Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Brain Injury / 08.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31844" align="alignleft" width="142"]Julianne Schmidt, PhD, ATC Assistant Professor Department of Kinesiology The University of Georgia Athens GA Dr. Julianne Schmidt[/caption] Julianne Schmidt, PhD, ATC Assistant Professor Department of Kinesiology The University of Georgia Athens GA MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Less than half of all people with a concussion intend to reduce their driving at any point. Current recommendations surrounding concussion focus on when it is safe to return to sport or return to the classroom, but return to driving is usually ignored and has not been studied.
Author Interviews, BMJ, Orthopedics, Pain Research, Surgical Research / 08.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31841" align="alignleft" width="109"]Jonas Bloch Thorlund Associate Professor (MSc, PhD) Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics Research Unit for Musculoskeletal Function and Physiotherapy University of Southern Denmark Dr. Jonas Thorlund[/caption] Jonas Bloch Thorlund Associate Professor (MSc, PhD) Department of Sports Science and Clinical Biomechanics Research Unit for Musculoskeletal Function and Physiotherapy University of Southern Denmark MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Arthroscopic partial meniscectomy is a very common knee surgery. Research evidence has seriously questioned the effect of this type of surgery for degenerative meniscal tears in middle-aged and older patients. Most young patients with traumatic meniscal injury (from sports or similar) also undergo this type of surgery. There is a general understanding that young patients with traumatic tears experience larger improvements in patient reported pain, function and quality of life. However, evidence for this presumption is sparse.
Author Interviews, Endocrinology, JCEM, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 08.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alfonso Abizaid PhD Department of Neuroscience Carleton University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Bisphenol A (BPA) is a compound considered to be a potential environmental hazard and an endocrine disruptor. We have found an association between exposure to BPA at levels that are considered safe by Health Canada and the EPA early in life, and the development of obesity. In addition, we found that this propensity to develop obesity is due to under development of the hypothalamic projection field of POMC neurons, a set of neurons that regulate satiety and stimulate metabolic rate. In this paper we replicate those findings and also show that this abnormal development is due to BPA altering the secretion of the hormone leptin at critical times where this hormone is important for the post-natal development of these POMC neurons.
Asthma, Author Interviews, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 08.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31828" align="alignleft" width="120"]Elina Jerschow, M.D., M.Sc., FAAAAI, FACAAI Associate Professor of Medicine, Allergy/ Immunology Division Director, Drug Allergy Center Montefiore Medical Center The University Hospital for Albert Einstein College of Medicine Bronx, New York 10461 Dr. Elina Jerschow[/caption] Elina Jerschow, M.D., M.Sc., FAAAAI, FACAAI Associate Professor of Medicine, Allergy/ Immunology Division Director, Drug Allergy Center Montefiore Medical Center The University Hospital for Albert Einstein College of Medicine Bronx, New York 10461 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Asthma prevalence varies across and within countries, and markedly increased rates of asthma have been observed in recent decades. Recent time-trends may be attributed to increased urbanization and dissemination of a Western lifestyle. In the US, asthma disproportionally affects African-Americans and Hispanics/Latinos living in urban areas. Among Hispanics/Latinos, asthma prevalence varies from 5.7 % for Mexicans/Mexican-Americans to 16.5% for Puerto Ricans. Besides national background, US nativity, longer duration of US residence, and having one or two parents born in the US have been previously reported as acculturation-related risk factors for asthma in foreign born children. Asthma prevalence was also higher in foreign-born Latinos who relocated to the US as children.
Asthma, Author Interviews, Infections, Pediatrics / 08.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hiroyuki Mochizuki, M.D., Ph.D. Professor & Chairman Department of Pediatrics Tokai University School of Medicine Japan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: My major is allergy and respiratory health of children. By this examination, we wanted to know the true influence of respiratory syncytial virus infection on childhood atopic asthma. We have confirmed that infantile asthma is heterogenic, and at least two kinds of phenotypes are present.
Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Smoking, Tobacco Research / 08.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31818" align="alignleft" width="159"]Professor Richard Miech Institute for Social Research University of Michigan Prof. Richard Miech[/caption] Professor Richard Miech Institute for Social Research University of Michigan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The main finding of this study is that teen vaping predicts future smoking.  We surveyed a nationally-representative sample of 12th graders in 2014 and then re-surveyed them a year later.  We found:
  • Among teens who had never smoked at baseline, those who vaped were more than four times more likely to have smoked a year later than those who didn't vape
  • Among teens who were former smokers at baseline, those who vaped were more than twice as likely to have smoked a year later than those who didn't vape
  • Among teens who were current smokers at baseline, smoking levels a the one-year followup were the same for vapers and non-vapers.
Author Interviews, End of Life Care, JAMA / 08.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31813" align="alignleft" width="156"]Nathan A. Gray, M.D. Duke Palliative Care Durham, NC 27710 Dr. Nathan Gray[/caption] Nathan A. Gray, M.D. Duke Palliative Care Durham, NC 27710 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The estimated number of undocumented immigrants living in the United States has been stable in recent years, but lengths of residence in the country are rising. This aging population of undocumented immigrants can expect to face an increasing burden of chronic disease and end-of-life needs, but may experience challenges in obtaining hospice care in the last months of life as many are uninsured and none are eligible for the Medicare Hospice Benefit. While hospice agencies do provide charity care, little is known about hospice agency approaches to caring for undocumented immigrants. We surveyed a national sample of hospice agencies and found that many hospice agencies do not enroll undocumented immigrants or place restrictions on the number enrolled. More than half of agencies sampled had received requests for enrollment of undocumented immigrants in the past year. Offering unrestricted enrollment was more common among larger, not-for-profit hospices in our sample.
Author Interviews, Global Health, Nutrition, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 07.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31779" align="alignleft" width="135"]Lara Dugas, PhD, MPH, FTOS Public Health Sciences Loyola University Chica Dr. Lara Dugas[/caption] Lara Dugas, PhD, MPH, FTOS Public Health Sciences Loyola University Chicago MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Our NIH-funded study is led by Dr. Amy Luke, Public Health Sciences, Loyola University Chicago, and is titled “Modeling the Epidemiologic Transition study” or METS. It was initiated in 2010, and 2,500 young African-origin adults were recruited from 5 countries, spanning the Human Development Index (HDI), a WHO index used to rank countries according to 4 tiers of development. The 5 countries include the US, Seychelles, Jamaica, South Africa, and Ghana. Within each country 500 young adults, 25-45 yrs., and 50% male, were recruited and followed prospectively for 3 years. Each year, contactable participants completed a health screening, body composition, wore an activity monitor for 7 days, and told researchers everything they had eaten in the preceding 24hrs. Our main research questions we were trying to answer were to understand the impact of diet and physical activity on the development of obesity, and cardiovascular disease in young adults. It was important to have countries spanning the HDI, with differences in both country-level dietary intake and physical activity levels.
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Genetic Research, JAMA, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 07.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mary E. Lacy, MPH Department of Epidemiology Brown University School of Public Health Providence, RI MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Hemoglobin A1c (A1C) is a blood test that is used to screen for and monitor diabetes. It measures average blood sugar control over the past 2-3 months. A person with sickle cell trait is a carrier for sickle cell disease but often doesn’t have any clinical symptoms. African Americans are more likely than Whites to have diabetes and are more likely to have sickle cell trait. In this article we examined if A1C can be interpreted in the same way in people with and without sickle cell trait. We found that, despite similar results on other measures of blood sugar control, people with sickle cell trait had lower A1C results than people without sickle cell trait. This means that A1C may underestimate diabetes risk in people with sickle cell trait. We also found that, when using standard A1C cutoffs to screen for disease prevalence, we identified 40% fewer cases of prediabetes and 48% fewer cases of diabetes in individuals with sickle cell trait than in those without sickle cell trait. To me, this finding really underscores the potential clinical impact that the observed underestimation of A1C in those with sickle cell trait could have.
