Author Interviews, Neurological Disorders / 07.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Audrey S. Dickey, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Neurology, DUMC 2900 Durham, NC  27710 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: A drug already used to treat certain forms of cancer may also be an effective therapy for Huntington’s disease, according to a new study in the latest issue of Science Translational Medicine. The same study also increases our understanding of how this drug, and other medications like it, may offer hope for other neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and Parkinson’s disease. Huntington’s disease is a devastating, inevitably fatal disease, with no medications that slow or stop disease progression. In this study, mice with the equivalent of Huntington’s disease became more mobile, recovered from neurodegeneration, and lived longer after being treated with Bexarotene. The same research builds on a 2016 study where Dr. Al La Spada, Dr. Audrey Dickey and colleagues showed that the drug KD3010 is an effective treatment for Huntington’s disease in mice and in human patient neurons made from stem cells. (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Mineral Metabolism / 07.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Val Andrew Fajardo, PhD. NSERC Postdoctoral Fellow | Centre for Bone and Muscle Health Brock University | Department of Health Sciences St. Catharines, ON, Canada  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Lithium is best known for its role as a mood stabilizer, and several ecological studies across a number of different regions have shown that trace levels of lithium in tap water can exert its mood stabilizing effect and reduce rates of suicide, crime, and homicide. The results from our study show that these trace levels of lithium could also potentially protect against Alzheimer’s disease.  These findings are actually supported by several years of research using pre-clinical and clinical models to demonstrate low-dose lithium’s neuroprotective effect against Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, we also found that trace lithium in tap water may potentially protect against obesity and diabetes – an effect that is also supported with previous literature.  In fact, some of the earlier reports of lithium’s effect of increasing insulin sensitivity and improving glucose metabolism were first published in the 1920s.  Finally, we found that trace lithium’s effect on Alzheimer’s disease may be partly mediated by its effect on obesity and diabetes. My collaborator Dr. Rebecca MacPherson who is an expert on Alzheimer’s disease as a metabolic disorder explains that this effect is in support of recent research demonstrating that obesity and diabetes are important risk factors in the development of Alzheimer’s disease.  So interventions aiming to reduce obesity and diabetes such as physical activity can go a long way in lowering risk for Alzheimer’s disease, which is also something we present in our study. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Cancer, CDC, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 07.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Family Weekend 2014-Breast Cancer Walk” by Nazareth College is licensed under CC BY 2.0Dr. Jacqueline Miller, MD Division of Cancer Prevention and Control CDC  MedicalResearch.com: What efforts have proven successful in reducing racial disparities like these? Response: While some racial disparities will exist due to differences in tumor types, improving early diagnosis and providing specific treatment based on tumor characteristics in a timely fashion would result in reducing breast cancer disparities. (more…)
Author Interviews, NEJM, Surgical Research, Technology / 06.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Suresh Vedantham, M.D. Principal Investigator, ATTRACT Trial Professor of Radiology & Surgery Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology Washington University School of Medicine  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response:   About 300,000 Americans each year are diagnosed with a blood clot (deep vein thrombosis, DVT) for the first time.  In total, about 600,000 Americans have a DVT each year, as noted in the 2008 Surgeon General’s Call to Action. Despite the use of standard treatment (blood thinning drugs and compression stockings), about 40% of DVT patients develop a long-term complication called post-thrombotic syndrome (PTS).  PTS impairs patients’ quality of life and typically causes chronic pain and swelling of the leg that occur on a daily basis. In many patients, this leads to major disability the prevents them from walking, working, or conducting normal daily activities. Some patients develop painful open sores on the leg called “venous ulcers”, that are difficult to heal. Pharmacomechanical catheter-directed thrombolysis (“PCDT”) is a minimally-invasive treatment that removes blood clots through a tiny (2-3 mm) incision using the clot-busting drug tissue plasminogen activator (TPA) along with catheter-based devices that can chew up the clots. The benefits and risks of PCDT have not before been evaluated for DVT treatment in a rigorous study.      The final results of the ATTRACT Trial, which was primarily sponsored by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), are being published in The New England Journal of Medicine.  ATTRACT, the most rigorous study to date of clot-busting treatment for DVT, was a multicenter randomized controlled trial comparing PCDT and standard therapy versus standard therapy alone in 692 patients with above-knee DVT. This landmark study, conducted in 56 U.S. hospitals, was led by Principal Investigator Dr. Suresh Vedantham, Professor of Radiology & Surgery at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology at Washington University in St. Louis, along with outstanding DVT researchers at McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario [Canada]), the Massachusetts General Hospital (Boston, MA), and the Mid America Heart Institute (Kansas City, MO).   The primary study result is that for most patients with DVT, the addition of PCDT to standard therapy does not prevent the development of PTS.  Because the use of PCDT involves a small but significant increase in major bleeding complications, it should not be routinely used as first-line DVT treatment.  However, PCDT did reduce the severity of PTS and appeared likely to provide better relief of DVT-related leg pain and swelling.  Further analyses will determine which DVT patients are most likely to experience these benefits. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, NEJM, OBGYNE / 06.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Birth control pills” by lookcatalog is licensed under CC BY 2.0Lina Mørch PhD, MSc Senior Researcher Rigshospitalet MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: There was a lack of evidence on contemporary hormonal contraception and risk of breast cancer. In particular the knowledge of risk with newer progestins was sparse. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research / 06.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Cheng Liu PhD President and Chief Executive Officer of Eureka Therapeutics. MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  
    • Eureka Therapeutics, Inc. is a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on improving the safety profile of T cell therapies and developing novel T cell therapies for the treatment of solid tumors.
