Author: Marie Benz MD FAAD
26 Sep Decline in C. Difficile may be due to Decreased Antibiotic Exposure
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David W. Eyre, B.M., B.Ch. Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine University of Oxford National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre John Radcliffe Hospital MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study? Dr. Eyre: All cases of Clostridium difficile in Oxfordshire were studied over 3 years. Isolates were characterized by whole genome sequencing and the data was linked to hospital databases allowing epidemiological relationships between patients at the level of the hospital ward, hospital specialty, and post code to be identified. For comparison, similar information was also available for all other patients with and without diarrhea. Preliminary work on the genetic diversity of Clostridium difficile within individuals and between individuals within discrete outbreaks allowed reliable interpretation of transmission events using genomic data. This allowed a complete reconstruction of the pattern of transmission between affected cases in Oxfordshire to be made. The findings were: 1. Unexpectedly few cases (13%) appear to be acquired from direct ward based contact with other symptomatic cases (these have previously been thought to be the main source of infections, and the focus of prevention efforts). Another 6% were associated with other hospital contact and 3% had plausible community contacts. 2. In 13% of cases potential donors were identified gnomically but no contact, within hospitals or the community, were identified. This suggests that the existence of other modes of transmission of Clostridium difficile. 3. The sources of Clostridium difficile infections were highly genetically diverse, with 45% of cases having a genetically distinct origin - suggesting a diverse reservoir of disease, not previously appreciated 4. During the 3 years of the study the rate of Clostridium difficile in Oxfordshire fell. Any improvement in infection control techniques would be expected to reduce the incidence of cases caused by within hospital transmission. Surprisingly, similar rates of fall occurred in both in secondary cases (considered to be acquired from hospital associated symptomatic cases) and for primary cases (cases not associated with transmission from symptomatic cases).26 Sep Advanced Prostate Cancer: Abiraterone (Zytiga) Improved Quality of Life
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Dr. Ethan Basch MD
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Basch: The primary clinical finding of this study is that treatment with abiraterone acetate delays the time until pain develops or worsens in men with advanced prostate cancer. Furthermore, abiraterone delays the time until quality of life and functioning deteriorate, compared to placebo. There is also a broader research finding of this study, which is that it is feasible to rigorously study the time until symptom progression in cancer clinical trials, which paves the way for future studies to use a similar approach.
25 Sep Bone Mineral Density: Does Repeat Testing Improve Fracture Risk Prediction?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Sarah D. Berry MD MPH
Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew Senior Life
Boston, Massachusetts
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Berry: Repeating a bone mineral density (BMD) screening test in 4 years provided little additional value beyond baseline BMD when assessing fracture risk. Also, the second BMD measure resulted in little change in risk classification that is commonly used in clinical management of osteoporosis.
25 Sep Bariatric Surgery: Centers of Excellence Programs and Minority Access
Posted at 11:57h
in Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, JAMA, Medicare, Race/Ethnic Diversity, University of Michigan, Weight Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview Invitation
Dr. Lauren Hersch Nicholas Ph.D
Research Affiliate, Population Studies Center.
Faculty Research Fellow, Survey Research Center
University of Michigan
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Nicholas: We found that a Medicare policy designed to improve the safety of bariatric surgery was associated with 17% decline in the share of Medicare patients from minority groups receiving bariatric surgery.
25 Sep Cocaine: Brain Reward Circuitry Altered, even in Former Users
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Krishna Patel, M.S. Clinical Data Analyst Hartford Hospital|Institute of Living Olin Neuropsychiatry Research Center Hartford, CT-06106 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: We looked at brain response to a monetary incentive delay (MID) task in current and former cocaine users compared to healthy controls using functional MRI. The task measures aspects of sensitivity to rewards and punishments. Current cocaine users showed abnormal under-activation in reward circuitry compared to healthy controls. In some of those regions former cocaine users (who had an average of 4years of abstinence from cocaine) also showed abnormalities. These former users also showed over-activation in the ventral tegmental area of the midbrain, (an important region containing dopamine cell bodies) compared to both healthy controls and current cocaine users. Current and former cocaine users also scored higher on specific impulsivity measures, compared to healthy controls.25 Sep Childhood Cancer Survivors: Long Term Kidney Function Decline
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Renée L. Mulder, PhD
Department of Pediatric Oncology
Emma Children's Hospital / Academic Medical Center
1100 DD Amsterdam The Netherlands
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Mulder: The glomerular function of childhood cancer survivors treated with nephrotoxic therapy declines very soon after treatment and does not recover. The glomerular function declines over time. This decline is comparable to survivors treated without nephrotoxic therapy.