Author Interviews, BMJ, Pain Research, Pharmacology / 07.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31800" align="alignleft" width="180"]Dr. Gustavo Machado BPhty (Hons) Cert.MDT The George Institute for Global Health Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney Sydney, New South Wales, Australia Dr. Gustavo Machado[/caption] Dr. Gustavo Machado BPhty (Hons) Cert.MDT The George Institute for Global Health Sydney Medical School, University of Sydney Sydney, New South Wales, Australia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: People with back pain are usually told by their health care practitioners to take analgesic medications to relieve their pain. But our previous research published in the BMJ showed that paracetamol does not have a measurable impact on patient’s symptoms. This resulted in recent changes in guidelines' recommendations. The 2017 National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines/UK no longer recommend paracetamol as a stand-alone intervention for back pain. So now non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are recommended as the analgesic of first choice. However, our results show that compared to placebo, commonly used NSAIDs, such as Ibuprofen (e.g. Nurofen) and Diclofenac (e.g. Voltaren), provide only small benefits for people with back pain while increasing the risk of gastrointestinal adverse effects by 2.5 times.
Author Interviews, Critical Care - Intensive Care - ICUs, Emergency Care, Infections / 07.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31808" align="alignleft" width="200"]Anish Agarwal, MD, MPH The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Department of Emergency Medicine Philadelphia, PA Dr. Anish Agarwal[/caption] Anish Agarwal, MD, MPH The Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Department of Emergency Medicine Philadelphia, PA MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The morbidity and mortality of severe sepsis has been well studied and documented. An aggressive approach to protocolized care for patients suffering from severe sepsis and septic shock has been shown to improve mortality and should be started as early in the time course of a patient's presentation. Emergency departments (ED) are designed to deliver time-sensitive therapies, however, they also may suffer from crowding due to multiple factors. This study aimed to assess the impact of ED crowding upon critical interventions in the treatment of severe sepsis including time to intravenous fluids, antibiotics, and overall delivery of a protocolized bundle of care. The study found that as ED crowding increased, time to critical therapies significantly increased and the overall implementation of procotolized care decreased. More specifically as ED occupancy and total patient hours within the ED increased, time to intravenous fluids decreased and time to antibiotics increased as occupancy, hours, and boarding increased.
Author Interviews, Depression, JAMA / 07.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31668" align="alignleft" width="100"]Prof. Dr. phil. Elisabeth Schramm Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie Dr. Elisabeth Schramm[/caption] Prof. Dr. phil. Elisabeth Schramm Klinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Chronic depression is a highly prevalent and disabling disorder. As compared to acute episodically depressed patients, chronic depressives benefit less from psychological and pharmaceutical treatment. Prior investigations suggest that these patients need longer treatment duration for symptom improvement. In this randomized clinical trial including 268 adults with early onset chronic depression not taking antidepressant medication, patients treated with a disorder-specific psychological treatment (Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy; CBASP) reported significantly less severe depressive symptoms after 20 and 48 weeks as compared to a nonspecific supportive therapy. CBASP patients were also more likely to reach remission and showed significant advantages in global functioning and quality of life.
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer / 07.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Xiyuan Zhang PhD and Leena Hilakivi-Clarke, PhD Professor of Oncology Georgetown University Research Building, Room E407 Washington, DC 20057 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Breast cancer is the most common cancer type in women and it also is the second leading cause of death by cancer in the United States. Every year, over 200,000 new cases of breast cancer are diagnosed in the US and this number reached over 1.5 million worldwide in 2012. Asian women exhibit much lower risk of breast cancer than Caucasian women, accounting for about one fifth of the breast cancer incidence in Western women. Therefore, researchers have been intensively studying and aiming to decipher the difference between these two populations. Results of previous research from our laboratory and by others, in animal models and humans, indicate that higher intake of soy foods or soy isoflavone genistein during childhood is associated with reduced breast cancer risk. However, findings done using human breast cancer cells indicate that soy isoflavones stimulate growth of breast cancer cells. Thus, there is an apparent controversy regarding soy isoflavones and breast cancer. 70% of all breast cancer cases are estrogen receptor positive (ER+) and are therefore treated with endocrine therapy, including with tamoxifen. Although these treatments effectively prevent recurrence in half of the ER+ breast cancer patients, the other half are resistant or develop resistance to the endocrine therapy and recur. Intriguingly, several studies done using human breast cancer cells in culture or in mice found that soy isoflavone genistein negates tamoxifen’s effects. However, observational studies in women suggest that those patients who consume most soy foods have the lowest risk of breast cancer recurrence. The present study was designed to address these conflicting findings using a preclinical animal model and to determine if lifetime isoflavone intake has different effect on tamoxifen’s ability to treat breast cancer than intake that starts when cancer is detected.
