MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Christoher C. Kaeding M.D.
Judson Wilson Professor, Department of Orthopaedics
Executive Director, Sports Medicine Center
Head Team Physician, Department of Athletics
The Ohio State University
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Kaeding:
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Gregory Tasian, MD, MSc, MSCE
Attending Urologist
The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Tasian: The risk of developing kidney stones increased during the study period in all the cities except Los Angeles when mean daily temperatures rose above 50°F (10°C). Mean daily temperatures reaching 86°F (30°C) were associated with risk increases of 38% in Atlanta, 37% in Chicago, 36% in Dallas, and 47% in Philadelphia compared with 50°F (10°C). Kidney stone risk peaked within 3-5 days of exposure to high temperatures but then decreased within 7 to 10 days afterward.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jeff Trost, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Trost: In our study, we reported the use of two relatively simple tactics to significantly reduce the number of unnecessary blood tests to assess symptoms of heart attack and chest pain and to achieve a large decrease in patient charges.
Specifically, we
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ms Qi Wu:
Mental Health and Addiction Research Group, Department of Health Sciences
University of York, Heslington
York UK
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Ms Qi Wu: At any time in the UK about one in six adults has a mental health problem, the prevalence of smoking in this group is over 33%, which is around 50% higher than in the general population. It is estimated that 3 million adults with mental disorders were smokers in 2009-10. Meanwhile, people with mental health disorders are also more likely to smoke heavily, this group accounts for as much as 42% of the total national tobacco consumption. In this study, we calculated the avoidable economic burden of smoking in people with mental disorders.
The main finding was that people with mental disorders who smoke cost the UK economy £2.34 billion a year. The total costs are more or less equally divided among losses sustained from premature death, lost productivity, and healthcare costs to treat smoking related diseases such as lung cancer, cardiovascular disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in this group. An estimated £719 million (31% of the total cost) was spent on treating diseases caused by smoking. Productivity losses due to smoking-related diseases were about £823 million (35%) for work- related absenteeism and £797 million (34%) was associated with premature mortality.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Pete Dodd (BA, BSc, MMath, PhD)
Research associate in health economic modelling
Health Economics and Decision Science
ScHARR
Regent Court Sheffield
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Dodd: We found that over 650,000 children under the age of 15 developed tuberculosis in the 22 highest burden countries in 2010, with around 7.6 million becoming infected with the bacillus and more than 50 million harboring latent infection.
Our work points to a much larger gap between notifications and incidence in children compared to adults.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Anthony Bavry, MD MPH
Interventional Cardiology, North Florida/South Georgia Veterans Health System
Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Florida
Gainesville, FL 32610
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Bavry:
1) Among post-menopausal women, the regular use of NSAIDs was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or stroke.
2) Cardiovascular risk was observed among users of celecoxib, naproxen, but not ibuprofen.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Andrea Wang-GillamMD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine
Oncology Division, Medical Oncology Section
Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Wang-Gillam: This is a global randomized phase III trial of MM398 plus 5FU/LV vs. MM398 vs. 5FU/LV in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer who had received prior gemcitabine-based therapy. The primary endpoint was overall survival (OS). The secondary endpoints included progression-free survival (PFS), response rate (RR), biochemical response and safety. The trial achieved its primary endpoint. The median overall survival was statistically longer with the combination of MM398 plus 5FU/LV compared with 5FU/LV alone (6.1 months vs 4.2 months; HR of 0.67; p=0.0122). A superior progression-free survival was also seen in the MM398 plus 5FU/LV group compared with the 5FU/LV alone group (3.1 months vs 1.5 months; HR of 0.56; p=0.0001). A higher response rate was observed in the combination regimen compared with the 5FU/LV group (16% vs 1%). There were no differences in overall survival or PFS between the MM 398 monotherapy and 5FU/LV groups.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Olivia Pagani
Clinical Director of the Breast Unit of Southern Switzerland
Ospedale San Giovanni, Switzerland
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Pagani: The study showed that the aromatase inhibitor Exemestane is superior to Tamoxifen (both given together with ovarian function suppression) in preventing breast cancer recurrence in premenopausal women with oestrogen receptor positive early breast cancer.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Colin Cooke MD, MSc, MS
Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine
University of Michigan
Center for Healthcare Outcomes and Policy
Ann Arbor, MI
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Cooke: We determined that when patients who are hospitalized for pulmonary embolism (PE), a blood clot in the lung, approximately 1 in 5 will be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU). However, the chances that a patient will go to an ICU is highly dependent upon which hospital they are admitted to. For example, some hospitals admitted only 3% of patients with pulmonary embolism to an ICU while others admitted almost 80%.
