Author: Marie Benz MD FAAD
12 Apr Decreased Cancer Mortality In Patients With Faster Cognitive Decline
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Julian Benito-Leon University Hospital “12 de Octubre”, Madrid, Spain MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Benito-León: It has been suggested that a major problem with epidemiologic studies that have reported an inverse association between Alzheimer’s disease and cancer is the very likely underdiagnosis of cancer once dementia...
12 Apr Chronic Hepatitis C: Combination Pill Achieves High Cure Rates
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Kris V. Kowdley, MD
Director of Research & Director of the Liver Center of Excellence
Digestive Disease Institute
Virginia Mason Medical Center
Seattle, WA 98111
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Kowdley: A fixed-dose combination of ledipasvir and sofosbuvir in chronic Hepatitis C (HCV) genotype 1 patients without cirrhosis for 8 weeks without ribavirin was equally effective as the same combination with ribavirin added and also a 12 week combination of ledipasvir-sofosbuvir (without ribavirin).
12 Apr Tooth Loss Associated with Risk Factors for Coronary Heart Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr Ola Vedin
University of Uppsala, Sweden
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Vedin: That self-reported tooth loss as a marker of periodontal disease is common in patients with established coronary heart disease and is associated with higher levels of LDL cholesterol, glucose levels, systolic blood pressure and waist circumference as well as diabetes and smoking, i.e. risk factors for coronary heart disease. Gum bleeding, another marker of periodontal disease, was associated with higher levels of LDL cholesterol and systolic blood pressure. In summary, patients with few remaining teeth and gum bleeding demonstrated a heavier burden of cardiovascular risk factors.
12 Apr Early Alzheimer’s Detection Using Computerized Cognitive Screening
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ioannis Tarnanas M.Sc
Senior Researcher
Gerontechnology and Rehabilitation Research Group,
ARTORG Centre for Biomedical Engineering,
University of Bern, 3010 Bern, Switzerland
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: We examined 75 healthy older people and 134 patients with mild cognitive impairment. Our aim was to collect neuropsychological, neurophysiological, neuroimaging and behavioural data by means of a virtual reality serious game, in order to model the profile of the patients who will progress to dementia within the next 2-4 years. We found that the prediction based on the performance at the virtual reality based computerized assessment instrument is comparable to that of more established and widely accepted biomarkers, such as ERP and MRI. This can be explained by the cognitive fidelity and richness of behavioural data collected with virtual reality based measures, which directly reflect neurocognitive processes affected at a very early stage.
11 Apr Meningococcal Vaccine Menveo Response in Adolescents
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Roger Paul Baxter, MD
Co-Director Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center
Oakland, CA 94612.
MedicalResearch.com What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Baxter: Menveo, the currently licensed CRM-conjugate meningococcal vaccine, showed an excellent booster response in adolescents, regardless of which conjugate vaccine they had received previously. Also, although titers from the priming dose waned, at 3 years there were still protective antibodies in the majority of immunized individuals. The other US-licensed meningococcal conjugate vaccine, Menactra, uses a different protein conjugate.
11 Apr Quality Intervention Program To Reduce Unnecessary Radiology Follow-Up Imaging
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jamie Hui, MD
Center for Health Services Research
Virginia Mason Medical Center
Seattle, Washington
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Hui: Through a quality improvement intervention aimed at how radiologists report on findings in female pelvic ultrasound examinations, we were able to decrease the number of unnecessary recommendations for follow-up imaging of benign adnexal cysts, preventing duress for these women.
11 Apr Poor Urban Dwellers At Greater Risk of Contracting, Dying from AIDS
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Amy Nunn, ScD, MS
Assistant professor (research) of Behavioral and Social Sciences
Brown University School of Public Health
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: The main findings are that people living in poor, mostly-minority urban neighborhoods, where health resources such as HIV testing and linkages to care are often lacking, are at a greater risk of contracting HIV and dying of AIDS. This is not because of differences in behavior. It's because they live in medically underserved areas where HIV incidence is very high and fewer people know their status. Fewer people knowing their status means fewer people on treatment. Fewer people on treatment means it's easier for people to come into contact with the virus, even if they don't engage in any higher risk behavior.
