Author: Marie Benz MD FAAD
29 Mar Trauma Is Leading Cause of US Deaths in Age Group 47 and Younger
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Peter M. Rhee, MD, MPH Chief, Division of Trauma, Critical Care, Burn and Emergency Surgery Professor of Surgery, Medical Director, UMC Trauma Center Co-Medical Director, Pediatric ICU Program Director, Acute Care Surgery Fellowship University of Arizona MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Rhee: In just 10 years from 2000 to 2010,...
28 Mar New Statins Guidelines Will Prevent More Heart Attacks, Stroke But Treat More Who May Not Need Them
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Michael J. Pencina, PhD
Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
Director of Biostatistics
Duke Clinical Research Institute
Durham, NC 27710
MedicalResearch.com: What motivated your research?
Dr. Pencina: After the new guidelines were issued last November, we were intrigued by the change in treatment philosophy from that based on cholesterol levels (used by the “old guidelines” known as NCEP ATPIII) to one based on 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease (used by the new AHA-ACC guidelines). We were curious what the practical consequences of this shift would be.
Furthermore, the media quoted a lot of experts making educated guesses on the impact. We realized that this question can be answered much more precisely based on the NHANES data.
28 Mar Diabetes: High Level of Self Care Improved Glycemic Control and Reduced Mortality
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Michael Laxy
Helmholtz Zentrum München
German Research Center for Environmental Health
Institute of Health Economics and Health Care Management
Neuherberg, Germany
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: In patients with type 2 diabetes a high level of self-management behavior was associated with a better glycemic control, i.e. a lower HbA1c level, in the cross-sectional perspective and a reduced mortality over a 12-year period. This effect remained robust after controlling for socio-demographic and disease related factors, including medication.
28 Mar Reduction in Surgical Residents Work Hours Did Not Improve Outcomes for Patients or Residents
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Najma Ahmed
Trauma and Acute Care Surgeon, St. Michael's Hospital
Residency Training Director, General Surgery, University of Toronto
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study:
Dr. Ahmed: The main findings if the study were that the recent reduction of resident duty hours to much less than 80 hours decreases health outcomes in patients, has adverse educational outcomes for residents and does not improve wellness in surgery.
28 Mar Public Support For Taxes on Sugar-Sweetened Beverages Still Low
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jeff
Niederdeppe
Assistant Professor Department of Communication
Cornell University.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: We conducted an Internet-based survey (N = 1319) with a nationally-representative sample of U.S. adults aged 18–64 during the fall of 2012. Americans voiced the highest levels of support for calorie labeling (65%) and removing drinks from schools (62%), and the lowest support for taxes (22%) or portion size restrictions (26%). Americans were evenly split on whether or not they support restricting sugary drink to children (50%) and requiring TV stations to air ads promoting healthy eating and exercise equal to the time used to advertise for sugary drinks (51%). Democrats and those with negative views of soda companies are more likely to support each of these policies.
28 Mar Calorie Intake Goes Up As Cereal Flake Size Goes Down
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Barbara J. Rolls, PhD
Department of Nutritional Sciences
The Pennsylvania State University, 226 Henderson Building
University Park, PA 16802-6501
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Rolls: We found that as we reduced the flake size of a breakfast cereal so that it filled a smaller volume, individuals ate a greater weight and more calories of the cereal. On four occasions, we served a popular wheat flake cereal, or the same weight of cereal crushed to 80%, 60%, or 40% of its volume, to 41 adults for breakfast. As the flake size was reduced, people made reductions in the volume of cereal they poured, but they still took a greater amount of weight and calories. They ended up eating 72 more calories at breakfast when they ate the cereal with the smallest flake size, an increase of 34%. These findings show that variations in food volume due to the size of individual food pieces affect the portion of food that people take, which in turn affects how much they eat.
