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Author Interviews, Colon Cancer, Gastrointestinal Disease, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 26.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Robert Wong, M.D., M.S. Attending Physician, Gastroenterology & Hepatology Director, GI Education & Research Highland Hospital I A member of Alameda Health System Oakland, CA MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Wong:  Colorectal cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Early diagnosis through implementation of effective screening and surveillance programs leads to earlier staged tumor at time of diagnosis, which increases the treatment opportunities and improves overall survival. However, disparities in access to effective screening and surveillance can impair timely diagnosis and lead to advanced disease, limited treatment options and poor outcomes. The current study evaluated race/ethnicity-specific disparities in colorectal cancer epidemiology at a large urban safety net hospital and observed African American patients had significantly more advanced cancer stage at the time of diagnosis. Our study observed that African Americans were over 5 times more likely to have advanced stage 3-4 colon cancer at time of diagnosis compared with non-Hispanic white patients with colon cancer. While these findings are likely multifactorial, it sheds important light on race/ethnicity-specific disparities in colorectal cancer epidemiology and helps target future education and research to improve outcomes. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Genetic Research, Ovarian Cancer / 26.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sibaji Sarkar Ph.D Instructor of medicine Boston University School of Medicine Boston MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Sarkar: Although breast and ovarian cancers have different clinical presentations, there are certain molecular events that are conserved between the two types of cancers. For example, mutation in a few genes, such as BRCA1, BRCA2, is an indicator of possible development of both breast and ovarian cancers. ARHI, a pro-apoptotic imprinted gene is epigenetically silenced in both breast and ovarian cancers. A similar pattern was observed in microRNA as well. There are also several genes which are differentially expressed in these two types of cancers but few of these striking resemblances led us to investigate whether they have a common origin. In this paper, we compared genetic and epigenetic events in both breast and ovarian cancers and we hypothesize that they may have similar origin (mechanism of formation of cancer progenitor cells), which should be regulated by epigenetic mechanism. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Mental Health Research / 26.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Charles W. Hoge, M.D. Senior Scientist Walter Reed Army Institute of Research MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Hoge: Psychiatric definitions are revised periodically based on emerging science, with the intention of enhancing diagnostic accuracy, clinical utility, and communication. The latest edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders was published in 2013 (DSM-5). However, there were an unusually large number of changes to the PTSD definition compared with other common conditions affecting adults, raising concerns with how well these changes truly reflected emerging evidence. Since DSM-5 was published, evidence has accumulated that indicates that the revision did not improve the definition, and more importantly excludes nearly a third of individuals who would have met the previous DSM-IV definition. This article in JAMA Psychiatry provides a thorough critique of the problems with the new definition. It was written by 12 of the leading PTSD experts in the world, including strong representation from experts with experience treating veterans and service members. An accompanying editorial by U.S. Veterans Affairs researchers criticizes our findings, but lacks the scientific rigor of our analysis; for example, every reference they cite we also cite in direct support of our conclusions. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Cost of Health Care, Global Health, Lancet / 26.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Mahiben Maruthappu MD Senior Fellow to the CEO,NHS England Imperial College London, UK MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Maruthappu: There are over 8 million deaths due to cancer every year. At the same time, there are around 40 million unemployed people across the OECD, 7 million more than before the recent economic crisis. As a result, understanding how economic changes affect cancer survival, given the economic climate, is crucial. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 26.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ingrid Elisabeth Christophersen MD PhD Postdoctoral research fellow Cardiovascular Research Center (CVRC) Massachusetts General Hospital MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Christophersen: Several recent studies have utilized the CHA2DS2-VASc risk score to predict risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the CHA2DS2-VASc was developed for prediction of stroke risk in patients with AF and has not been validated for prediction of AF risk. We have evaluated how well the CHA2DS2-VASc performed at predicting risk of AF compared with the most validated clinical risk score for AF - the CHARGE-AF risk score - in the Framingham Heart Study. We showed that the CHARGE-AF risk score performed better at predicting risk of AF than the CHA2DS2-VASc. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Colon Cancer, Exercise - Fitness, JAMA / 26.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: NaNa Keum, ScD| Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health Department of Nutrition Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Boston, MA 02115 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: While general health benefits of physical activity are well-known, evidence on its specific benefits on cancer endpoints is limited and physical activity guidelines for cancer prevention lack details in terms of the optimal dose, type and intensity of physical activity. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Response: We found that the optimal exercise regime to prevent overall digestive system cancers may be to accumulate 30 MET-hours/week of physical activity primarily through aerobic exercise and regardless of its intensity. (more…)
