Author: Marie Benz MD FAAD
05 Nov Penicillin “allergy” history is not a benign finding
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Eric Macy, MD MS
Southern California Permanente Medical Group
Department of Allergy
San Diego Medical Center, San Diego, Calif
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Macy: Admission to hospital with a history of penicillin allergy, though often inaccurate, is associated with significantly higher total hospital utilization along with significantly higher rates of MRSA, VRE, and Clostridium difficile infections.
05 Nov Good Night’s Sleep Associated with Decreased Calorie Intake in Children
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Chantelle Hart, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Public Health
Center for Obesity Research & Education
Department of Public Health
Philadelphia, PA 19140
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Hart: Following one week of sleeping their typical amount, children 8-11 years old were asked to decrease and increase their time in bed by 1.5 hours/night for one week each in random order. Compared to when children decreased their sleep, when they increased their sleep, they reported consuming 134 kcal/day fewer, had lower fasting levels of leptin, a hunger-regulating hormone that is also highly correlated with the amount of adipose tissue, and weighed approximately 0.5 lbs less. Reported decreases in food intake were most pronounced later in the day.
05 Nov PCOS – Polycystic Ovary Syndrome: Should it be Renamed?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Helena Teede MBBS, PhD, FRACP Director Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation -- MCHRI, And Head Womens Public Health Research, School Public Health and Preventive Medicine Monash University, in partnership with Monash Health Head Diabetes and Vascular Medicine, Monash Health President Elect- Endocrine Society of Australia NHMRC Practitioner Fellow 43-51 Kanooka Grove,...
05 Nov Atrial Fibrillation Increases Risk of Heart Attack
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Elsayed Z Soliman MD, MSc, MS, FAHA, FACC
Director, Epidemiological Cardiology Research Center (EPICARE)
Wake Forest School of Medicine
Medical Center Blvs, Winston Salem, NC 27157
Atrial Fibrillation and the Risk of Myocardial Infarction
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Soliman: Using data from the REGARDS study, one of the largest US cohorts, we examined the risk of incident myocardial infarction (MI) associated with atrial fibrillation (AF). Overall, AF was associated with almost double the risk of MI. When we adjusted for common cardiovascular risk factors and potential confounders, the risk remained significantly high; about 70% increased risk. When we looked at women, men, blacks, and whites separately, we found significant differences between races and sex. AF in women and blacks was associated with more than double the risk of MI. This compares to less than 50% increased risk of heart attack associated with AF in men and whites . So AF is basically bad for all, but the risk of MI associated with AF is more pronounced in women and blacks.
05 Nov When is it Safe to Drive after Orthopedic Surgery?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Geoffrey S. Marecek, MD
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine
Los Angeles, CA
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Marecek: There were several main findings:
1. It is not safe to drive while wearing a sling or splint on the upper extremities
2. It is not safe to drive while wearing a brace, cast, or boot on the lower extremities
3. Braking function does not return to normal for at least 4 weeks after knee arthroscopy, total knee arthroplasty (TKA) and total hip arthroplasty (THA), for 9 weeks after ankle fracture repair, and for 6 weeks after weight bearing begins for a fracture (up to 18 weeks for articular fractures).
04 Nov Non-Publication of Medical Research Remains an Issue
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Christopher Jones MD
Attending Physician
Department of Emergency Medicine,
Cooper Medical School of Rowan University
One Cooper Plaza, Camden, NJ 08103, USA
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Jones: We identified a group of 585 clinical trials with at least 500 participants which had been prospectively registered with ClinicalTrials.gov and completed prior to 2009. Following an extensive search of the medical literature, we were unable to identify published manuscripts for 171 (29%) of these studies. For these unpublished studies we also determined whether results were available in the ClinicalTrials.gov results database, and we found that 133 studies had no results available either in the published literature or on ClinicalTrials.gov.
04 Nov Hot Flashes: Study of Local Anesthetic Nerve Block
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
David Walega, MD
Chief of the Division of Pain Medicine
Northwestern Memorial Hospital and
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Walega: Patients who underwent a single stellate ganglion injection with a local anesthetic had a 50% decrease in moderate -to- very severe hot flashes and this effect appeared to last thru the 6 month duration of the study; the placebo or "sham control" group had injections of saline and they did not demonstrate long-term improvements in hot flash symptoms
02 Nov How much would Sugary Drink Tax Reduce Obesity?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Adam D M Briggs Academic Clinical Fellow British Heart Foundation Health Promotion Research Group, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford OX3 7LF, UK MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: For the first time this study estimates the impact of a sugary drinks tax in the UK on obesity. We estimate the tax would reduce the number of adults with obesity by around 180,000 or just over 1% of all adults who are obese, and the number of adults who are either overweight or obese by 285,000. The greatest reductions are seen in young adults. We also estimate that the effects of the tax will be similar across all income groups.02 Nov Diabetes: Renoprotective Effects of ACE Inhibitors
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hon-Yen Wu, Lecturer Department of Internal Medicine, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital, New Taipei City, Taiwan Department of Internal Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital and College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan Graduate Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings...