27 Mar Powerpoint Presentation of Recent Medical Research Interviews and News
Posted at 17:59h
in Author Interviews
27 Mar Prostate Cancer: Likelihood of Death from Intermediate Risk Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Florence K. Keane, MD Harvard Radiation Oncology Program, Harvard Medical School and Anthony V. D’Amico, MD, PhD Department of Radiation Oncology, Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study: Answer: Patients with unfavorable intermediate-risk prostate cancer (PC) [1] have an increased risk of PC-specific mortality (PCSM) after radiotherapy (RT) with or without androgen suppression therapy (AST) compared to favorable intermediate-risk patients [2,3]. We provided validation for this prognostic subdivision using mature data with a median follow-up of 14.3 years from a prospective randomized trial comparing RT alone with RT and 6 months of AST [4]. We also assessed the risk of PCSM in patients with unfavorable intermediate-risk PC compared with high-risk prostate cancer. Our main findings were as follows.- First, there were no prostate cancer deaths observed in favorable intermediate-risk patients, despite 50% receiving RT alone.
- Second, there was not a statistically significant difference in the risk of PCSM in men with unfavorable intermediate-risk prostate cancer compared to men with high-risk PC after randomizing for age, comorbidities and treatment arm. While it is possible that a difference may emerge with longer follow-up, these results suggest that some men with unfavorable intermediate-risk PC may harbor occult GS 8-10 disease and could benefit from a 3.0-Tesla multiparametric MRI and targeted biopsy to rule out GS 8-10 disease.
27 Mar Dialysis Patients with Atrial Fibrillation: Warfarin and Risk of Stroke and Bleeding
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Louise Pilote, MD, MPH, PhD
Department of Medicine, McGill University
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill University
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Pilote: Our study found that in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) undergoing dialysis, warfarin use, compared to no-warfarin use, did not reduce the risk for stroke (adjusted hazard ratio (HR): 1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.78 to 1.67) but it was associated with a 44% higher risk for bleeding event (adjusted HR: 1.44, 95% CI: 1.13 to 1.85). However, warfarin use in non-dialysis patients with AF was associated with a 13% lower risk for stroke (adjusted HR: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.85 to 0.90) and only a 19% higher risk for bleeding event (adjusted HR: 1.19, 95% CI: 1.16 to 1.22).
27 Mar Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Sodabriety: School Based Intervention to Reduce Consumption
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Laureen Smith, PhD
Associate Professor
College of Nursing, The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43210
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Smith: Daily sugar-sweetened beverage decreased significantly by about 1 serving per day. Also weekly consumption decreased from an average of over 4 days per week to about 2 ½ days per week. Generally, the teens were drinking the beverages fewer days per week and less servings on the days they did consume them. These changes were maintained on their own for a month after the intervention ended. Water consumption increased nearly 20 percent immediately post intervention and continued to increase at 30 days post-intervention.
27 Mar Familial Infertility and Mutant ZP1
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Hong-Mei Xiao M.D.,Ph.D.
Cognition Section
Professor of Gynecology，Reproductive Medicine
The Institute of Reproduction and Stem Cell Engineering
Xiangya School of Medicine, Central South University
Vice director, Reproduction and Genetics Hospital of CITIC-Xiangya
China, Changsha
27 Mar Low Back Pain: Most Common Cause of Global Disability
Posted at 00:14h
in Author Interviews, Disability Research, Johns Hopkins, Pain Research, Rheumatology
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Damian Hoy University of Queensland School of Population Health Herston, Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Hoy: The study was part of the Global Burden of Disease 2010 study, which was conducted by the University of Queensland, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, University of Washington, and hundreds of disease experts throughout the globe. It is the largest ever public health study. It compared the overall burden (in terms of both death and disability) of the most common 291 diseases/conditions in the world. Low back pain was found to cause more global disability than any other disease/condition. If this is something you are going through, it may be worth knowing that marijuana strains for back pain is one of the most powerful remedies. You've possibly tried everything in the shop and over the counter medicine. So why not give this a go and see how you get on. There's no harm in trying. Global disability from low back pain is increasing. There is an urgent need for global, regional and national agencies to pay far greater attention to the disability caused by low back pain. In the developed world there are low back pain therapy treatments available whereas, in the developing world things aren't as accessible.26 Mar Inflammatory Breast Cancer: Relevance of Androgen Receptor Expression
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Yun Gong, M.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Pathology, Unit 53
M D Anderson Cancer Center
Houston, TX 77030
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Gong: Androgen receptor (AR) was positive in 39% of the inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) tumors, approximately one-third of estrogen receptor (ER)-negative and progesterone receptor (PR)-negative tumors and 42.6% triple-negative tumors. AR positivity was significantly associated with lymphovascular invasion but not with other clinicopathologic parameters. There was a trend toward association between AR expression and PR expression.