Artificial Sweeteners, Author Interviews, Diabetes, Weight Research / 26.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jennifer L. Kuk, PhD Associate Professor York University School of Kinesiology and Health Science Toronto, Ontario MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Kuk: Artificial sweeteners are used to help individuals manage their weight, however, individuals who consume aspartame (a type of artificial sweeteners) have worse glucose metabolism than individuals with the same body weight but do not consume aspartame. This observation was only true for adults with obesity. Further, saccharin and natural sugars were not associated with differences in health after considering differences in obesity. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Heart Disease, JAMA / 26.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David Conen MD MPH Department of Medicine University Hospital Basel Basel Switzerland MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Conen: A previous study of a contemporary population with atrial fibrillation (AF) treated with oral anticoagulation showed that over a third of all deaths were due to non-cardiovascular causes, and malignancies accounted for the largest proportion of these deaths. These data suggested that AF patients may have an increased risk of malignancies, but little data existed to support this hypothesis. During more than 19 years of follow-up, our study showed that atrial fibrillation was a significant risk factor for the occurrence of malignant cancer. After taking into account a large number of other risk factors and co-morbidities, the risk of cancer was approximately 50% higher among women with new-onset AF compared to women without AF. The risk of cancer was highest in the first 3 months after new-onset AF but remained significant beyond 1 year after new-onset AF (adjusted HR 1.42, p<0.001). We also observed a trend towards an increased risk of cancer mortality among women with new-onset AF. (more…)
Author Interviews, Gastrointestinal Disease / 25.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Prateek Sharma MD Professor, Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Motility Kansas University Medical Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Sharma: Reflux symptoms are a risk factor for Barrett's esophagus and approximately 10-15% of patients with reflux are diagnosed with Barrett's esophagus. Barrett's esophagus is a risk factor for esophageal adenocarcinoma. We evaluated the trends in the prevalence of be in patients with reflux disease over years and found that the prevalence of be was decreasing. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Cognitive Issues / 25.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bo (Bonnie) Qin, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Scholar Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey New Brunswick, NJ 08903 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Qin: Preventing or delaying the age-related cognitive decline that typically precedes the onset of dementia is particularly important considering that no effective strategies for dementia treatment have been identified. Vascular conditions such as hypertension are thought to be risk factors for cognitive decline, but important gaps in the literature on this topic remain. Randomized clinical trials of blood pressure-lowering treatments for reducing the risk of cognitive decline or dementia have largely failed to achieve beneficial effects. However, over the past 6 years, scientific evidence has accumulated that blood pressure variability over monthly or yearly visits may lead to greater risk of stroke and small and larger vessel cerebrovascular diseases. They could lead to subsequent changes related to cognitive dysfunction among older adults. We, therefore, hypothesized that blood pressure variability between visits is associated with a faster rate of cognitive function among older adults. (more…)
Author Interviews, Lancet, OBGYNE, Schizophrenia, Smoking / 25.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alan S. Brown, M.D., M.P.H. Professor of Psychiatry and Epidemiology Columbia University Medical Center Director, Program in Birth Cohort Studies, Division of Epidemiology New York State Psychiatric Institute MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Brown: Smoking during pregnancy is a risk factor for several pregnancy-related outcomes including low birthweight and preterm birth. Evidence for a link with schizophrenia is scant. We analyzed a maternal biomarker of smoking called cotinine, a nicotine metabolite, in mothers of nearly 1,000 schizophrenia cases and 1,000 controls in a national birth cohort in Finland. We found that heavy smoking in pregnancy was related to a 38% increase in schizophrenia risk in offspring and that as cotinine levels increased even in the more moderate smokers risk of schizophrenia also increased. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JAMA, Kidney Disease, Salt-Sodium / 25.