    • ET190L1-ARTEMISTM utilizes Eureka’s proprietary ARTEMISTM T cell receptor platform and proprietary human anti- CD19 binder to target CD19-positive malignancies. In preclinical studies, ET190L1-ARTEMISTM matched the cancer killing potency of current CAR-T therapies but with a dramatic reduction in the levels of inflammatory cytokines released, a main cause of cytokine release syndrome. In addition, these studies have shown that ET190L1-ARTEMISTM T cells are less exhausted and more naive and therefore, expected to have improved persistence in vivo. If confirmed in the clinic, this could result in a longer term therapeutic benefit to patients with an improved safety profile.
    • Eureka is also focused on developing the next evolution of T cell therapies against solid tumors which represent 90% of all cancers. While CAR-T therapies have been successful with liquid tumors such as leukemia and lymphoma, they have not been successful in solid tumors because of a lack of specific cell surface antigens. Eureka has pioneered the use of TCR mimic antibodies to target intracellular antigens in solid tumors that were once considered undruggable. Using its proprietary human E-ALPHA® phage display library, Eureka has discovered highly-specific, high affinity TCR mimic antibodies that can target intracellular antigens in solid tumors when processed into peptides and presented onto the cell surface by the MHCI complex. Pre-clinical studies have shown that when these TCR mimic antibodies were engineered onto the ARTEMISTM or CAR-T cell receptor platform against hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer) cells, the T cells launched a potent anti-tumor response.
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Author Interviews, JAMA, Surgical Research, Weight Research / 06.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Anita P. Courcoulas MD, MPH Professor of Surgery, Chief MIS Bariatric & General Surgery University of Pittsburgh Medical Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: This study is the main long term outcomes report from The Longitudinal Assessment of Bariatric Surgery (LABS) Study, an NIH-NIDDK ( National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases) funded study at 10 hospitals in 6 clinical centers and a data coordinating center.  It was a multicenter, prospective three phase longitudinal cohort study that began recruitment of participants in 2006 when gastric bypass and laparoscopic adjustable banding were the two most common bariatric procedures performed in the U.S. The goal of this particular study from LABS was to address the longer-term durability and variability of weight loss and the assess the longer-term impact of bariatric surgery on major health conditions including diabetes, dyslipidemia, and hypertension. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer, CDC, Ovarian Cancer, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 06.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Sherri Stewart, PhD Division of Cancer Prevention and Control CDC MedicalResearch.com: What do women most need to know about ovarian cancer detection and treatment? Response: There is no effective test to detect ovarian cancer at an early stage where treatment is most likely to be effective.  Many women mistakenly believe that the Pap test can detect ovarian cancer, but it does not. The Pap test is recommended only for the detection of cervical cancer.  Recognizing early symptoms of ovarian cancer and seeking timely care may help lead to detection of the cancer at an earlier stage, where treatment is likely to be more effective.  Symptoms – such  as abdominal and back pain, feeling full quickly after eating, and frequent urination – are often present among women with ovarian cancer.  Women should talk with their doctors if they experience any of these symptoms for 2 weeks or longer and the symptoms persist or worsen. If a woman is diagnosed with ovarian cancer, she should seek treatment from a gynecologic oncologist, a physician specially trained to treat ovarian cancer.  Ovarian cancer patients who have been treated by gynecologic oncologists have been shown to survive longer than those treated by other physicians.           (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, CDC, Colon Cancer, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 06.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Arica White PhD MPH Division of Cancer Prevention and Control CDC MedicalResearch.com: What is the likelihood of reaching the 80% CRC screening rate goal by next year? Response: As of 2016, 67% of adults age 50-75 years reported being up-to-date with colorectal cancer screening. The 80% by 2018 initiative represented an aspirational goal that public health, non-profit, and community-based organizations will continue to strive for regardless of the outcome in 2018. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, Social Issues / 06.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Homeless” by Sonny Abesamis is licensed under CC BY 2.0Sarah Hunter, PhD Senior Behavioral Scientist, RAND Corporation Professor, Pardee RAND Graduate School Santa Monica, CA 90401-3028 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: In 2014, RAND was contracted by Brilliant Corners in collaboration with the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation and Los Angeles County Department of Health Services to conduct an evaluation of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services’ Housing for Health (HFH) program.  The HFH program began in 2012 with the goal of providing permanent supportive housing for frequent utilizers of county health services who were experiencing homelessness.  (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews / 06.