In the paper, my colleagues and I call for increasing the focus of public health efforts on these neighborhoods where the epidemic is concentrated and contributing heavily to racial and economic disparities in AIDS mortality.
11 Apr Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients Have Higher Risk of Kidney Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Eric Matteson, M.D.
Chairman of Rheumatology
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Matteson: “The main points are that kidney disease is more common in patients with rheumatoid arthritis than in the general population and that moderate reduction in kidney function was more likely to be associated with cardiovascular disease in these patients as well. Patients with more active disease week are also at higher risk for kidney disease. “
11 Apr Mental Illness Raises Risk of HIV Infection
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Michael B. Blank, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry
Perelman School of Medicine
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-3309
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Blank: We found that people in treatment for mental illnesses in inpatient and outpatient settings in Philadelphia and Baltimore were about times as likely to be infected with HIV as the general population in those cities and about 16 times as likely to be HIV infected as the general population of the US. We also found that severity of psychiatric symptoms increased the likelihood of infection.
11 Apr Heart Failure Treatment with Diuretic Spironolactone
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Marc A. Pfeffer, M.D., Ph.D.
Dzau Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Cardiovascular Division
Brigham and Women's Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Pfeffer: We randomized 3445 patients with symptomatic heart failure and a left ventricular ejection fraction greater than or equal to 45% (heart failure with preserved ejection fraction or diastolic heart failure) to spironolactone or placebo and followed them for over 3 years. Our primary outcome the composite of death from cardiovascular causes, aborted cardiac arrest, or hospitalization for management of heart failure was not significantly reduced in the group randomized to spironolactone. We did, however, observe that fewer patients in the spironolactone group were hospitalized for the management of heart failure following randomization. Spironolactone therapy was associated with higher incidence of hyperkalemia and rises in serum creatinine.
11 Apr Breast Cancer: High Fat Diet Raises Risk of Hormone Sensitive Cancer
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Sabina Sieri, PhD
Epidemiology and Prevention Unit
Department of Preventive & Predictive Medicine
Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori
20133 Milan – Italy
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study?
Dr. Sieri: In our study we found that there was an increased risk of developing breast cancer from high saturated fat intake. High total and saturated fat intake were associated with greater risk of ER PR positive breast cancer. High saturated fat intake was also associated with a greater risk of HER2 negative disease. So, a high-fat diet increases breast cancer risk and, most conspicuously, a high saturated fat intake increases the risk of developing hormone-sensitive diseases, suggesting saturated fat involvement in the etiology of hormone-sensitive breast cancer.
11 Apr New Marker to Predict Recurrence of Hepatocellular Carcinoma
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Wei-ping Zhou, MD, PhD Department of Hepatic Surgery Eastern Hepatobiliary Surgery Hospital Shanghai, China MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The main finding is that Quantitative HBsAg can be used as a new prognostic factor of Hepatocellular Carcinoma recurrence after partial hepatectomy in patients with a low HBV-DNA level.10 Apr Alzheimer’s Disease: Pathology Starts 10-20 Years Before Diagnosis
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof. Dr. med. Piotr Lewczuk
Head,Lab for Clinical Neurochemistry
and Neurochemical Dementia Diagnostics,
Universitätsklinikum Erlangen,
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy,
91054 Erlangen, Germany
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Dr. med. Piotr Lewczuk: In our study, we investigated the concentrations of four isoforms of amyloid beta peptides in the blood of healthy young volunteers without memory complains. The participants were stratified into three groups according to their apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype, which is the mostly investigated and generally accepted genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). It is known that the alterations of the amyloid beta metabolism are the earliest changes in the course of AD, occurring many years (or even decades) before the onset of the clinical symptoms, but it is actually not known how early these alterations start. Correspondingly, we wanted to investigate if healthy persons with genetic risk factor show changes in their amyloid beta metabolism already 30-40 years before the age when AD is usually diagnosed. We did not find any differences between the groups with and without APOE-driven risk, which might be carefully interpreted as no signs of Alzheimer’s Disease pathology in persons at risk at such an early life stage. Taken together, we think that the Alzheimer’s Disease pathology starts some 10-20 years before the beginning of the clinical symptoms, but not earlier.
