About

A. Raheim White is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Theatre at the University of Utah. His role involves teaching and contributing to the academic community within the theatre department. Specific details about his research focus, background, or key contributions are not provided in the page text.

Research topics

• Dermatology
• Surgery
• Medicine
• Internal medicine

Selected publications

• Cricopharyngeal bar and dermatomyositis: A cause of rapidly progressive dysphagia

  International Journal of Rheumatic Diseases · 2020 · 4 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Medicine
  • Surgery
  • Dermatology

  BACKGROUND: Idiopathic inflammatory myopathies (IIM) are immune-mediated conditions that affect striated muscle, and are frequently associated with dysphagia. Dysphagia in these cases can be due to weakness of the muscles involved in swallowing or the presence of restrictive pharyngeal defects, such as cricopharyngeal bars. Treatment of dysphagia in IIM revolves around immunosuppressive therapies, and procedures to disrupt cricopharyngeus muscle when immunosuppressive therapies are unsuccessful. CASE REPORT: A 73-year-old female presented with rapidly progressive proximal muscle weakness and dysphagia to the point she could not swallow liquids or solids. She had a rash over the extensor surfaces of the limbs, and periorbital-edema. Her creatine kinase was elevated, and skin biopsy showed an interface inflammatory reaction; however, myositis line assay revealed no autoantibodies, and a muscle biopsy was unremarkable. She was diagnosed with dermatomyositis with life-threatening dysphagia, and was admitted to our institution and treated with corticosteroids, methotrexate and intravenous immunoglobulin. A videofluoroscopic swallowing study revealed a large esophageal protrusion at the level of C5-C6, which was thought to be consistent with a cricopharyngeal bar, with large boluses unable to pass, leading to aspiration. After 10 weeks of treatment, the cricopharyngeal bar remained present, but swallowing had improved to the point that she was successfully swallowing all consistencies. CONCLUSION: Dysphagia associated with IIM can be multifactorial, and can be due to the involvement of the muscles of swallowing in the inflammatory process, or due to restrictive pharyngeal defects, and determination of the cause of dysphagia can assist with management.

  PublisherDOI

• A Practical Approach to the Use of Conventional Synthetic, Biologic and Targeted Synthetic Disease Modifying Anti-Rheumatic Drugs for the Treatment of Inflammatory Arthritis in Patients with a History of Malignancy

  Current Rheumatology Reports · 2018-09-01 · 6 citations

  review
  PublisherDOI

• Guides: SpringyCamp Australia: Try It

  2017-10-24

  libguides1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• A practical approach to vaccination of patients with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases in Australia

  Internal Medicine Journal · 2017-01-19 · 18 citations

  review

  Autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases (AIIRD), such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis are often complicated by infection, which results in significant morbidity and mortality. The increased risk of infection is probably due to a combination of immunosuppressive effects of the AIIRD, comorbidities and the use of immunosuppressive conventional synthetic disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and more recently, targeted synthetic DMARDs and biologic DMARDs that block specific pro-inflammatory enzymes, cytokines or cell types. The use of these various DMARDs has revolutionised the treatment of AIIRD. This has led to a marked improvement in quality of life for AIIRD patients, who often now travel for prolonged periods. Many infections are preventable with vaccination. However, as protective immune responses induced by vaccination may be impaired by immunosuppression, where possible, vaccination may need to be performed prior to initiation of immunosuppression. Vaccination status should also be reviewed when planning overseas travel. Limited data regarding vaccine efficacy in patients with AIIRD make prescriptive guidelines difficult. However, a vaccination history should be part of the initial work-up in all AIIRD patients. Those caring for AIIRD patients should regularly consider vaccination to prevent infection within the practicalities of routine clinical practice.

  PublisherDOI

• Cost effective aluminum beryllium mirrors for critical optics applications

  Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 2013-09-30 · 5 citations

  articleSenior author

  The unique performance of aluminum-beryllium frequently makes it an ideal material for manufacturing precision optical-grade metal mirrors. Traditional methods of manufacture utilize hot-pressed powder block in billet form which is subsequently machined to final dimensions. Complex component geometries such as lightweighted, non-plano mirrors require extensive tool path programming, fixturing, and CNC machining time and result in a high buy-to-fly ratio (the ratio of the mass of raw material purchased to the mass of the finished part). This increases the cost of the mirror structure as a significant percentage of the procurement cost is consumed in the form of machining, tooling, and scrap material that do not add value to the final part. Inrad Optics, Inc. and IBC Advanced Alloys Corp. undertook a joint study to evaluate the suitability of investment-cast Beralcast® 191 and 363 aluminum-beryllium as a precision mirror substrate material. Net shape investment castings of the desired geometry minimizes machining to just cleanup stock, thereby reducing the recurring procurement cost while still maintaining performance. The thermal stability of two mirrors, (one each of Beralcast® 191 and Beralcast® 363), was characterized from -40°F to +150°F. A representative pocketed mirror was developed, including the creation of a relevant geometry and production of a cast component to validate the approach. Information from the demonstration unit was used as a basis for a comparative cost study of the representative mirror produced in Beralcast® and one machined from a billet of AlBeMet® 162 (AlBeMet® is a registered trademark of Materion Corporation). The technical and financial results of these studies will be discussed in detail.