Univariate survival analysis indicated that patients with AR-negative/ER-negative tumors had significantly worse overall survival and disease-specific survival than the patients with tumors showing other combinations of AR/ER status (i.e., AR-negative/ER-positive, AR-positive/ER-negative, or AR-positive/ER-positive). Notably, the study was performed using post-neoadjuvant IBC surgical specimens.
26 Mar Hospital Acquired Infections: Still Room for Improvement
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Shelley S. Magill, M.D., Ph.D. From the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Emory University School of Medicine Atlanta, Georgia MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Magill: The results of this survey show that healthcare-associated infections continue to be a threat to patient safety in U.S. acute care hospitals. Among the more than 11,000 patients included in the survey, approximately 4% (or 1 in 25) had at least one healthcare-associated infection at the time of the survey. We used these results to develop national estimates of healthcare-associated infections. We estimated that in 2011, there were approximately 721,800 healthcare-associated infections in U.S. acute care hospitals. The most common types of infections were surgical site infections (SSIs), pneumonias, and gastrointestinal infections.26 Mar Autism: New Evidence that Brain Changes Begin in Pregnancy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Erik Courchesne PhD Professor, Department of Neurosciences UC San Diego School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Courchesne: “Building a baby’s brain during pregnancy involves creating a cortex that contains six layers,” Courchesne said. “We discovered focal patches of disrupted development of these cortical layers in the majority of children with autism.” The authors created the first three-dimensional model visualizing brain locations where patches of cortex had failed to develop the normal cell-layering pattern. The study found that in the brains of children with autism key genetic markers were absent in brain cells in multiple layers. “This defect,” Courchesne said, “indicates that the crucial early developmental step of creating six distinct layers with specific types of brain cells – something that begins in prenatal life – had been disrupted.” The study gives clear and direct new evidence that autism begins during pregnancy.26 Mar Infantile Pyloric Stenosis Associated with Macrolide Antibiotic Use
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Marie Lund MD, PhD student Department of Epidemiology Research København S | Denmark MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Lund: We found macrolide use in infants to be associated with a 30-fold increased risk of infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis (IHPS) with use during the first two weeks after birth and a lower, but significantly increased threefold risk with use during days 14 to 120. Similarly, there was a more than three-fold increased risk of IHPS associated with maternal macrolide use during the first two weeks after birth, but no increased risk with use thereafter. Finally, we found a possible modest association between maternal macrolide use during weeks 28 to birth and infantile hypertrophic pyloric stenosis.26 Mar Gout: Using CT Scan to Diagnose Difficult Cases
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Tim Bongartz, M.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine
Department of Rheumatology
Mayo Clinic, Minnesota
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main study findings?
Dr. Bongartz: Dual-energy computed tomography (DECT) is an imaging methods that has been in use for many years to classify the material of renal stones. Our study demonstrates that this technology can be useful in identifying monosodium urate deposits in and around joint, allowing to diagnose patients with gout with overall high sensitivity and specificity. Importantly, a stratified analysis of patient subgroups revealed that DECT is less accurate in diagnosing patients with a first flare of gout, emphasizing the importance of careful patient selection when using this new technology. In a "diagnostic-yield" substudy, we explored the question how much DECT could contribute to correctly diagnose patients where clinicians did have a high level of suspicion for gout, but synovial fluid aspiration results came back negative. In about a third of these patients with negative routine testing, we could confirm a diagnosis of gout through use of DECT.
26 Mar Sleep Loss Associated with Obesity and Diabetes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Dr. Bernd Schultes Endocrinology and Diabetes Internal Medicine eSwiss Medical & Surgical Center Brauerstrasse 97 9016 St. Gallen Schweiz MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Professor Schultes: Sleep loss promotes the development of obesity and diabetes by metabolic and behavioral mechanism. MedicalResearch.com: Were any of the findings unexpected? Professor Schultes:...