Author Interviews, Infections, Inflammation, Sleep Disorders / 07.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mark Robert Zielinski, MD Department of Psychiatry Harvard Medical School and Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System West Roxbury, MA 02132 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Anecdotally, people have known that the immune system and sleep are related. In the last several decades this relationship has been systematically investigated. This work led to important findings that several molecules that enhance inflammation including interleukin-1 beta regulate sleep. Interleukin-1 beta is known to increase sleep and sleep intensity after sleep loss and in response to pathogens. However, it was unknown how these effects are connected. Interestingly, the NLRP3 inflammasome is a protein complex that senses changes in the local environment and subsequently activates pro-inflammatory molecules including interleukin-1 beta. Therefore, we wanted to see if the NLRP3 inflammasome is involved in sleep regulation. 
Author Interviews, Depression, Exercise - Fitness, Pediatrics, Pediatrics / 07.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lars Wichstrøm, PhD NTNU Social Reseach, Trondheim, Norway; and Department of Psychology Norwegian University of Science and Technology Trondheim, Norway MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Previous research has linked physical activity, and particularly moderate to vigorous physical activity to less depression in adolescents and adults, but the potential prospective relationship between physical activity and depression in middle childhood has not yet been identified. The main findings in this study support existing research by showing that physically active children have fewer symptoms of depression two years later compared to less physically active children, but there is no relationship between sedentary behavior and depressive symptoms in middle childhood.
Addiction, Author Interviews, JAMA / 07.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31790" align="alignleft" width="133"]Lin Lu, M.D. Ph.D. Director/Professor, Institute of Mental Health and Peking University Sixth Hospital Director/Professor, National Institute on Drug Dependence, Peking University Beijing China Dr. Lin Lu[/caption] Lin Lu, M.D. Ph.D. Director/Professor, Institute of Mental Health and Peking University Sixth Hospital Director/Professor, National Institute on Drug Dependence, Peking University Beijing China MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Nicotine addiction is the leading preventable cause of mortality, and causes over 6 million deaths each year. One fundamental mechanism that maintain smoking relapse in smokers is the persistence of memories of both nicotine reward and nicotine-associated conditioned stimulus (CS, e.g. ashtray,cigarette lighters, etc.).Preclinical studies suggest that the drug reward memories can be reactivated by nicotine-associated CS undergo an unstable stage, named memory reconsolidation, and that pharmacological or behavioral manipulations that interfere with reconsolidation inhibit subsequent drug relapse. However, most of the translational studies targeting reconsolidation stages of the drug reward memory have not been successful.One important reason is that when participants were exposed to nicotine-associated CS to induce memory reconsolidation, the pharmacological or behavioral manipulations only interfere with the reconsolidation of memories selectively associated with the reactivated CS, without affecting other CSs. However, in real life, smoking is associated with multiple CSs that vary across individuals. Thus, a key question is how to interfere with reconsolidation of multiple nicotine-associated memories . In the present study, we introduce a novel memory reconsolidation interference procedure in which we reactivated multiple nicotine reward memories in rats and human smokers by acute exposure to nicotine (the UCS) and then interfered with memory reconsolidation using the noradrenergic blocker propranolol, an FDA-approved drug.
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, JAMA, UCSF / 06.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31761" align="alignleft" width="133"]Natalie Engmann, MSc PhD Candidate, Epidemiology and Translational Science Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics University of California, San Francisco Natalie Engmann[/caption] Natalie Engmann, MSc PhD Candidate, Epidemiology and Translational Science Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics University of California, San Francisco MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Breast density is well-established as a strong risk factor for breast cancer. Our study looked at what proportion of breast cancer cases in the entire population can be attributed to risk factors routinely collected in clinical practice, including breast density, measured using the clinical Breast Imaging and Reporting Scale (BI-RADS) categories.