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Claude Wischik Co-Founder and Executive Chairman TauRx Pharmaceuticals MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The study TRx-237-005 was the second of two Phase 3 trials conducted by TauRx, and was specifically set up to investigate the efficacy and safety of LMTX® in 800 patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease at a dose of 100 mg twice daily compared to 4 mg twice daily (intended as an inactive control dose) over an 18-month treatment period. Results from this study were found to be consistent with those from the first Phase 3 study in mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease, published in The Lancet [(TRx-237-015) Gauthier et al. 2016], indicating that patients obtained no benefit from LMTX® when it was taken in combination with existing approved drugs for Alzheimer’s disease and supporting the hypothesis that LMTX® might be effective as monotherapy at doses as low as 4 mg twice daily. Please refer to the press release for full study results.   (more…)
Author Interviews, C. difficile, Gastrointestinal Disease, JAMA, Transplantation / 06.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dina Kao, MD, FRCPC Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Medicine University of Alberta Edmonton, Alberta, Canada MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We wanted to see what would be the best way to deliver fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT.) There were many controlled studies of FMT delivered by various methods, showing different success rates. Not only were the route of delivery different, but the amount of donor stools also varied greatly from study to study. It appeared that most of the studies delivered by the upper routes gave a smaller amount of donor stool compared to the studies delivering FMT by colonoscopy. Our hypothesis was that given the same amount of donor stool, the effectiveness would be similar by capsules and by colonsocopy. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, Health Care Systems, JAMA / 05.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Allison Kratka MD Candidate 2018 Duke University School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: As there are increasing numbers of high-deductible plans and those with high rates of co-insurance, patients are increasingly expected to help contain the cost of their health care by being savvy health care consumers. We set out to determine how easy or hard it is to find healthcare prices online. (more…)
Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, Cocaine, Kaiser Permanente, NIH, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 05.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Cocaine” by Nightlife Of Revelry is licensed under CC BY 2.0Dr. Dave Thomas PhD Health Scientist Administrator National Institute on Drug Abuse  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: At the National Institute on Drug Abuse, we support research on all forms of drug use, and are aware that cocaine misuse is on the rise.  We are aware that various forms of drug use can have greater prevalence by race, sex, age and other population characteristics. The main finding of this paper is that cocaine overdose rates are on the rise and that that the group hit hardest is the non-Hispanic black population. (more…)
Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Weight Research / 05.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Scale model” by brett jordan is licensed under CC BY 2.0William Barrington, PhD lead author on the study Recently graduated PhD student from the Threadgill lab David Threadgill, PhD Texas A&M College of Medicine and College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, senior author MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Obesity and diet-induced diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, have reached epidemic proportions. The United States has offered universal dietary recommendations for decades, but they have been largely unsuccessful in reducing diet-induced diseases. These recommendations are largely built upon population-level data, which examines a large number of individuals and determines the average response to a dietary intervention. However, if there is large variation in responses within a population, then population-level data may be inadequate to improve health across genetically diverse individuals. Our study used four genetically diverse types of mice to examine how one’s genetics interact with diet to influence obesity and risk factors for cardiometabolic disease. The study compared four popular human diets (American, Mediterranean, Japanese, and Maasai/ketogenic). While all mice suffered detrimental effects from the American diet, the severity of disease varied widely across the types of mice. In comparison, no single diet improved health across all strains, but there was one or more diets that improved health in each strain. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Rheumatology, Weight Research / 04.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jeffrey A. Sparks, M.D., M.M.Sc. Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Rheumatology, Immunology and Allergy Department of Medicine Brigham and Women’s Hospital Harvard Medical School MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We compared women diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) during follow-up in the Nurses’ Health Study and matched women without RA during the same index time period. Women with RA had higher mortality than women without RA. In both groups, those that had severe weight loss (>30 pounds), had the highest mortality after the early RA/index period. Weight gain in the early RA period was not associated with mortality for either group. (more…)
Author Interviews, Dermatology, Genetic Research / 04.12.2017