Importantly, the differences in how hospitals use their ICU for patients with pulmonary embolism was not entirely related to the patient’s need for life support measures, the things that the ICU is designed to deliver. For example, the ICU patients in high ICU-use hospitals tended to receive fewer procedures, including mechanical ventilation, arterial catheterization, central lines, and medications to dissolve blood clots. This suggest that high utilizing hospitals are admitting patients to the ICU with weaker indications for ICU admission.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Tara Gomes
St Michael's Hospital
Toronto, ON, Canada
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Tara Gomes: We found that rates of opioid overdose in Ontario have increased more than 3-fold over the past 2 decades. Furthermore, these deaths are clustered among younger Ontarians; in 2010, 1 in 8 deaths among those aged 25 to 34 years were related to opioids. This has led to considerable burden due to loss of life.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Robert A. Vigersky, MD
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center
Bethesda, MD
Medical Research: What type of patients do endocrinologists typically treat and why is the demand for their services anticipated to grow?
Dr. Vigersky: Endocrinologists are physicians trained in managing, diagnosing, and treating disorders of the endocrine system: thyroid, parathyroid, adrenal glands, hypophyseal and hypothalamic axes, ovaries, testes, and pancreas. Their role involves controlling diabetes mellitus, menopause, hyperthyroidism and other conditions involving metabolism.
A major factor affecting the anticipated demand for health care services is the aging population. In 2010, there were 37.5 million people age 65 or over, constituting about 12.7 percent of the total population, and by 2025 the population age 65 or over will number 62.5 million (17.9 percent of the population). Due to the greater prevalence of many of the diseases in older age groups, like osteoporosis, diabetes, obesity, and thyroid nodules, the growth in the population age 65 or over will exert a major influence on the demand for endocrine services.
Diabetes, by itself, is a major driver of demand. The incidence of Type 2 diabetes rises dramatically with age, and with obesity. In an increasingly overweight population an estimated 22.3 million people in the U.S. are diagnosed with diabetes as of 2012, representing about 7 percent of the population. This estimate is higher than but consistent with those published by the CDC for 2010. The percentage of the population with diagnosed diabetes continues to rise, with one study projecting that as many as one in three U.S. adults could have diabetes by 2050 if current trends continue.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Kirstine Kobberøe Søgaard, MD
Department of Clinical Epidemiology,
Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Response: Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is mainly considered an acute illness with a high mortality right after the event, whereas knowledge on the impact on long-term survival has been sparse. In our study, we used nationwide data on VTE since 1977, and included 128,223 patients with VTE and 640,760 individuals from the general population without a VTE diagnosis. We had complete follow-up data on individual patient level and were able to link information from other hospital admissions and thereby obtain each patient’s entire hospital history, as well as death statistics with specific cause of death. We confirmed the high mortality immediately after the thromboembolic event, but more interestingly, we found that mortality remained increased during the entire follow-up period of 30 years, with venous thromboembolism as an important cause of death among patients with deep venous thrombosis and/or pulmonary embolism.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with :
Philippe Pibarot, DVM, PhD, FAHA, FACC, FESC, FASE
Professeur titulaire, Département de Médecine, Université Laval
Professor, Department of Medicine, Laval University
Directeur, Chaire de Recherche du Canada sur les Maladies Valvulaires Cardiaques
Chair, Canada Research Chair in Valvular Heart Diseases
Institut Universitaire de Cardiologie et de Pneumologie de QuébecQuébec Heart & Lung Institute - Local Y4165
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Pibarot: The optimal timing of aortic valve replacement (AVR) in asymptomatic patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS) remains a matter of debates. Both the American and European guidelines recommend AVR for patients with severe AS who present with symptoms or left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction. However, patients with aortic stenosis are often older, less physically active and have more comorbidities, which make the assessment of AS-related symptoms challenging and unreliable. In this study by Capoulade et al, plasma levels of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP) were obtained in 157 patients with severe asymptomatic aortic stenosis and preserved LV ejection fraction at peak of exercise-stress echocardiography. Patients in the upper (>95 pg/ml) and mid (>45 pg/ml) tertiles of exercise BNP respectively had a 5- and 3- fold increase in the risk of events (i.e. AVR or death) compared to those in the lower tertile. Similar results were obtained in the subset of patients with low resting BNP.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with :