02 Nov Psoriatic Arthritis: Tight Control Improves Arthritis, Skin Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Laura Coates
Division of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Disease
Chapel Allerton Hospital Chapeltown Road Leeds
NIHR Clinical Lecturer at the University of Leeds
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: The TICOPA study showed that treating patients with early psoriatic
arthritis to an objective target with regular review improved
patient's clinical outcome both in terms of arthritis and skin
psoriasis. There was an increase in adverse events in the tight
control arm but only 4 serious infections seen in the tight control
arm that were thought to be related to treatment (2 cases of
cellulitis, 2 cases of chest infection).
01 Nov Neglected Diseases: Research and Development Landscape
MedicalResearch.com Interview with :
Dr Belén Pedrique
Epidemiologist
Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative
DNDi, 15 Chemin Louis Dunant
1202 Geneva, Switzerland
MedicalResearch.com : What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Pedrique: Of the 850 new drugs and vaccines approved for all diseases in 2000-2011, 4% (37) were for neglected diseases, defined broadly as those prevalent primarily in poor countries: malaria, tuberculosis, 17 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), 11 diarrheal diseases, and 19 other diseases of poverty, excluding HIV/AIDS. Globally these neglected diseases represent an 11% health burden, based on a recent assessment of 2010 disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs).
Most newly developed therapeutic products were repurposed versions of existing drugs. Of the 336 brand-new drugs (new chemical entities, or NCEs) approved for all diseases in 2000-2011, only four, or 1%, were for neglected diseases; three were for malaria, and one for diarrheal disease. None were for any of the 17 WHO-listed NTDs
Of 148,445 phase I-III clinical trials registered as of Dec 31, 2011, only 1% (2,016) were for neglected diseases.
01 Nov Proton Therapy Radiation: Decreased Need for Feeding Tubes in Oropharnygeal Cancer Patients
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Steven J. Frank, M.D., associate professor of Radiation Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Proton Therapy Center discusses the findings of his latest study, “Gastrostomy Tubes Decrease by Over 50% with Intensity Modulated Proton Therapy during the Treatment of Oropharyngeal Cancer Patients.”
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Frank: The study found that the use of feeding tubes in oropharyngeal carcinoma (OPC) cancer patients treated with intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) decreased by more than 50% percent compared to patients treated with intensity modulated radiation therapy (IMRT). This suggests that proton therapy may offer vital quality of life benefits for patients with tumors occurring at the back of the throat.
Of the 50 OPC patients enrolled in the study:
- Twenty-five patients were treated with IMPT and 25 received IMRT.
- Five patients treated with IMPT required the use of feeding tubes (20%) compared to 12 patients treated with IMRT (48%).
- IMPT patients were spared from serious side effects, usually a result of IMRT, such as loss of taste, vomiting, nausea, pain, mouth and tongue ulcers, dry mouth, fatigue, and swallowing difficulty.
- IMPT patients could better sustain their nutrition and hydration levels, often leading to faster recovery during and after treatment.
01 Nov Prostate Cancer: Obesity at Diagnosis Increases Mortality Risk
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Reina Haque, PhD, MPH Research scientist, Kaiser Permanente Department of Research & Evaluation MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The main study findings are that men who are overweight or obese when they are diagnosed with prostate cancer are more likely to die from the disease than men who are of healthy weight. In patients with more aggressive forms of prostate cancer, the researchers also found an even stronger correlation between obesity and mortality. The study was restricted to patients undergoing surgical treatment for prostate cancer, rather than other treatments such as radiation or hormone therapy.01 Nov Diabetes: Are Antioxidants Really a Good Idea?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Kumar Sharma, M.D.
Professor of Medicine
Director, Institute of Metabolomic Medicine
Director, Center for Renal Translational Medicine
University of California, San Diego
La Jolla, CA 92093-0711
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Sharma: Main findings are that diabetes is associated with reduced superoxide production in the kidney and heart and that stimulation of superoxide production with AMPK led to improvement in organ function.
01 Nov Diabetes: Should Lifestyle Advice Differ from General Population?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Diewertje Sluik, DrPH
Postdoctoral fellow | Division of Human Nutrition | Section Epidemiology & Pubic Health | Wageningen University
Postal address: PO Box 8129 | NL-6700 EV Wageningen| The Netherlands
Visiting address: Agrotechnion, Building 309, Room 1019 | Bomenweg 4 | 6703 HD Wageningen
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Response: The main finding of the study is that lifestyle advice with respect to mortality for patients with diabetes should not differ from recommendations for the general population.