MedicalReseaerch.com Interview with: Alicia R. Martin PhD, Postdoc Department of Genetics Stanford University Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School Stanley Center for Psychiatric Research, Broad Institute, Cambridge, MA and Brenna M. Henn, Phd, Assistant Professor Department of Ecology and Evolution SUNY Stony Brook, NY  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Skin pigmentation varies more in Africa than in any other continent, and yet genetic studies of this and other traits are massively underrepresented there. Previous Eurasian study biases have instead focused on populations that vary less and have fewer variants contributing to baseline skin color. In our study, we compiled quantitative skin color measurements from a large, globally diverse set of individuals and populations to show that pigmentation varies more closer to the equator than in high latitude populations. We focused on the ‡Khomani San and Nama populations from South Africa, which diverged early along the modern human lineage from other populations and have lighter skin than equatorial Africans. We showed that skin pigmentation is roughly 100% heritable, but that previously identified genes make up a tiny fraction (~10%) of the variation present in these populations. We identified both known and new genes contributing to this variability. (more…)
Author Interviews, Bone Density, Dermatology, Endocrinology, Osteoporosis, Pediatrics / 03.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Diana L. Cousminer, PhD Division of Human Genetics Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Philadelphia, PA 19104 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Osteoporosis is a significant public health burden, with origins early in life. Later puberty and lower adolescent bone mineral density are both risk factors for osteoporosis. Geneticists have identified hundreds of genetic variants across the genome that impact pubertal timing, and we found that collectively this variation also plays a role in bone mineralization during adolescence. Additionally, we found that later puberty caused lower adult bone density. (more…)
Author Interviews, Psychological Science / 03.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David Chester, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of Psychology Virginia Commonwealth University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We wanted to understand what personality traits define people who tend to seek revenge. We observed that the defining personality characteristic of revenge-seekers is sadism, which is the tendency to enjoy the suffering of others. Put simply, the people who seek revenge are the ones most likely to enjoy it. We also found some other interesting results, namely that revenge-seekers are also prone to premeditation. They like to plan out their actions ahead of time, which settles a long-standing debate about whether revenge seekers act on impulse or plan out their vengeful acts. (more…)
Author Interviews, CDC, Nutrition / 01.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Seung Hee Lee-Kwan, PhD Epidemiologist, Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Seung Hee Lee-Kwan has a PhD in International Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her previous work focused community-based interventions that aimed to promote healthy eating. Dr. Lee-Kwan’s current work at CDC is on fruits and vegetable surveillance, and research of health behaviors and environmental factors associated with obesity.   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The purpose of the study was to update a 2013 report that estimated how many people in each state are meeting fruit and vegetable intake recommendations with the latest data from 2015. These estimates looked at the percent of adults meeting the intake recommendations by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and income-to-poverty ratio for the 50 states and District of Columbia (DC). (more…)
Author Interviews, Psychological Science / 01.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Rugby” by Jim Ceballos is licensed under CC BY 2.0Dr. Yusuke Kuroda PhD Massey University New Zealand MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Similar study, examining motivational personality among rugby players from four different countries (but all from predominantly Anglo-Saxon), was conducted in the late 1980s, and that study showed that elite rugby players, regardless of nationality, possessed serious minded and goal oriented personality. Number of studies examined athletes in different sports and showed similar results. Previously, I had a chance to examine Maori and Japanese people engaged in traditional dance from their own culture; and, the Maori people were predominantly playful and spontaneous oriented, while the Japanese people were predominantly serious minded and goal oriented. Dr Farah Palmer, one of co-authors, and I wanted to examine whether Maori All Blacks and Japanese National Team rugby players and see whether motivational personality of them were driven by being elite athletes or from cultural background. To play for the Maori All Blacks, players have to have a Maori background. The Japanese National Team, on the other hand, was consisted of Japanese and foreign born players. To examine the effect of culture, we also examined cultural identity among players. With the help from Associate Professor Makoto Nakazawa, we got to measure motivational personality and cultural identity from both teams, and results showed that the Maori All Blacks players were more playful minded spontaneous oriented, while the Japanese National Team players were serious minded and goal oriented. Cultural identity showed that the Japanese National Team players, even with foreign born players, showed a greater knowledge of the Japanese culture and higher comfort level in their own culture than the Maori All Blacks players (or their own culture). However, the Maori All Blacks players felt more positive and sustain the Maori culture. (more…)