10 Apr Breast Cancer: Frozen Section Analysis During Lumpectomy Decreases Need For Reoperation
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Dr. Judy C. Boughey MD
Professor of Surgery
Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Boughey: This study showed that the rate of reoperation after lumpectomy for breast cancer was significantly lower at Mayo Clinic in Rochester compared to national data. Mayo Clinic in Rochester uses frozen section analysis of margins at time of lumpectomy to direct any margin re-excisions during the surgery and therefore has a significantly lower rate of need for a second operation to ensure clean margins. The rate of reoperation was four times higher in the national data set than in the Mayo Clinic data set.
10 Apr Diet-Induced Obesity: EPO Has Anti-Inflammatory Effect on White Adipose Tissue
MedicalResearch.com Interview witih: Dr. Constance Tom Noguchi, Ph.D. Molecular Medicine Branch National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892 and Dr. Mawadda Al-Naeeli Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The main findings of our study are: 1) EPO treatment has an anti-inflammatory effect on white adipose tissue macrophage population during diet-induced obesity in addition to its associated metabolic improvements on glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in vivo. 2) In this model of obesity, EPO treatment was found to reduce M1-like [pro-inflammatory] and increased M2-like [anti-inflammatory] macrophages in visceral white adipose tissue depot. 3) In addition, EPO decreased circulating inflammatory monocytes. 4) These anti-inflammatory effects of EPO were found to be driven, at least in part, by direct EPO-R response in macrophages via Stat3 activation, where EPO effects on M2 but not M1 macrophages required interleukin-4 receptor/Stat6 axis. 5) The anti-inflammatory effects of EPO are not restricted to treatment with exogenous high dose EPO (1000U/kg), but also include endogenous physiological EPO levels as demonstrated by the series of studies conducted using ΔEpoR mice with EPO-R restricted to erythroid cells.10 Apr Autism: Brain Imaging Shows Mitochondrial Dysfunction In Some Patients
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Bradley S. Peterson, MD
Director of the Center for Developmental Neuropsychiatry
Director of the Center for Developmental Neuropsychiatry,
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Suzanne Crosby Murphy Professor in Pediatric Neuropsychiatry,
Columbia University, NY
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Peterson: We detected the presence of lactate in the brains of 13% of 75 participants who had ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder), compared with 1% of the brains of 96 typically developing control participants. The presence of lactate was especially more common in adults who have ASD. Lactate is a product of anaerobic metabolism, which generally should not occur in healthy, living brains under normal circumstances. The presence of lactate in the brains of persons with Autism Spectrum Disorder therefore suggests the presence of deficient production of energy stores by a component of brain cells called “mitochondria”. We detected lactate most commonly in the cingulate gyrus, a region that supports the higher-order control of thought, emotion, and behavior, and that has been implicated previously in Autism Spectrum Disorder.
09 Apr Why Do Some Patients Fail To Get Their Prescriptions Filled?
Posted at 15:46h
in Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, Compliance, Cost of Health Care, McGill, Pharmacology
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Robyn Tamblyn BScN Msc PhD
James McGill Chair
Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology and Biostatistics
McGill University and Scientific Director
Institute of Health Services and Policy Research
Canadian Institutes of Health Research
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Tamblyn: Higher drug costs are associated with a higher probability of primary non-adherence, whereas better follow-up by the prescribing physician, and a policy to provide medication at no cost for the very poor increase the likelihood of adherence
09 Apr Aspirin Found Generally Not Effective in Reducing Pregnancy Loss
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Enrique F. Schisterman, Ph.D.
Chief and Senior Investigator
Epidemiology Branch, DIPHR
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Rockville, MD 20854
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Schisterman: Our results indicate that aspirin is not effective for reducing the chances of pregnancy loss in most cases. For the total number of women in the study, 13 percent of women who took aspirin and became pregnant subsequently experienced another loss, compared with 12 percent who took the placebo. Ultimately, 58 percent of women taking aspirin and 53 percent of the placebo group got pregnant and later gave birth.
