Table of Contents
Credits
Host: Sara Dong
Guests: Daniel Chastain, Megan Spradlin, Hiba Ahmad, Andrés F Henao-Martínez
Content is based on the CID article featured in this episode although with additional writing by Sara Dong
Cover Art: Sara Dong
Audio Editing: Bentley Brown
Produced by Sara Dong with support from the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA)
Our Guests
Daniel Chastain, PharmD, BCIDP, AAHIVP
Daniel Chastain is a Clinical Associate Professor and ID pharmacist at the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy, in Albany, Georgia.
Megan Spradlin, PA-C
Megan Spradlin, PA-C is a senior instructor within the Division of Medical Oncology and the Division of Hospital Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and is the Director of Quality and Patient Safety for the Division of Medical Oncology. She will complete the Leaders in Informatics, Quality, and Systems (LInQS) fellowship in June 2024. Her quality improvement project is focused on preventing cases of steroid related pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP). She earned her bachelor’s degree in Public Health Nutrition from Kansas State University and her master’s degree in Physician Assistant Studies from Wichita State University. She completed the Advanced Practice Fellowship in Hospital Medicine at the University of Colorado in 2019. She currently splits her clinical time between the urologic oncology clinic, CARE (oncology urgent care) clinic, and on the inpatient medical oncology service. Outside of work, Megan enjoys hiking and playing pickleball.
Hiba Ahmad, PharmD, BCOP
Hiba Ahmad is a board certified clinical oncology pharmacist in genitourinary medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Cancer Center. She earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. She completed her ASHP Accredited PGY-1 pharmacy residency from Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida and her ASHP accredited PGY-2 oncology pharmacy residency from Yale New Haven Hospital in New, Haven Connecticut. Upon completion of her residency, she accepted a position at Yale New Haven Hospital as an oncology clinical pharmacist. Her passion and interest in solid tumors led to her specialization in both inpatient and outpatient women’s health services in breast and gynecologic cancers at Yale for several years. In the last few years she relocated to Colorado where she serves as clinical oncology pharmacy specialist at University of Colorado Hospital. In her current role, she provides outpatient clinical pharmacy services with a focus on genitourinary oncology, specifically, kidney, testicular, prostate, and bladder cancer.
Andrés F Henao-Martínez, MD
Andrés F. Henao-Martínez, M.D., graduated from Universidad del Valle, School of Medicine in Colombia in 2003. He completed his internship and residency at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio in 2010, followed by his fellowship in Infectious Diseases with an advanced research year at the University of Colorado Denver in 2014. He has served on the faculty of the Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine since then and currently holds the Associate Professor of Medicine position. He is a U.S. board-certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. He has been the director of the travel clinic at the University of Colorado Hospital since 2016. In addition, Dr. Henao directs the Outpatient Infectious Diseases Rotation for the Internal Medicine and Preventive medicine residency programs. His research interest is the study of host susceptibility factors to different fungal and tropical infections, including Chagas disease and Cryptococcus. He has published > 160 peer-reviewed publications and holds an H-index of 23 in Scopus and 28 in Google Scholar. He has been appointed Editor-in-Chief of the journal Therapeutic Advances in Infectious Disease. He is also a Section Editor for PLoS NTD and PLoS Global Public Health.
Culture
Daniel: traveling with his family
Megan: staying active, hiking, playing pickleball, volleyball
Hiba: being outdoors, hiking, skiing. She would love to be an interior designer if she was in a different profession!
Andres: classic films and cinema such as Andrei Tarkovsky and Antonioni
Consult Notes
Welcome to this Febrile StAR episode!
These StAR episodes feature discussions with authors from State-of-the-Art Review articles from the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal (CID).
This episode is based on: Chastain DB, Spradlin M, Ahmad H, Henao-Martínez AF. Unintended Consequences: Risk of Opportunistic Infections Associated With Long-term Glucocorticoid Therapies in Adults. Clin Infect Dis. 2024;78(4):e37-e56. doi:10.1093/cid/ciad474
Journal companion article – Executive summary link: https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/78/4/811/7643625
Infographics
Goal
Listeners will be able to discuss the risk of opportunistic infections associated with long-term glucocorticoid use
Learning Objectives
After listening to this episode, listeners will be able to:
- Discuss some of the mechanisms in which glucocorticoids suppress the immune response
- Identify that dose-dependent models may not accurately predict the risk of opportunistic infection in all patients treated with long-term steroids
- Describe potential prevention strategies for patients on long term glucocorticoids
Disclosures
Febrile podcast reports no relevant financial disclosures
Potential conflicts of interest are noted in the CID article as well as reproduced below: No reported conflicts of interest
Citation
Chastain, D., Spradlin, M., Ahmad, H., Henao-Martinez, A., Dong, S. “#110: StAR: Glucocorticoids”. Febrile: A Cultured Podcast. https://player.captivate.fm/episode/0140c236-f56c-4c36-8489-709c963cf583/