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jiang He, M.D., Ph.D. Joseph S. Copes Chair and Professor Department of Epidemiology School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine Tulane University, New Orleans MedicalResearch: What is the background for this study? Dr. Jiang He: Chronic kidney disease is associated with increased risk of end-stage renal disease, cardiovascular disease, and all-cause mortality. A positive association between sodium intake and blood pressure is well established in observational studies and clinical trials. However, the association between sodium intake and clinical cardiovascular disease remains less clear. Positive monotonic, J-shaped, and U-shaped associations have been reported. Methodologic limitations, including inconsistencies in dietary sodium measurement methods, could be contributing to these conflicting findings. Furthermore, no previous studies have examined the association between sodium intake and incident cardiovascular disease among patients with chronic kidney disease. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Nutrition, OBGYNE, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 25.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Brian Stansfield MD Neonatologist Children's Hospital of Georgia and the Medical College of Georgia Augusta University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. Stansfield: Since the mid-20th century, we have experimental evidence in animal models and human data demonstrating the influence of maternal nutrition on the offspring - both in the short term and long term. Low birth weight has been connected with higher incidence of cardiometabolic diseases including insulin resistance, coronary artery disease, and hypertension. Interestingly, low birth weight infants grow up to be relatively thin adults compared to their normal or high birth weight counterparts. Conversely, high birth weight infants tend to become heavier adults and obesity is directly linked with the same adult outcomes. So the association of cardiac and metabolic diseases with low birth weight is not linked to adult obesity in general. Thus, speculation as to why extremes of birth weight lead to adult onset cardiometabolic disease suggests different mechanisms and modifying factors. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Dr. Stansfield: The findings of our study shed considerable light on the relationship between birth weight and risk factors for insulin resistance and visceral adiposity. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to achieve precise measurements of visceral adipose content and biomarkers for insulin resistance, we show that both low and high birth weight are associated with increased visceral adiposity and insulin resistance in a healthy population of adolescents aged 13-17 years. This association persists when we account for several recognized confounders including age, sex, race, activity level, and socioeconomic status. The most interesting finding of our study is that when you account for each adolescent’s current body mass index, a measure of obesity, the relationship between increased visceral fat and insulin resistance and low birth weight is strengthened suggesting that these adolescents had relatively high visceral adipose content despite obesity rates that were similar to their normal birth weight counterparts. On the other hand, correction for adolescent BMI (obesity) reduced the relationship between these metabolic markers and high birth weight infants. Thus, low birth weight infants may develop insulin resistance and increased visceral fat, both significant risk factors for cardiovascular disease and metabolic disease, despite having a relatively normal body shape in adolescents. (more…)
Author Interviews, Coffee, Hepatitis - Liver Disease / 24.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sikarin Upala MD, MS, LLB Internal Medicine, Bassett Medical Center and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Cooperstown, New York Preventive and Social Medicine Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Upala: Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is the most common cause of chronic liver disease and cirrhosis as well as the most common cause of liver transplantation in the United States. As caffeine has been found to be related to decreased liver enzymes, chronic liver disease,cirrhosis, and risk of hepatocellular carcinoma in several liver disease pathologies. There is inconclusive findings on the effect of caffeine on hepatitis C infected patients. Thus, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to summarize the effect of caffeine consumption in patients with chronic hepatitis C. We found that caffeine consumers have a 61% reduced risk of developing advanced hepatic fibrosis, which is one of the consequence of chronic hepatitis C. Our meta-analysis result is in the same way with other studies who found that coffee consumption could prevent the development of hepatic fibrosis in patients with liver disease. However, we cannot conclude about the effect of caffeine on HCV viral load as there is not enough information. (more…)
Author Interviews, Hepatitis - Liver Disease, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 24.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Patricia Jones MD Medicine, Division of Hepatology Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Miami, Florida, United States MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Jones: This study reviewed 999 patients diagnosed with hepatocellular carcinoma in a diverse American population over the past ten years. The main findings were that Blacks had reduced survival, only 301 days, when comparison to Whites (534.5 days) and Hispanics (437 days) after being diagnosed with liver cancer. This was adjusted for insurance status, chemotherapy and gender and the findings still persisted. We found that Blacks present at later stages, when the tumor is too large for some of the treatments that we would like to offer, such as liver transplant. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness / 24.