26 Mar HPV: Experimental Eradication with AHCC Supplement
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Judith A. Smith Pharm.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Gynecologic Oncology & Reproductive Medicine
Division of Surgery
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Smith: This study first demonstrated in vitro suppression of HPV expression. After a single dose at 24 hours and with repeated dosing every 24 hours for 7 days followed by 7 days of no treatment, HPV eradication was achieved. These findings were confirmed with in vivo animal studies. HPV expression was eradicated with once daily AHCC dosing for 90 days and sustained after 30 day observation off treatment. Immune modulation (increase) of IFNα (p < 0.03), IFNβ (p <0.03), and IFN (p< 0.03) and IgG1 (P < 0.05) was observed in AHCC treated mice compared to untreated controls.
AHCC mechanism of immune modulation of the IFN pathways to eradicate HPV was particularly relevant because E6/E7 oncogenic activity in HPV infection is believed to be related to suppression of IFN expression/signaling. These data suggest AHCC may help clear HPV infections and have a potential role in the prevention of HPV-related cancers.
25 Mar Bariatric Surgery May Reduce Risk of Uterine Cancer
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Kristy Ward
Department of Reproductive Medicine
UCSD School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study?
Dr. Ward: As the second leading cause of preventable death, obesity is one of the nation’s most serious public health problems. Over two-thirds of the US population is currently overweight or obese and the prevalence continues to increase. A number of studies have linked obesity with an overall elevated risk of cancer and with many individual cancer types. Among obesity related cancers in women, endometrial cancer is most strongly associated with increasing body mass, with 39% of cases in the US attributable to obesity.
In patients with clinically severe obesity (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2), bariatric surgery results in rapid weight loss and has greater long-term success when compared to non-surgical weight loss methods. Surgical weight loss procedures have been found to reduce obesity-related comorbidites and improve outcomes in clinically severe obese populations. In addition to improved cardiovascular risk factors and mitigation of physical symptoms, there is increasing evidence that cancer risk is reduced after bariatric surgery.
25 Mar Alcohol Use and Cognitive Impairment in Later Life
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Osvaldo P. Almeida, MD, PhD, FRANZCP, FFPOA
Professor & Winthrop Chair of Geriatric Psychiatry | School of Psychiatry & Clinical Neurosciences | University of Western Australia.
Consultant | Department of Psychiatry | Royal Perth Hospital.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study?
Prof. Almeida: This study used the principles of Mendelian randomisation to clarify whether alcohol use is a direct cause of cognitive impairment in later life. The rationale behind this approach is that the genetic variation associated with lower risk of alcohol abuse or dependence should also be associated with lower risk of cognitive impairment if alcohol misuse is a direct cause cognitive impairment. We found no evidence for such an association.
25 Mar Post-Stroke: What Makes Family Caregivers Happy?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jill Cameron, PhD
CIHR New Investigator, Associate Professor,
Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy
Graduate Department of Rehabilitation Science
Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Adjunct Scientist, UHN-Toronto Rehabilitation Institute
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Cameron: In our study with 399 stroke survivor, caregiver dyads, caregivers reported more psychological wellbeing when they provided more assistance to stroke survivors who had fewer symptoms of depression, better cognitive functioning, and who had more severe strokes. In addition, caregivers who maintained participation in valued activities, had more mastery, gained personally providing care, were in better physical health, and were older reported more psychological wellbeing.
25 Mar Mucin Profiling of Pancreatic Cysts to Improve Pancreatic Cancer Detection
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Dr. Karolina Sjöberg Jabbar, MD,
Medicine Policlinic II, Bla Straket 5, Sahlgrenska University Hospital
Gothenburg, Sweden
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: The main finding of this study is that the presence of mucin proteins in pancreatic cyst fluid, as evaluated by mass spectrometry, can predict with high accuracy (97%) which pancreatic cysts contain premalignant and malignant tumours. This is important, given that pancreatic cystic lesions are an increasingly common incidental finding on imaging. While most of them pose no threat to the patient, a minor proportion has malignant potential, and may be considered precursors to pancreatic cancer.