Author Interviews, NIH, Nutrition, Weight Research / 30.11.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Herring in high fructose corn syrup” by Ray Sawhill is licensed under CC BY 2.0Paolo Piaggi PhD and Marie Thearle MD Phoenix Epidemiology and Clinical Research Branch National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases National Institutes of Health, Phoenix, Arizona  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Changes in food preparation have occurred over the recent decades including wide-spread availability of convenience foods and use of fructose as a sweetener. In addition, there is a growing trend to label certain foods as “healthy”. As the ingestion of added sugars and the prevalence of obesity have steadily increased over time, it has been suggested that the increased consumption of simple sugars may have contributed to the recent obesity epidemic. We were interested in understanding whether the body responded to overeating foods with a high carbohydrate content differently if the source of the carbohydrate differed. For example, does it matter if we overeat foods containing whole wheat instead of high-fructose corn syrup? To answer this question, we conducted a study investigating changes in metabolism, circulating hormones, and appetite ratings in humans who were overfed a diet containing 75% carbohydrates for 24 hours. The subjects in the study were overfed with a high carbohydrate diet twice – once with a diet where the source of carbohydrates was whole wheat and once with a diet that contained simple sugars, primarily high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS). Note that the diets were given in random order with at least three days of recovery in between the overfeeding periods. There was no difference in people’s metabolic rate over 24 hours between the whole-wheat versus high-fructose corn syrup diets; however, the diet containing HFCS resulted in increased hunger scores the next morning even though people had overeaten the day prior. These increased hunger scores were comparable to the hunger scores reported after a day of fasting. Also, 24-hour urinary free cortisol concentrations were higher the day after the diet containing high-fructose corn syrup. Cortisol is a hormone released by the adrenal glands in response to physiologic stress. (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, JAMA, Mental Health Research / 30.11.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Willemijn Jansen, PhD Postdoctoral researcher Department of Psychiatry & Neuropsychology Maastricht University Medical Center School for Mental Health and Neuroscience Alzheimer Center Limburg  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Cerebral amyloid-β aggregation is an early pathological event in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), starting decades prior to dementia onset. About 25% of cognitively normal elderly and 50% of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) have biomarker evidence of amyloid pathology. These persons are at increased risk for developing AD-type dementia, but the extent to which amyloid-β aggregation affects cognitive function in persons without dementia is unclear. This is important to know for a better understanding of the course of Alzheimer’s disease and for the design of AD prevention trials. We here investigate the association between amyloid plaques and memory scores, using data from 53 international studies included in the Amyloid Biomarker study. Cognitively healthy elderly people with plaques have a low memory score twice as often as these persons without plaques. MCI patients with plaques had 20% more often low memory and low global cognition scores than MCI patients without plaques. We further observed 10- to 15-year intervals between the onset of amyloid positivity and emergence of low memory scores in cognitively healthy persons. (more…)
Author Interviews, Fertility, Heart Disease, OBGYNE, Pediatrics / 30.11.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “2010 Nobel Prize in Medicine - development of the in vitro fertilization procedure” by Solis Invicti is licensed under CC BY 2.0Paolo Cavoretto MD PhD San Raffaele Scientific Centre Obstetrics and Gynaecology Department Milan Italy MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Congenital heart defects (CHD) are the most common forms of congenital disorders and a relevant cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality involving about 0.8% of pregnancies. IVF pregnancies are very common nowadays with increasing rates in the developed countries worldwide. There is no consensus in current practice guidelines whether IVF/ICSI conception represents an indication for performing a fetal echocardiogram according to different eminent scientific societies due to differences in the estimations of the risk for CHD in the available literature. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, NEJM, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 30.11.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Kovalam Beach - Obesity : a rising problem in India” by Miran Rijavec is licensed under CC BY 2.0Mr. Zachary Ward Center for Health Decision Science Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Boston, MA 02115 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Although the current obesity epidemic in the US has been well documented in children and adults, less is known about the long-term risks of adult obesity for children given their current age and weight.  As part of the CHOICES project (Childhood Obesity Intervention Cost Effectiveness Study), we developed new methods to simulate height and weight trajectories across the life course based on individual-level data.  We also used a novel statistical approach to account for long-term population-level trends in weight gain, allowing us to make more realistic projections of obesity into the future.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Brain Injury, Imperial College, Pediatrics / 30.11.