Author Interviews, C. difficile, Hospital Acquired, JAMA / 06.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31754" align="alignleft" width="200"]Vanessa W. Stevens, PhD IDEAS 2.0 Center, Veterans Affairs (VA) Salt Lake City Health Care System Division of Epidemiology, Department of Internal Medicine University of Utah School of Medicine Salt Lake City, Utah Dr. Vanessa Stevens[/caption] Vanessa W. Stevens, PhD IDEAS 2.0 Center, Veterans Affairs (VA) Salt Lake City Health Care System Division of Epidemiology, Department of Internal Medicine University of Utah School of Medicine Salt Lake City, Utah MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Although metronidazole remains the most commonly used drug to treat Clostridium difficile infection (CDI), there is mounting evidence that vancomycin is a better choice for some patients. Most previous studies have focused on primary clinical cure, but we were interested in downstream outcomes such as disease recurrence and mortality. We found that patients receiving metronidazole and vancomycin had similar rates of recurrence, but patients who were treated with vancomycin had lower risks of all-cause mortality. This was especially true among patients with severe Clostridium difficile.
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Surgical Research, Vitamin C / 06.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_25990" align="alignleft" width="180"]Dr-Harri-Hemilae.jpg Dr. Harri Hemilae[/caption] Harri Hemilä, MD, PhD Department of Public Health University of Helsinki MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: I have a long term interest in vitamin C. Previously I have shown that it alleviates exercise-induced bronchoconstriction (EIB) (http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1710-1492-10-58 ) and shortens the duration of colds ( http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.0020168 ). Now I had been following the literature and I noted that a number of randomized trials were being published about vitamin C for preventing post-operative atrial fibrillation (POAF). Therefore I reasoned that it is worthwhile to analyze that set of trials
Author Interviews, Nature, Schizophrenia / 06.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31745" align="alignleft" width="150"]Dr. Piotr Słowiński</strong> Department of Mathematics College of Engineering Mathematics and Physical Sciences, Research Fellow University of Exeter Dr. Piotr Słowiński[/caption] Dr. Piotr Słowiński Department of Mathematics College of Engineering Mathematics and Physical Sciences, Research Fellow University of Exeter MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Response: In an earlier study, we have found that every person has an individual style of moving (its own individual motor signature) and that people who have similar motor signatures are better in coordinating with each other (http://rsif.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/13/116/20151093). In the current study, we show that both these characteristics, own motor signature, and quality of interaction with others, have potential to give and insight into person's mental health condition. Assessment of motor symptoms is already a part of a clinical interview during a neurological evaluation by an expert psychiatrist. Our method, if confirmed in clinical trials, would speed up such examination and would allow for better allocation of the valuable time of medical professionals (for example, for more advanced tests in cases of diagnostic uncertainty). Additionally, it could allow for monitoring and personalization of treatment.
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JACC / 06.02.2017

[caption id="attachment_31709" align="alignleft" width="200"]Dan Hu (Helen), MD. PhD. FAHA. FACC. FHRS. Research Scientist II, Associate Professor Clinical Consultant of Molecular Genetic Department SCRO Chair of Stem Cell Center Masonic Medical Research Laboratory Utica, NY 13501 Dr. Dan Hu[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dan Hu (Helen), MD. PhD. FAHA. FACC. FHRS. Research Scientist II, Associate Professor Clinical Consultant of Molecular Genetic Department SCRO Chair of Stem Cell Center Masonic Medical Research Laboratory Utica, NY 13501 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Short QT Syndrome (SQTS) is a rare genetic disease characterized by an abnormally short QT interval in subjects with structurally normal hearts. It is a recognized cause of cardiac rhythm disorders, including both atrial and ventricular arrhythmias, and sudden cardiac death (SCD). As an inherited channelopathy, the molecular basis for SQTS has been associated with mutations in 6 genes: KCNH2 (IKr, SQTS1), KCNQ1 (IKs, SQTS2), and KCNJ2 (IK1, SQTS3), which encode different potassium channels; CACNA1C, CACNB2b and CACNA2D1 (SQTS4-6), which encode the L-type calcium channel (ICa). This study sought to evaluate the phenotypic and functional expression of an apparent hotspot mutation associated with SQTS.