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Deborah A. Cohen, MD, MPH RAND Corporation Santa Monica, CA 90407 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. Cohen: An extensive infrastructure of neighborhood parks supports leisure time physical activity in most U.S. cities; yet, most Americans do not meet national guidelines for physical activity. Neighborhood parks have never been assessed nationally to identify their role in physical activity. We visited a representative sample of 174 parks in 25 cities across the United States and assessed their use as well as local park management policies. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? Dr. Cohen: We found that nationwide, the average neighborhood park of 8.8 acres averaged 20 users/hour or an estimated 1,533 person hours of weekly use. Park use was higher in parks that were larger and had more facilities and that were in neighborhoods with a higher population density and lower percentage of households in poverty. Walking loops and gymnasia each generated 221 hours/week of moderate to vigorous physical activity. Seniors represented 4% of park users, but 20% of the general population. Programming and marketing were associated with 37% and 63% more hours of moderate to vigorous physical activity/week in parks, respectively. The lower use of parks in low-income than in high-income neighborhoods was largely explained by fewer supervised activities and marketing/outreach efforts. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Genetic Research, Hepatitis - Liver Disease, Weight Research / 24.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof-Dr. Annette Schürmann Department of Experimental Diabetology German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke Nuthetal, Germany MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. Schürmann: The aim of our study was to clarify why genetically identical mice respond very different to a high fat diet. Some of the mice react with an elevated body weight, others not. We analyzed the expression pattern of liver at two time points, at the age of 6 weeks, (the earliest time point to distinguish between those that respond to the diet (responder mice) and those that did not (non-responders)), and at the age of 20 weeks. One transcript that was significantly reduced in the liver of responder mice at both time points was Igfbp2. The reason for the reduced expression was an elevated DNA-methylation at a position that is conserved in the mouse and human sequence. The elevated DNA-methylation of this specific site in human was recently described to associate with elevated fat storage (hepatosteatosis) and NASH. However, as 6 weeks old mice did not show differences in liver fat content between responder and non-responder mice we conclude that the alteration of Igfbp2 expression and DNA methylation occurs before the development of fatty liver. Our data furthermore showed that the epigenetic inhibition of Igfbp2 expression was associated with elevated blood glucose and insulin resistance but not with fatty liver. (more…)
Author Interviews, End of Life Care, Heart Disease, JAMA / 24.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: James N. Kirkpatrick, MD Director of the Echocardiography Laboratory Division of Cardiology Ethics Consultation Service University of Washington, Seattle MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. Kirkpatrick: With significant advances in technology, implanted cardiac devices like pacemakers and defibrillators, replacement heart valves, and mechanical pumps which assist or replace the pumping function of the heart have become standard therapies for patients with severe cardiac disease. Many patients who would previously have died after living with severe symptoms live longer and with improved quality of life. This is particularly true for elderly patients who receive transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR—valve replacement that doesn’t require open heart surgery) and ventricular assist device (VAD—a durable mechanical heart pump) implantation. However, like everyone, these patients will die, and some of the patients will experience device complications which will shorten their lives. Elderly patients, in particular, are at risk for device complications, high symptom burden, and loss of the ability to make healthcare decisions, due to illnesses like strokes or dementia. Symptom management and advance care planning are the hallmarks of the medical specialty of Palliative Care and are particularly important in patients with TAVR and VADs, yet patients and clinicians don’t often think of Palliative Care when considering high tech, life-prolonging therapies. The Palliative Care Working Group of the American College of Cardiology’s Geriatrics Section therefore sought to gather data on the attitudes toward Palliative Care among cardiovascular clinicians and the current state of involvement of Palliative Care in the care of patients with TAVR and VAD. (more…)
Author Interviews, Chemotherapy, Urology / 24.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alejandro Sousa, MD, PhD Department of Urology, Comarcal Hospital Monforte, Spain MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. Sousa: Bladder Cancer management has remained stable over the past 25 years, with very little in the way of new therapies or approaches being developed. Traditional treatment using intravesical Mitomycin C for Non Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer (NMIBC) patients is limited due it's low absorption levels. Device assisted therapies that deliver Chemo-hyperthermia offer a new hope, with the potential for improved outcomes and better disease management due the the increased drug activity and better efficacy. We wanted to investigate the optimal treatment regime for this new therapy and whether it provides a safe and effective alternative to current standard treatment. (more…)