However, additional research is needed to investigate the finding that women who had experienced a single, recent pregnancy loss (before 4 1/2 months of pregnancy and within the past year) had an increased rate of pregnancy and live birth while on aspirin therapy. Among this group, 78 percent of those who took aspirin became pregnant, compared with 66 percent of those who took the placebo. For this subset of women, 62 percent of the aspirin group and 53 percent of the placebo group gave birth.
09 Apr Eating Disorders in Men Under Recognized
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Ulla Räisänen
Senior Researcher
HERG Health Experiences Research Group
Department of Primary Care Health Sciences
University of Oxford Oxford OX1 2ET
MedicalResearch.com : What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: We conducted a qualitative interview study exploring how young men (aged 16-25) recognise eating disorder symptoms and decide to seek help, and to examine their experiences of initial contacts with primary care in the UK.
Our data suggest that the widespread perception of eating disorders as uniquely or predominantly a female problem led to an initial failure by young men to recognise their behaviours as symptoms of an eating disorder. Many presented late in their illness trajectory when eating disorder behaviours and symptoms were entrenched, and some felt that opportunities to recognise their illness had been missed because of others’ lack of awareness of eating disorders in men. In addition, the men discussed the lack of gender-appropriate information and resources for men with eating disorders as an additional impediment to making sense of their experiences, and some felt that health and other professionals had been slow to recognise their symptoms because they were men.
09 Apr NSAIDS Associated with Atrial Fibrillation
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bruno Stricker, MB PhD Professor of Pharmaco-epidemiology Professor of Pharmacoepidemiology Erasmus MC MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Stricker: NSAIDs/painkillers may cause atrial fibrillation. MedicalResearch.com: What should patients and provider take away from this study? Dr. Stricker: Atrial fibrillation is the main risk factor of stroke. Patients with cardiovascular disease should...
09 Apr Indoor Tanning and Eating Disorders Linked in Adolescents
MedicalResearch.com Interview with Stephen M. Amrock, SM Department of Pediatrics New York University School of Medicine New York, NY 10016 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: We analyzed data from a nationally representative survey on youth risk behaviors. After adjusting for other risk taking behaviors, we found that high school adolescents who indoor tan were much more likely to also engage in behaviors typically associated with eating disorders. We also noted that the link between indoor tanning and such harmful weight control behaviors was even stronger among males than females.09 Apr Aerobic Exercise May Increase Memory Performance
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Teresa Liu-Ambrose, PhD, PT Associate Professor, Canada Research Chair Department of Physical Therapy Aging, Mobility, and Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute & University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Liu-Ambrose: With respect to dementia risk, the hippocampus is a brain structure...
08 Apr Higher Social Class Linked To Lower Risk of Bone Fractures
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Carolyn Crandall, M.D.
Division of General Internal Medicine,
David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California,
Los Angeles, CA, 90024, USA
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Crandall: We found that higher social class was linked with a lower risk of fractures among non-Caucasian women. Compared with non-Caucasian women who had no more than a high school education, those with at least some postgraduate education had nearly 90% lower rates of non-traumatic fracture. These results were present even after we accounted for income.
08 Apr Restless Legs Syndrome Linked to Decreased Physical Function
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Xiang Gao, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor in Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Associate Epidemiologist
Brigham and Women's Hospital
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Gao: In this study including 12,556 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study, we found that the participants with Restless Legs Syndrome at baseline had significantly lower physical function (PF) score 6 years later than those without RLS, after adjusting for potential confounders. The magnitude of difference in physical function score for RLS symptoms ≥15 times/month vs no Restless Legs Syndrome was more than that of a 5-year increase of age or moderate amount of smoking. We also found that having daily daytime sleepiness and sleep duration ≥9 hours/day were associated with lower mean physical function value than not having these symptoms .
08 Apr Could Caffeine Slow Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof. Dr. Christa E. Müller
University of Bonn Pharmaceutical Institute Pharmaceutical
Chemistry I An der Immenburg 4 D-53121 Bonn (Endenich) Germany
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Dr. Christa E. Müller: Genetically altered mice which show an aggregation of Tau protein and many symptoms of Alzheimer's Disease which progressively worsen with time was used.