Author Interviews, NIH, Ophthalmology, Stem Cells / 06.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31736" align="alignleft" width="180"]Ben Mead, BSc, MRes, PhD Section of Retinal Ganglion Cell Biology Laboratory of Retinal Cell and Molecular Biology National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health Bethesda, Maryland 20892 Dr. Ben Mead[/caption] Ben Mead, BSc, MRes, PhD Section of Retinal Ganglion Cell Biology Laboratory of Retinal Cell and Molecular Biology National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health Bethesda, Maryland 20892 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Retinal ganglion cells (RGC) in the back of the eye transmit visual information to the brain, via long thread-like extensions called axons, which make up the optic nerve. Loss of these cells is the leading cause of irreversible blindness and can occur through trauma or degenerative diseases, such as glaucoma or optic neuritis. While no treatment yet exists to directly protect RGC from death, mesenchymal stem cells, a type of stem cell isolated from adult bone marrow, have shown therapeutic efficacy in various animal models and are currently undergoing clinical trials. In this study, we aimed to isolate exosomes, which are small, membrane-enclosed vesicles secreted by bone marrow stem cells (BMSC) and that we believe are associated with the therapeutic effect of BMSCs. Injecting these exosomes into the eyes of animals following an optic nerve injury, was associated with significant neuroprotection of RGC, as well as preservation of RGC function. The protective effects of exosomes appeared to be through their delivery of microRNA, molecules that interfere with or silence gene expression.
Addiction, Author Interviews, JAMA / 06.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31739" align="alignleft" width="141"]Guillaume Sescousse, PhD Senior post-doc Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging The Netherlands Dr. Guillaume Sescousse[/caption] Guillaume Sescousse, PhD Senior post-doc Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging The Netherlands with collaborators Maartje Luijten, PhD, and Arnt Schellekens, MD PhD MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: People with an addiction process rewards in their brain differently from people who are not addicted. However, whether this is associated with “too much” or “too little” brain activity is an open question. Indeed, past research has produced conflicting findings. In order to get a reliable answer, we have combined 25 studies investigating brain reward sensitivity in more than 1200 individuals with and without addiction to various substances such as alcohol, nicotine or cocaine but also gambling. By analyzing the brain images from these studies, we have discovered an important difference in brain activity between expecting a reward and receiving a reward. Compared with non-addicted individuals, individuals with substance or gambling addiction showed a weaker brain response to anticipating monetary rewards. This weaker response was observed in the striatum, a core region of the brain reward circuit, possibly indicating that individuals with an addiction have relatively low expectations about rewards. In contrast, this same region showed a relatively stronger response to receiving a reward in individuals with substance addiction compared with non-addicted individuals. Many addiction rehab centres, such as Avante, offer targeted addiction relief strategies to help a specific person with their addiction. This stronger response possibly indicates a stronger surprise to getting the reward, and is consistent with low expectations. This same effect was not found among people addicted to gambling.
Author Interviews, BMJ, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Education, Outcomes & Safety / 06.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31685" align="alignleft" width="180"]Yusuke Tsugawa, MD, MPH, PhD Research Associate at Department of Health Policy and Management Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Dr. Yusuke Tsugawa[/caption] Yusuke Tsugawa, MD, MPH, PhD Research Associate at Department of Health Policy and Management Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Prior evidence has been mixed as to whether or not patient outcomes differ between U.S. and foreign medical graduates. However, previous studies used small sample sizes or data from a small number of states. Therefore, it was largely unknown how international medical graduates perform compared with US medical graduates. To answer this question, we analyzed a nationally representative sample of Medicare beneficiaries admitted to hospitals with a medical condition in 2011-2014. Our sample included approximately 1.2 million hospitalizations treated by 40,000 physicians. After adjusting for severity of illness of patients and hospitals (we compared physicians within the same hospital), we found that patient treated by international medical graduates had lower mortality than patients cared for by US medical graduates (adjusted 30-day mortality rate 11.2% vs 11.6%, p<0.001). We observed no difference in readmissions, whereas costs of care was slightly higher for international medical graduates.
Author Interviews, Melanoma / 03.02.2017

[caption id="attachment_31720" align="alignleft" width="200"]MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Diego Sampedro PhD Dr. Diego Sampedro[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Diego Sampedro PhD Department of Chemistry, Centro de Investigación en Síntesis Química (CISQ) Universidad de La Rioja Logroño, Spain MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Skin cancer is currently the most common type of cancer. While it implies a relatively low mortality rate, the reported cases of all types of skin cancer have been steadily increasing for the last decades. The ozone layer depletion and longer sunlight exposure times due to outdoors activities contribute to this increase. Solar light is well-known to lead to several skin cellular problems, including DNA damage, mutations, oxidative stress, sunburn and immune suppression. These deleterious effects of sunlight may be mitigated by the use of sunscreens. Sunscreens are inorganic or organic substances that are directly applied onto the skin, designed to minimize light transmission into the skin, mainly in the ultraviolet region of the solar spectrum. However, serious concerns exist about the safety of several commercial sunscreens components, as well as several drawbacks due to the lack of stability, biodegradability and effectiveness for skin protection. Thus, the development of new (and more efficient) types of sunscreens is of critical importance with a great potential impact in public health and industrial applications.