Author Interviews, Chemotherapy, Melanoma, Radiation Therapy / 24.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: James S. Welsh, MS, MD, FACRO President, American College of Radiation Oncology Professor and Medical Director Director of Clinical & Translational Research Department of Radiation Oncology Stritch School of Medicine Loyola University- Chicago Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center Maywood, IL 60153 Chief of Radiation Oncology Hines VA Medical Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Welsh: Cancer immunotherapy could represent a truly powerful means of addressing cancer. Although immunotherapy itself is not new, there are new agents and combinations of older agents (including radiation therapy) that could prove more successful than anything we have seen in many years. The data in melanoma thus far is quite encouraging and this preliminary success could possibly extend to many other malignancies as well. (more…)
Author Interviews, Baylor College of Medicine Houston, Cancer Research, Gastrointestinal Disease / 24.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Aaron Peter Thrift, Ph.D Assistant Professor Duncan Cancer Center Department of Medicine, Gastroenterology Section Baylor College of Medicine Houston, TX, US MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Dr. Thrift: Patients with Barrett’s esophagus are at significantly higher risk of developing esophageal adenocarcinoma. Due to the continued rise in incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma attention has turned to chemoprevention as a method to delay or halt the progression of Barrett’s esophagus to neoplasia, including invasive cancer. Acid suppressive medications, such as proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and histamine-2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs), are commonly used in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), the primary risk factor for Barrett’s esophagus. We contacted a nested case-control study involving 311 patients with Barrett’s esophagus who developed esophageal adenocarcinoma (cases) and 856 matched controls (patients with Barrett’s esophagus but who did not develop esophageal adenocarcinoma). Compared to never users, we found that Barrett’s esophagus patients taking PPIs and H2RAs had 69% and 45% lower risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma, respectively. The associations were independent of other risk factors for progression, including concomitant use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and statins. (more…)
Aging, Author Interviews, End of Life Care, NEJM, Social Issues / 24.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jill Cameron, PhD Canadian Institutes of Health Research New Investigator Associate Professor, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy Rehabilitation Sciences Institute Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Cameron: In the world of critical illness, a lot of research has focused on helping people to survive – and now that more people are surviving, we need to ask ourselves, what does quality of life and wellbeing look like afterwards for both patients and caregivers? The aim of our research was to identify factors associated with family caregiver health and wellbeing during the first year after patients were discharged from the Intensive Care Unit. We examined factors related to the patient and their functional wellbeing, the caregiving situation including the impact it has on caregivers everyday lives, and caregiver including their sense of control over their lives and available social support. We used Pearlin’s Caregiving Stress Process model to guide this research. From 2007-2014, caregivers of patients who received seven or more days of mechanical ventilation in an ICU across 10 Canadian university-affiliated hospitals were given self-administered questionnaires to assess caregiver and patient characteristics, caregiver depression symptoms, psychological wellbeing, and health-related quality of life. Assessments occurred seven days and three, six and 12-months after ICU discharge. The study found that most caregivers reported high levels of depression symptoms, which commonly persisted up to one year and did not improve in some. Caregiver sense of control, impact on caregivers’ everyday lives, and social support had the largest relationships with the outcomes. Caregivers’ experienced better health outcomes when they were older, caring for a spouse, had higher income, better social support, sense of control, and caregiving had less of a negative impact on their everyday lives. No patient characteristics or indicators of illness severity were associated with caregiver outcomes. Poor caregiver outcomes may compromise patients’ rehabilitation potential and sustainability of home care. Identifying risk factors for caregiver distress is an important first step to prevent more suffering and allow ICU survivors and caregivers to regain active and fulfilling lives. (more…)
Author Interviews, C. difficile, Probiotics / 24.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Nicole Shen New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical College MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. Shen: Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is a persistent, healthcare associated infection with significant morbidity and mortality that costs the US billions of dollars annually. Prevention is imperative, particularly for patients at high risk for infection – hospitalized adults taking antibiotics. Trials have suggested probiotics may be useful in preventing CDI. We conducted a systematic review with meta-analysis in this high-risk population, hospitalized adults receiving antibiotics, to evaluate the current evidence for probiotic use for prevention of CDI. (more…)