Caffeine was given to one group of mice at an early stage, when the symptoms were still moderate.
The caffeine-treated mice showed better memory and less inflammation and brain damages in comparison to the non-treated control mice. This means that caffeine protected the mice to some extent. The side effects were moderate.
08 Apr Diabetes: Patients Still Face High Out of Pocket Expenses
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Rui Li Division of Diabetes Translation Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta, GA MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The proportion of people with diabetes facing high out-of-pocket (OOP) burden declined between 2001 and 2011. Although insurance and income related disparities have declined, almost one-fourth of all people with diabetes still face a high out-of-pocket burden.07 Apr Neurobiology May Explain Why Some Teenage Drivers Take More Risks
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Marie Claude Ouimet, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor/ Professeure adjointe
University of Sherbrooke/ Université de Sherbrooke
Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences/ Faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé
Longueuil, QC, Canada, J4K 0A8
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Ouimet :The goal of our study was to examine if teenagers’ driving risk was associated with a neurobiological factor. Driving was continuously observed with cameras and sensors installed in the vehicles of teenagers during their first 18 months of licensure. Cortisol response was measured within the first weeks of licensing. Our study showed two main findings:
1) Higher cortisol response to a stressful event was associated with lower crash and near crash rates over the study period;
2) Higher cortisol response was also linked to a sharper decrease in crash and near crash rates over time.
07 Apr Number of Low Income Uninsured Higher In States Not Expanding Medicaid
MedicalResearch.com Interview
Sandra L. Decker, Ph.D.
Distinguished Consultant
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Health Statistics
Hyattsville, MD 20782
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Decker: One of the main findings is that the percent of the low income population that is uninsured is higher in states not expanding Medicaid than those expanding. The low income uninsured in non-expansion states are more likely to report having or having had certain health conditions such as hypertension, cancer, stroke, emphysema, or a heart condition than those in expansion states.
07 Apr Brain Mapping May Allow Earlier Detection of Brain Abnormalities
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Alex Leow, MD PhD
Psychiatric Institute
Chicago, IL 60612 and
Tony J. Simon, PhD
University of California,
Davis MIND Institute Sacramento,
CA 95817
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disabilities and the most prevalent known single-gene cause of autism in males. The fragile X mental retardation 1 gene (FMR1) can be mutated with expanded numbers of CGG trinucleotide repeats in the 5’ untranslated region on the Xq27.3 site of the X chromosome. Normally, unaffected individuals have fewer than 45 CGG repeats in FMR1. When the size of the CGG repeat exceeds 200 FMR1 is silenced and the mutation is categorized as full, generating the FXS phenotype. If the expansion is between 55–200 repeats, then the individual is generally classified as a fragile X premutation carrier (fXPC). An estimated 40% of male and 8-16% of female premutation carriers later develop Fragile X-Associated Tremor/Ataxia Syndrome (FXTAS), which is a late-onset (usually 50-70 years old) neurodegenerative disorder.
We recruited 46 neurologically symptomless young to middle aged carriers of the FMR1 gene mutation. They were age and gender matched with 42 unaffected control individuals without the gene mutation. Both groups were evaluated by cognitive testing as well as novel neuroimaging techniques termed “brain connectomics,” based on diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) whole-brain tractography. A connectome is a comprehensive map, like a wiring diagram, of neural connections in the brain. Our study is the first-ever connectome study to compare fXPCs and controls.
In short, brain connectomics enable scientists for the first time to study the global organizational properties of the human brain by applying cutting edge computational techniques, based on graph theory, to these comprehensive maps of neural connections (i.e., the brain graphs). Our main finding was that, in neurologically symptomless male carriers we detected a correlation between brain graphs’ efficiency in processing information and the number of CGG repeats in the mutated region of FMR1 (we estimated that each additional CGG repeat that in these males represents an effective increase of ~1.5 years of “brain aging”). The correlation may prove to be an effective marker of early brain aging in otherwise neurologically symptomless premutation carriers. The study also further confirmed previous findings of smaller brain stem volumes in male fXPCS than in male controls.