Diabetes status did not substantially influence the associations between lifestyle and mortality risk. People with diabetes may benefit more from a healthy diet, but the directions of association were similar. These results highlight that the difficulties in recognizing and diagnosing diabetes and its different stages are of minor importance with respect to healthy diet and lifestyle recommendations, because no difference in recommendations depending on the stage of the disease seems necessary.
01 Nov Venous Blood Clots: Sex Difference in Risk Explained
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. W.M. Lijfering, MD, PhD
Department of Clinical Epidemiology, C7-P-89
Leiden University Medical Center
PO Box 9600
2300 RC Leiden
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Lijfering: In this study we found that the risk of a first venous thrombosis* is two-fold higher in men than in women once female reproductive risk factors for venous thrombosis are taken into account (odds ratio 1.9, 95% CI 1.7-2.2). These results were found in all age categories (18-70 years) and were not affected by adjustment for body mass index and smoking, or by excluding participants with malignancy.
01 Nov Epicardial Fat, Fatty Liver Linked
MedicalResearh.com Interview with:
Gianluca Iacobellis MD PhD
Professor of Clinical Medicine
Division of Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism, Department of Medicine,
University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Miami, Florida, USA
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Iacobellis: Our study suggests that epicardial fat, the fat pad in direct contiguity to the heart, is a good predictor of liver steatosis in obese subjects
30 Oct Food Consumed by Children in School Surprising High in Fat, Empty Calories
MedicalResearch.com Interview Jennifer M. Poti PhD Candidate, Nutritional Epidemiology University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: Consumption of solid fat and added sugar (SoFAS) by children exceeds recommendations, but it was not known where kids obtain these “empty calories.” Analyzing data from over 22,000 US children, we found that children consumed about 1/3 of their calories as solid fat and added sugar for foods consumed from retail food stores (including grocery stores and supermarkets), schools, or fast food restaurants in 2009-2010, despite significant decreases from 1977 to 2010 at each location. These mean levels of empty calorie intake greatly exceeded recommended amounts not just for fast foods, but also for foods consumed from schools and from stores. For all survey years, foods consumed by children from schools were higher in solid fat content than foods obtained and consumed from retail food stores.30 Oct Autism and Language Impairment: Possible Common Genetic Link
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Linda Brzustowicz, M.D.
Professor and Chair
Department of Genetics
Rutgers University,Piscataway, NJ 08854
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Brzustowicz: The objective of this study was to search for locations in the human genome that impact language ability in individuals with autism as well as in their family members without autism. To do this, we recruited families with an individual with autism and at least one other family member without autism but with a language learning impairment. We identified two locations in the human genome that are linked to language ability in these families. Importantly, these locations do not appear to be specific to language impairment in the individuals with autism, but are related to language ability in other family members as well. This suggests that while individuals with autism may have new, or de novo, genetic variations that are important for risk of illness, they may also carry inherited genetic variation that influence the expression of their illness. The effects of these inherited variants can also be seen in the language performance of family members without autism.
30 Oct Lung Cancer: Breath Test Detection
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Peter Mazzone MD, MPH Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine Cleveland Clinic Main Campus Cleveland, OH 44195 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study? Dr. Mazzone: There were 2 parts to this study: In the first part we looked at how the breath collection instrument and sensor were performing and made...
30 Oct Rheumatoid Arthritis and Increased Risk of Heart Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Eric Matteson, M.D.
Rheumatology Chair
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the studies?
Dr. Matteson: “The main finding is that patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis have a higher risk of heart disease. Further, women who experience early menopause also have a higher risk of heart disease.”
30 Oct Depression: Physical Activity and Prevention
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: George Mammen, PhD Candidate Health & Exercise Psychology Unit University of Toronto MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer:- 25 out of the 30 studies found PA to protect against depression; majority of these were of high methodological quality
- Decreasing PA overtime can increase the risk of developing depression; increasing PA overtime can reduce the risk of developing depression
- In terms of dosage, the review highlighted studies that showed even low levels, such as 20 mins of walking a day, can prevent the onset of depression.