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Baby” by Victor is licensed under CC BY 2.0Dr Chris Gale Clinical Senior Lecturer in Neonatal Medicine Imperial College London and Consultant Neonatologist at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust     MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: As part of a drive to make England a safer place to give birth, the Department of Health in England has set a target of reducing the number of babies that incur brain injury during or soon after birth by 20% by 2020 and to halve them by 2030. Before now United Kingdom health services did not have a standard definition of brain injury in babies and there has been no systematic collection of data for this purpose. With colleagues and in collaboration with the Department of Health, we have devised a practical way to measure the incidence rate of brain injury in babies using routinely recorded data held in the National Neonatal Research Database. The research estimated that 3,418 babies suffered conditions linked to brain injury at or soon after birth in 2015, which equates to an incidence rate of 5.14 per 1,000 live births. For preterm births (babies born at or less than 37 weeks) the rate was 25.88 per 1,000 live births in 2015, almost six times greater than the rate for full-term births, which was 3.47 per 1,000 live births. Overall, the research found that the most common type of condition that contributed brain injuries was damage caused by lack of oxygen to the brain, called hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy; this is seen mainly in term babies. For preterm babies, the largest contributor to brain injuries is from bleeding into and around the ventricles of the brain, a condition called periventricular haemorrhage. It is also the first time that brain injuries in babies have been measured using data gathered routinely during day to day clinical care on NHS neonatal units. The use of routine data required no additional work for clinical staff and provides a valuable way to measure the effectiveness of interventions to reduce brain injury. (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Geriatrics / 30.11.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: aaaTara Kelley-Baker PhD Data and Information Group Leader AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Background on LongROAD The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety (AAAFTS) launched the Senior Driver Initiative in 2012 in an effort to better understand and meet the safe mobility needs of older adult drivers. A multidisciplinary research team from six institutions was formed to design and implement the Longitudinal Research on Aging Drivers (LongROAD) study. The aims of the study are to better understand:
  • 1) major protective and risk factors of safe driving;
  • 2) effects of medical conditions and medications on driving behavior and safety;
  • 3) mechanisms through which older adults self-regulate their driving behaviors to cope with functional declines;
  • 4) the extent, use, and effects of new vehicle technology and aftermarket vehicle adaptations among older drivers; and
  • 5) determinants and health consequences of driving cessation during the process of aging.
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Author Interviews, CDC, Vaccine Studies / 29.11.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Syringe and Vaccine” by NIAID is licensed under CC BY 2.0Alissa C. O’Halloran, MSPH Immunization Services Division National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta GA 30329  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Outbreaks of pertussis (whooping cough) can occur in healthcare settings. Vaccinating healthcare personnel (HCP) may be helpful in protecting HCP from pertussis and potentially limiting spread to others in healthcare settings. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommends a single dose of tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) vaccine for all adults, including pregnant women during each pregnancy, to protect themselves and reduce the risk for transmitting pertussis to infants too young to be vaccinated. To assure high Tdap coverage and disease prevention among HCP, patients, and others, ACIP recommends that healthcare employers provide Tdap vaccination to HCP and use approaches that maximize vaccination rates. In this study, we assessed Tdap vaccination coverage among healthcare personnel  by occupation, industry, demographics, access-to-care characteristics, and by the 21 states in the study. (more…)
Author Interviews, Columbia, JAMA, Neurology, Pulmonary Disease / 29.11.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jinsy Andrews, MD, MS Director of Neuromuscular Clinical Trials Columbia University The Neurological Institute New York, NY 10032  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The importance of respiratory function in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) has long been recognized. Despite ALS being a clinical diagnosis with variable presentation and variable rates of disease progression, all patients experience respiratory symptoms and inevitably die typically from respiratory failure. At present there is no validated biomarker of disease progression or clinical staging system. Direct measure of respiratory function in ALS is important and can be measured using vital capacity. Although the forced maneuver (FVC) has been widely used in patients with ALS, it can underestimate the actual lung capacity by causing fatigue or inducing bronchospasm in patients with ALS. More recently, the slow maneuver (SVC) has been used since it can be obtained from patients with advancing disease which can potentially minimize missing data and may reduce any underestimation of actual lung capacity due to a forceful effort. However, the prognostic value of the decline in SVC is unclear in patients with ALS. (more…)