Author Interviews / 23.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Susan McCurry Principal Investigator Clinical psychologist and research professor School of Nursing University of Washington MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. McCurry: Every woman goes through menopause.  Most women experience nighttime hot flashes/sweats and problems sleeping at some point during the menopause transition.  Poor sleep leads to daytime fatigue, negative mood, and reduced daytime productivity.  When sleep problems become chronic – as they often do – there are also a host of negative physical consequences including increased risk for weight gain, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.  Many women do not want to use sleeping medications or hormonal therapies to treat their sleep problems because of concerns about side effect risks.  For these reasons, having effective non-pharmacological options to offer them is important. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease / 23.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ramzi Tabbalat, MD, FACC Khalidi Hospital and Medical Center Amman Jordan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Tabbalat: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in patients undergoing open heart surgery. It occurs in about 26% of such patients and leads to increase morbidity and hospital cost. This makes prevention of AF a priority and several interventions have had variable success in this regards. Colchicine, a potent anti-inflammatory agent, has shown promise in AF prevention in the COPPS-1 trial. Our study aimed to determine if colchicine administered preoperatively and continued until hospital discharge can prevent AF in post open heart surgery patients. In our study of 360 patients, colchicine failed to significantly reduce the incidence of postoperative AF (RRR 29%, p=0.14). Its use was associated with significant diarrhea in 25% of patients. Diarrhea led to discontinuation of colchicine in more than half of affected patients. (more…)
ADHD, Author Interviews, JAMA, Pediatrics / 23.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Luis Augusto Rohde MD, PhD Full Professor Department of Psychiatry Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul Director ADHD Program Hospital de Clínicas de Porto Alegre  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The idea that Attention-deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder always begins in childhood has been held for decades even without proper testing. The main manuals of psychiatric diagnoses require age at onset in childhood as a core feature of the disorder. In a large birth cohort followed until age 18, we identified many young adults presenting with a full impairing ADHD syndrome. They had consistently worse outcomes - criminality, substance abuse, traffic accidents, among others - than their counterparts without ADHD. However, most of these young adults (84.6%) presenting with a full impairing syndrome did not have a prior diagnosis in their childhood years. This surprising observation held after many secondary analyses exploring possible biases, like comorbidities in young adulthood, subthreshold ADHD in childhood and change of information source. (more…)
Anemia, Author Interviews, Hematology / 23.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Samir K. Ballas MD FACP Emeritus Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics Department of Medicine/Cardeza Foundation for Hematologic Research Thomas Jefferson University Philadelphia, PA Medicalresearch.com: What is the background for this study? Dr. Ballas: Previous studies have shown that the incidence of overt stroke is about 11% in children with sickle cell anemia by ages 2 - 20 years. Untreated stokes recur periodically with increasing severity and mortality. Transfusion therapy has been documented to decrease the frequency and morbidity of stroke in children by 90%. Accordingly, children who develop overt stroke are treated with chronic blood exchange transfusion to prevent the recurrence of additional strokes. When children reach the age of 18-20 years their medical care is transitioned to adult programs. This transition process is associated with several issues one of which is the discontinuation of chronic blood exchange transfusion in patients with history of overt stokes partly due to logistic considerations and partly due to lack of research in strokes in adult patients and the complications of chronic blood transfusion . Medicalresearch.com: What are the main findings? Dr. Ballas: The major finding of the study is that the discontinuation of chronic blood exchange after transition to adult programs is associated with increased mortality. All the patients who discontinued blood transfusion died within 3-5 years after transition whereas patients who continued having blood exchange transfusion survived to a mean age of 36 years at the time of writing this study. (more…)
Author Interviews, Exercise - Fitness, JAMA, Lifestyle & Health / 23.05.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Steven C. Moore PhD, MPH Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics Rockville, MD  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Moore: More than half of Americans fail to meet recommended levels of regular physical activity; physical inactivity has become a major public health concern. Physical activity during leisure time is known to reduce risks of heart-disease and all-cause mortality, as well as risks of colon, breast, and endometrial cancers. However, less is known about whether physical activity reduces risk of other cancers. Hundreds of prospective studies have examined associations between physical activity and risk of different cancers. Due to small case numbers, results have been inconclusive for most cancer types. In this study, we examined how leisure-time physical activity relates to risk of 26 different cancer types in a pooled analysis of 12 prospective cohort studies with 1.44 million participants. Our objectives were to identify cancers associated with leisure-time physical activity, and determine whether associations varied by body size and/or smoking history. (more…)