29 Oct Rheumatoid Arthritis: Heart Disease and Biologics
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lotta Ljung, MD, PhD Umeå University, Umeå and Karolinska Institute Stockholm, Sweden MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Ljung: In this observational study we observed a lower risk of acute coronary syndromes in a cohort of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) exposed to tumor necrosis factor inhibitors (TNFi) compared with the risk among patients without this exposure. The adjusted relative risk (HR) was 0.73-0.82 among TNFi exposed patients compared with the biologics-naive RA cohort, depending on the time frame evaluated, which can be concluded as a moderately lower risk. Compared with the risk in the general population, the risk in RA patients was higher, whether exposed to TNFi or not.29 Oct Celiac Disease: Association with Iron Supplement during Pregnancy?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with Dr. Ketil Stordal Researcher/consultant paediatrician National Institute of Public Health Norway MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Stordal: Mothers who used iron supplementation during pregnancy had an increased risk for having children with a diagnosis of celiac disease. This association was not caused by maternal anemia during pregnancy, anemia was not a predictor of celiac disease in the offspring. The risk for celiac disease when the mother had used the highest doses and for the longest period.29 Oct Smoking: Monday Most Popular Day to Quit
MediclResearch.com Interview with: John W. Ayers, PhD, MA Graduate School of Public Health San Diego State University, San Diego, California MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Ayers: Our study, published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Internal Medicine was the first to describe daily rhythms in health behaviors. Because trends in quitting contemplations are usually described annually using telephone surveys, we had to use a novel data source that could capture daily patterns. By monitoring aggregate Internet search queries we can see precisely what the population is thinking about by the content of their queries and that the population is engaged in the issue by searching. We therefore analyzed daily search volumes for smoking cessation queries (e.g., "quit smoking") in six languages across the entire globe. We found that people search about quitting smoking more often early in the week, with the highest query volumes on Mondays, using a daily measure representing the proportion of quit smoking searches to all searches. This pattern was consistent across all six languages, suggesting a global predisposition to thinking about quitting smoking early in the week, particularly on Mondays. English searches, for example, showed Monday query volumes were 11 percent greater than on Wednesdays, 67 percent greater than on Fridays, and 145 percent greater than on Saturdays. In total for all six languages, Monday query volumes were 25 percent higher than the combined mean number of searches for Tuesday through Sunday. Practically these findings are very meaningful. For example, in English alone there are about 150,000 more quit smoking queries on Monday than on a typical day; about 8,000,000 over an entire year.29 Oct Physicians in Training and Basic Etiquette: Room for Improvement
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Lauren Block, MD
Assistant Professor, North Shore–LIJ Hofstra School of Medicine
2001 Marcus Ave., Suite S160
Lake Success, NY 11042
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Block: Our goal was to look at how often doctors in training were performing basic niceties with their patients, such as introducing themselves and sitting down. We found that while the doctors usually asked open-ended questions and touched patients, resident physicians were unlikely to introduce themselves, explain their role, or sit down when talking to patients.
29 Oct Heart Attack: Evaluation of Bioabsorbable Drug Eluting Stents
Posted at 10:37h
in Author Interviews
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lorenz Raber, MD University Hospital Bern Bern, Switzerland
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Raber: The main finding of the clinical study is that the benefit of a biolimus-eluting stent using a biodegradable polymer (Biomatrix, BES) regarding MACE (cardiac death, target vessel MI, TLR) continued to accrue during the second year of follow-up, actually with a similar relative risk reduction as observed during the first year. After one year, the timepoint at which most patients stopped dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT), no difference in safety (cardiac death, myocardial infarction, stent thrombosis) was observed between BES and the control group (bare metal stent, BMS). This largely confirms the principle concept of biodegradable polymer stent platforms. The results of the imaging substudy provide a mechanistic explanation for the observed benefit with BES. Specifically, BES showed a lower neointimal thickness, a low frequency of uncovered and malapposed stent struts (OCT) and the absence of positive remodeling (IVUS) at 13 months follow-up.29 Oct Hip Fracture Surgery: Hand Grip Strength and Recovery Prediction
Posted at 02:31h
in Hip Fractures
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Stefano Volpato MD MPH
Department of Medical Sciences, University of Ferrara
Ferrara, Italy
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Volpato: In this study we evaluated clinical value of handgrip strength assessment in older patients admitted to the hospital for hip fracture. We observed 504 older patients admitted to 4 Italian hospitals for hip surgery, able of walking independently before fracture, and we found a strong, graded and independent association of grip strength, assessed before hip surgery, and the likelihood of functional recovery over the one-year follow-up. The findings reported in our manuscript can be summarized as:
a. handgrip strength significantly correlated with several prognostic factors traditionally considered in clinical practice, such as age, gender, neuro-psychological and functional status, comorbidity level, vitamin D plasma levels, and time before the surgical procedure;
b. logistic regression models showed that handgrip strength was directly associated with higher probability of walking recovery, both at any follow-up (incident walking recovery), and for at least 2 consecutive follow-ups (persistent walking recovery);
b. Kaplan-Meier survival estimates showed that lower grip strength was related to increased mortality after hip surgery;
c. the association between grip performance and walking recovery was clinically relevant and statistically independent of potential confounders.