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, CT Scanning, JAMA, Lung Cancer / 02.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31705" align="alignleft" width="138"]Ahmedin Jemal, DVM, PHD Vice President, Surveillance and Health Services Research American Cancer Society, Inc. 250 Williams St. Atlanta, GA 30303 Dr. Ahmedin Jemal[/caption] Ahmedin Jemal, DVM, PHD Vice President, Surveillance and Health Services Research American Cancer Society, Inc. 250 Williams St. Atlanta, GA 30303 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: In December 2013, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) recommended annual screening for lung cancer with low dose computed tomography (LDCT) for current or former heavy smokers who quit within the past 15 years. A previous study estimated that only 2-4% of heavy smokers received LDCT for lung cancer screening in 2010 in the United States. We sought to determine whether lung cancer screening among high risk smokers increased in 2015, following the USPSTF recommendation in 2013.
Author Interviews, Surgical Research / 02.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31726" align="alignleft" width="250"]Karen Zaderej Karen Zaderej[/caption] Karen Zaderej CEO, AxoGen Karen Zaderej joined AxoGen in May 2006. She has served as President, Chief Executive Officer and a member of the Board of Directors of AxoGen, Inc. since May 2010. Prior to her current role, she served as Chief Operating Officer from October 2007 to May 2010 and as Vice President of Marketing and Sales from May 2006 to October 2007. From October 2004 to May 2006, Karen worked for Zaderej Medical Consulting, a consulting firm she founded that helped medical device companies build and execute successful commercialization plans. From 1987 to 2004, Karen worked at Ethicon, Inc., a Johnson & Johnson company, where she held senior positions in marketing, business development, research & development, and manufacturing. Karen is a Director of SEBio, a non-profit supporting the life science industry in the southeastern United States. Karen earned an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business at Northwestern University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Purdue University. MedicalResearch.com: Please tell us about yourself and how you became CEO at AxoGen. Response: I met Jamie Grooms, co-founder of AxoGen, in 2005 and we had one of those meetings that change your life. Jamie is a serial entrepreneur and loves to start businesses. He had tried to make nerves in the past but had been unsuccessful. When he saw new technology at the University of Florida that explained some of the issues in regenerating nerves, he decided to found a company focused on nerve repair. In parallel, I had been in business development and strategic marketing for Johnson & Johnson and we had looked at the nerve repair market. We determined there was a significant unmet need in nerve repair, but we could not find any technology at that time that solved the surgical need. Several years later, I left J&J and started a consulting business focused on market development and commercialization of early stage med tech companies. Jamie and I met, and I found the technology I had been looking for years earlier. We had an exciting conversation about the potential to improve the lives of patients with nerve injuries. I saw the possibility to create an entire new segment in med tech, one dedicated to nerve repair. With that great potential in front of me, I closed my consulting business, moved to Florida, and joined the AxoGen team.
Author Interviews, Frailty, JAMA, Outcomes & Safety, Surgical Research / 01.02.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_31637" align="alignleft" width="189"]Margaret L Schwarze, MD, MPP Associate Professor Division of Vascular Surgery University of Wisconsin Dr. Margaret Schwarze[/caption] Margaret L Schwarze, MD, MPP Associate Professor Division of Vascular Surgery University of Wisconsin MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Surgery can have life-altering consequences for frail older adults, yet many undergo an operation during the last year of life. Surgeons commonly rely on informed consent to disclose risks of discrete complications; however, this information is challenging for patients to interpret with respect to their goals and values. Our research group developed a communication framework, called Best Case/Worst Case, to change how surgeons communicate with patients facing serious illness.  Surgeons use the framework to describe the best, worst, and most likely scenarios to present a choice between valid treatment alternatives and help patients imagine how they might experience a range of possible treatment outcomes.