25 Mar Dietary Vitamin K Linked to Lower Heart Disease, Cancer Mortality
MedicalResearch.com Interview with Mònica Bulló PhD Human Nutrition Unit Department of Biochemistry & Biotechnology IISPV School of Medicine Rovira i Virgili University Sant Llorenç, Spain MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr Bulló: There is some evidence that different dietary forms of vitamin K could exert varying effects on health, however no study to date has simultaneously evaluated the potential effects of the main vitamin K forms on cancer and cardiovascular mortality. We conducted a prospective, epidemiologic study involving 7,216 elderly subjects at high cardiovascular risk who were followed for about 5 years.The results of the present study show, for the first time that an increase in dietary intake of both forms of vitamin K is related to a lower risk of cardiovascular mortality, cancer mortality or all-cause mortality.25 Mar Increased Sun Exposure Decreased Folate Levels In Women of Childbearing Age
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Michael Kimlin
Professor of Cancer Prevention Research
Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation
Queensland University of Technology
Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: The main findings of this study were that women who where classified as having the highest level of sun exposure in our sample had a significantly larger drop in blood folate levels compared to women with lower sun exposures. This was quite a powerful finding, as all women were supplemented with folate and tested so that so that we knew that each sun exposure group had similar average levels of blood folate at the start of the study. We then measured their sun exposure over a week and took a sample of blood at the end of this week to see how the degree of sun exposure affected folate levels.
24 Mar E-Cigarettes Did Not Increase Chance of Quitting Smoking
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Pamela Ling, MD MPH
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
Director, Tobacco Control Policy Fellowship
Center for Tobacco Research and Education
University of California San Francisco
San Francisco, CA 94143-1390
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Ling: We followed a sample of smokers from a nationally representative panel for one year. We found that there was no difference in the rate of quitting between smokers who used an e-cigarette and those who did not. Put another way, smokers who had used e-cigarettes at the beginning of the study were equally likely to have quit smoking one year later as those who did not use e-cigarettes. There was no relationship between e-cigarette use and quitting even after taking into account measures of tobacco dependence (number of cigarettes smoked per day, how early in the day a smoker has his first cigarette) and intention to quit smoking.
24 Mar Violent Video Games Linked to Aggressive Thought Patterns and Behavior in Children
Posted at 22:02h
in Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, JAMA, Pediatrics, Psychological Science
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Craig A. Anderson, Distinguished Professor
Director, Center for the Study of Violence
Department of Psychology
Iowa State University
Ames, IA 50011-3180
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Anderson: There are three main findings from this long-term study of violent video game effects.
1. Over time, repeated play and practice of violent video games led to an relative increase in aggressive thought patterns and in physical aggression.
2. As predicted by social-cognitive theoretical models, the violent video game effect on physical aggression was directly linked to the increase in aggressive thought patterns. That is, one key reason why repeated exposure to violent video games increases aggression is because such exposure changes the way children and adolescents think about people and events that occur in their lives. In a sense, their personality changes, so that they perceive more hostility around them and come to view physically aggressive behavior as a proper solution to even minor conflicts and provocations.
3. These effects of repeated exposure to violent video games were quite general across types of people. Boys and girls, younger children and older adolescents, high aggressive and low aggressive children, all showed pretty much the same effects. In other words, no subgroup was immune to the harmful effects of violent video games.
24 Mar Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Call to Standardize Perioperative Steroids
Posted at 13:32h
in Author Interviews, Endocrinology, Gastrointestinal Disease, JAMA, Johns Hopkins, Surgical Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Elizabeth C. Wick, MD
Assistant Professor,Department of Surgery
The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, Maryland
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Wick: The main finding is the high variability in physician practice for prescribing steroids and the lack of clear guidance as to best practice in the literature.
23 Mar Periodontitis: New Classification Based on Gene Expression
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Panos N. Papapanou:
Professor of Dental Medicine;
Chairman, Section of Oral and Diagnostic Sciences
Director, Division of Periodontics Section of Oral and Diagnostic Sciences,
College of Dental Medicine, Columbia University, New York, NY
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Papapanou: Gene expression signatures in gum tissues obtained from patients with periodontitis identified two fairly robust clusters, suggesting potential differences in pathobiologic processes between the two groups. In addition, the two clusters displayed differences in important features of the disease (e.g., the extent and severity of periodontitis, and the level of colonization by periodontal bacteria). These findings indicate that gene expression patterns may form the basis for a novel, pathobiology-based classification of periodontitis.