Pr. Jean-Marc Regimbeau
Service de Chirurgie Digestive Oncologique et Métabolique,
CHU dAmiens
Medical Research : What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: In our study we found that the absence of postoperative administration of amoxicillin plus clavulanic acid did not improve the occurrence of postoperative infections in patients with mild or moderate acute calculous cholecystitis. The bile cultures were pathogen free in 60.9% of case. Moreover we show that less than 2 percent of the overall population presented a major complication defined according to the Clavien Dindo Classification (Clavien score ≥3a). After cholecystectomy the readmission rate was 6%.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Coenie Koegelenberg, MBChB, MMed (Int), FCP (SA), MRCP (UK), Cert Pulm (SA), PhD
Associate Professor: Pulmonology
Stellenbosch University & Tygerberg Academic Hospital
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Koegelenberg: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of combining varenicline and a nicotine patch versus varenicline alone as an aid to smoking cessation in a double-blind study design in a larger group and with a longer assessment period than has been studied to date. It was found that the combination treatment was associated with a statistically significant and clinically important higher continuous abstinence rate at 12 weeks (55.4% vs. 40.9%; P=.007) and 24 weeks (49.0% vs. 32.6%; P=.004), and point prevalence abstinence rate at 6 months (65.1% vs. 46.7%; P=.002). The present study was not adequately powered to fully assess safety and tolerability endpoints, but the results suggest that adverse events were balanced across treatment arms, except for mild skin reactions that were more frequently observed in the nicotine patch group (14.4% vs. 7.8%, P=.03).
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MedicalResearch:.com Interview with:
Mark C. Pachucki, PhD
Senior Scientist, Mongan Institute for Health Policy
Affiliated Faculty, MGHfC Division of General Academic Pediatrics
Instructor in Medicine and Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA 02114
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Pachucki: We found that in in one-child families, having an obese parent made a child about twice as likely to be obese themselves. However, in two-child families, a child’s obesity status was more strongly related with their sibling than with their parent. Even more interesting, in the case of the younger sibling, the parent’s obesity status was not related with that child’s obesity status at all. These findings matter because family members are primary sources of social influence for children – understanding how health status is correlated within a family gives us a better foothold on possible intervention strategies.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Professor Daniela Jakubowicz MD
Diabetes Unit. E. Wolfson Medical Center
Sackler Faculty of Medicine,
Tel Aviv University
and Tel Aviv Medical Center, Israel
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Jakubowicz: In type 2 diabetes there is a deficit of post-meal insulin secretion (from pancreatic beta-cells) that contributes to an exaggerated elevation in blood glucose. In this study we found that consumption of whey protein shortly before breakfast augmented GLP-1 (a gut hormone that stimulates insulin secretion) enhancing insulin response and lowering glucose excursions after breakfast.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
David Olds, Ph.D.
Professor of Pediatrics and Director
Prevention Research Center for Family and Child Health
University of Colorado Department of Pediatrics
Aurora, Colorado 80045
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Olds: We’ve conducted a randomized controlled trial of a program of nurse home visiting for low-income women with no previous live firths during pregnancy and the first two years of the child’s life, with randomization of participants beginning in 1990. In our most recent follow-up of mothers and children in Memphis, those who received nurse-visitation were less likely to have died over a 2-decade period following the child’s birth than those in the control group. Death among mothers and children in these age ranges in the US is rare and extraordinarily important for what it tells us about the health of the population studied in this trial.
For children, the reduction in death was present for preventable causes, that is, sudden infant death syndrome, injuries, and homicide. All of the child deaths for preventable causes were in the control group, for whom the rate was 1.6%. None of the nurse-visited children died of preventable causes.