  PublisherDOI

• Examination of Rare Missense Variants in the <i><scp>CHRNA</scp>5‐A3‐B4</i> Gene Cluster to Level of Response to Alcohol in the San Diego Sibling Pair Study

  Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research · 2013-03-04 · 14 citations

  article

  BACKGROUND: Common variants in the CHRNA5-A3-B4 gene cluster have been shown to be associated with nicotine dependence and alcohol use disorders (AUDs) and related traits, including the level of response (LR) to alcohol. Recently, rare variants (MAF < 0.05) in CHRNB4 have been reported to be associated with a decreased risk of developing nicotine dependence. However, the role of rare variants in the CHRNA5-A3-B4 gene cluster to the LR to alcohol has not yet been established. METHODS: To determine whether rare variants in the CHRNA5-A3-B4 gene cluster contribute to the LR to alcohol, the coding regions of these 3 genes were sequenced in 538 subjects from the San Diego Sibling Pair study. RESULTS: The analyses identified 16 rare missense variants, 9 of which were predicted to be damaging using in silico analysis tools. Carriers of these variants were compared to noncarriers using a family-based design for each gene and for the gene cluster as a whole. In these analyses, a CHRNA5 carrier status was significantly associated with the phenotype related to the feeling of intoxication experienced during the alcohol challenge (p = 0.039). CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that rare genetic variation in the CHRNA5-A3-B4 gene cluster contributes modestly to the LR to alcohol in the San Diego Sibling Pair study and may protect against AUDs. However, replication studies are needed to confirm our findings.

  PublisherDOI

• Library Web Site Assessment

  IGI Global eBooks · 2011-01-18

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Libraries must increasingly compete as providers of information. Most, if not all, libraries now have a Web page that serves a variety of functions. Increasingly for some users the library web page may be their first introduction to a library. Furthermore, on-line use of library resources is becoming increasingly common. Accordingly an effective Web page design is essential. This chapter presents a Web page assessment tool, developed by the authors, based on a model used in the e-commerce sector. This tool was used to analyze the Web pages of libraries in the Australian Vocational Education & Training sector. The results clearly show both the strengths and weaknesses of Web pages. The lack of a standard method and guidelines for web page authoring is discussed.

  PublisherDOI

• Abstracts of workshop presentations (Part 3 of 13)

  Cytogenetics and Cell Genetics · 2009-03-27 · 10 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• VNTR (variable number of tandem repeats) markers show loss of chromosome 17p sequences in human colorectal carcinomas

  Cytogenetics and Cell Genetics · 2008-05-13 · 34 citations

  articleSenior author

  Restriction fragment length polymorphisms at 53 autosomal loci were screened for heterozygosity in 40 colorectal cancer patients. The DNA pattern in constitutional versus tumor/polyp tissue was compared. More than half of the markers tested were of the VNTR (variable number of tandem repeats) type, giving the patient panel a higher informational content, since the frequency of individuals heterozygous for a particular marker is increased. Loss of alleles was revealed in 40% of the tumors from constitutionally heterozygous patients at the chromosome 17p loci, identified by the markers YNH37 and YNZ22. Similar losses were also detected on other autosomes, but at a significantly lower frequency. Our results suggest that hemi/homozygosity of 17p alleles plays a role in the development of a major subset of colorectal carcinomas. Similar observations regarding other autosomal loci may be interpreted as random losses in these tumors, or they may indicate loci important to minor clinical subclasses of colon carcinomas.

  PublisherDOI

• Contents Vol. 40, 1985

  Cytogenetics and Cell Genetics · 2008-05-09

  article
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• P. O’Connell

  Trinity College Dublin

  527 shared

• Yusuke Nakamura

  436 shared

• G.M. Lathrop

  429 shared

• M. Leppert

  University of Utah

  354 shared

• J.-M. Lalouel

  University of Utah

  278 shared

• J.-M. Lalouel

  University of Utah

  158 shared

• Mark Leppert

  University of Utah

  149 shared

• L. Ballard

  129 shared

Awards & honors

• Windy City Times’ 30 Under 30 Award