unexplained for nearly 200 years in the most fragile patient population – preemie babies.” Previous research suggested that NEC is pre- ceded and accompanied by changes in the com- plex and dynamic collection of microorganisms called gut microbiota, which live in the intestine. In this study, the research team measured and analyzed the activity of the protein, intestinal alka- line phosphatase (iAP) obtained from stool sam- ples from the babies enrolled in the study at Chil- dren’s Hospital of New Orleans, Touro Infirmary, and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Clinical data collected included gestational age, birth weight, Apgar scores, delivery type, race, gender, feed- ing, antibiotics, laboratory and radiology results, as well as surgical notes. Eighteen percent of the babies were classified as having severe NEC; 14 percent had suspected NEC; and 68 percent were NEC control. Since iAP activity precedes the chemical pro- cess triggering inflammation, the researchers studied the abundance and enzyme activity of iAP shed in stool to assess the correlation of two iAP biochemical measures with disease severity. They found that elevated levels of iAP protein linked to NEC were shed in the samples, but the pro- teins were dysfunctional in the NEC patients. The accuracy rates using iAP levels and iAP activity as markers for severe NEC were 97 percent and 76 percent, respectively. The accuracy values were similar for suspected NEC – 97 percent and 62 percent, respectively. These results indicate that iAP biochemistry and abundance can be used as diagnostic biomark- ers for both severe and suspected NEC. Signifi- cantly, iAP measures were not biomarkers for sep- sis, another potentially fatal condition that can exhibit symptoms similar to NEC. A correct diag- nosis is crucial to treatment decisions. The biomarker has doubled the diagnostic