The reductions in maternal mortality were found for two nurse-visited groups combined for this report: one received prenatal and newborn visitation and a second received visitation during pregnancy and through child age two. Overall, mothers assigned to the control group were nearly 3 times more likely to die than those assigned to the two nurse-visited conditions. The relative reduction in maternal mortality was particularly pronounced for deaths linked to maternal behaviors -- suicide, drug overdose, injuries, and homicide; for these external causes of death, 1.7% of the mothers in the control group had died, compared to 0.2% of those visited by nurses.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Soo Chan Lee, PhD
Senior Research Associate,
Center for Microbial Pathogenesis,
Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology,
Duke University Medical Center,
Durham, N.C. 27710
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Soo Chan Lee: Mucor circinelloides strain isolated from recalled Chobani yogurt was found to be the most virulent subspecies M. circinelloides forma circinelloides that is commonly associated with human infections. When mice were infected with this fungus through the tail-vein, 80% mortality was observed 5 days post infection. When mice were fed with spores, the fungus survived passage through the GI tract as many as 10 days, indicating the fungus can colonize to cause infections. Whole genome sequence analysis revealed the possibility that this fungus could produce harmful secondary metabolites that are unknown in this fungal species.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof. Dr. Ulrich Ettinger
Departments of Psychology
University of Bonn
Bonn, Germany
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Ettinger: We found that 24-hour sleep deprivation induced subjective cognitive, perceptual and emotional alterations resembling the symptoms of schizophrenia. We also observed that sleep deprivation led to a deficit in a sensorimotor filter mechanism called prepulse inhibition (PPI), similar to the disturbance seen in schizophrenia.
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Vincenza Spallone MD PhD
Endocrinology and Neurology
Department of Systems Medicine
Tor Vergata University, Rome, Italy
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Spallone:To investigate a possible relationship between painful diabetic polyneuropathy (PDPN) and the circadian pattern of blood pressure (BP), we performed ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in 113 diabetic patients with PDPN, with painless diabetic polyneuropathy (DPN) and without DPN. In addition, we evaluated neuropathic pain, sleep, risk for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), autonomic function, and in a subgroup of patients, depressive symptoms.
The main finding was that patients with painful diabetic polyneuropathy displayed impaired nocturnal fall in BP compared to those without neuropathy, and higher nocturnal systolic blood pressure than the other two groups. Although the day-night change (∆) in blood pressure failed to reach a significant difference between painful diabetic polyneuropathy and DPN groups, nondipping (the loss of nocturnal fall in systolic BP) was more strictly associated with painful diabetic polyneuropathy than DPN and in multivariate analysis, including comorbidities and most potential confounders, neuropathic pain was an independent determinant of ∆ BP and nocturnal systolic blood pressure.
In summary, we showed a novel association of peripheral diabetic neuropathic pain with nondipping and higher systolic nocturnal blood pressure, which was not entirely explained through pain dependent sleep problems or other pain- or diabetes-related comorbidities, like CAN, OSA and depression.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
W Curt LaFrance Jr MD, MPH
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology,
Alpert Medical School, Brown University
Director of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology,
Rhode Island Hospital
Providence RI 02903-4923
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. LaFrance: Patients treated with the 12 session, 1 hour, individual psychotherapy seizure treatment workbook had significant reductions in their seizures and improvement in their comorbid symptoms, quality of life and functioning. In contrast, treatment as usual /standard medical care (TAU/SMC) showed no improvement in seizures, comorbid symptoms or other outcomes.
(more…)MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Enzo Tagliazucchi: Goethe University, Germany MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Tagliazucchi: The main finding...
MedicalResearch.com: Interview with:
Lukas Schwingshackl, MSc
Department of Nutritional Sciences
University of Vienna
Vienna, AUSTRIA
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Lukas Schwingshackl: The results of the present meta-analyses showed that, in patients with established diabetes, aerobic training might be more effective in reducing glycosylated haemoglobin and fasting glucose when compared with resistance training. Combined aerobic and resistance training was more powerful in reducing glycosylated haemoglobin compared with aerobic training, and more effective in reducing glycosylated haemoglobin, fasting glucose and tricylglycerols when compared with resistance training. However, these results could not be confirmed when only low risk of bias studies were included.
(more…)MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Claudia Robertson, MD Professor, Department of Neurosurgery Baylor College of Medicine One Baylor Plaza Houston, Texas 77030 Medical Research: What are the...