25 Sep Hip Fracture Risk and Link to Obesity Gene
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Professor Tuan V. Nguyen
Osteoporosis and Bone Biology Program
Garvan Institute of Medical Research
384 Victoria Street, Darlinghurst NSW 2010
Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Nguyen: We analyzed polymorphisms of the FTO (fat mass and obesity) gene in 934 elderly women of Caucasian background, and found that carriers of minor genotype (AA) of the SNP rs1121980 had a two-fold increase in the risk of hip fracture compared with carriers of major genotype (GG). Approximately 20% of women are carriers of the AA genotype. We estimate that about 17% of hip fracture cases could be attributed to the variation within the gene.
25 Sep Myocardial Fat Content : Effects of Age and Aerobic Fitness
Posted at 00:46h
in Author Interviews, Case Western, Exercise - Fitness, Heart Disease, UT Southwestern
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Satyam Sarma MD
Assistant Instructor, Cardiology
University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center
Inst. for Exercise and Environmental Medicine
7232 Greenville Ave. Dallas TX 75231
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Sarma: The main findings of our study were that as we age or live a sedentary lifestyle, fat tends to accumulate in the muscle of the heart. The accumulation of myocardial lipids were linked to abnormalities in diastolic function. With increasing levels of fat, the left ventricle became less distensible and had impaired tissue relaxation.
25 Sep Breastfeeding Duration and Bedsharing Activity Influence
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Fern R. Hauck, MD, MS
Spencer P. Bass, MD Twenty-First Century Professor of Family Medicine
Director, International Family Medicine Clinic
Department of Family Medicine
University of Virginia, PO Box 800729
Charlottesville, VA 22908-072
Co-author of "14 Ways to Protect Your Baby from SIDS"
(www.parentingpress.com/sids.html)
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Hauck: We looked at data from the Infant Feeding Practices Study II, which followed mother from pregnancy through the first year of infant life. Mothers received several surveys that asked about infant feeding and bedsharing (sleeping with their infant in the same bed or other sleep surface). We found that mothers who bedshared for the longest time had the longest duration of breastfeeding compared with mothers who did not bedshare or bedshared for shorter times. Breastfeeding duration was also longer among mothers who were better educated, were white, had previously breastfed another child, had planned to breastfeed this baby, and had not returned to work in the first year after the baby was born.
25 Sep Anti-Obesity Medication Use in US
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Christian Hampp PhD
Division of Epidemiology-I, Office of Pharmacovigilance and Epidemiology
Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
Silver Spring, Maryland
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Hampp: We investigated the use of prescription antiobesity drugs, including duration of use, in the United States from 2002 through 2011. We found that in 2011, approximately 2.74 million patients used antiobesity drugs, predominantly phentermine (2.43 million patients), while the use of prescription orlistat and sibutramine was relatively uncommon. Eighty-five percent of antiobesity drug users were female, 62% were aged 17-44 years, and 4.5% had a body mass index of ≤24.9 kg/m2. Duration of use was generally short and most patients only had one episode of antiobesity drug use during the observation period. The longest episode of use was ≤30 days in 47- 58% of patients. Approximately one quarter of patients used antiobesity drugs for longer than 90 days. Only 1.3- 4.2% of antiobesity drug users used them for >1 year.
24 Sep Severe Aortic Stenosis: Flow-Gradient Patterns after Aortic Valve Replacement
Posted at 23:16h
in Heart Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Mackram Eleid, MD
Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and Internal Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Eleid: Our study investigated the characteristics, outcomes and impact of aortic valve replacement in a large series of 1704 patients with severe aortic stenosis (aortic valve area < 1 cm2) and preserved ejection fraction (EF > 50%) according to the flow-gradient classification that incorporates both stroke volume index and mean aortic valve gradient. The primary findings were that patients with low flow, low gradient AS have lower survival than other flow-gradient patterns (a 3.2-fold increase risk of mortality compared to normal flow, low gradient), and their survival is improved with aortic valve replacement. Conversely, patients with normal flow and low gradient had a favorable survival with medical management, suggesting a less advanced stage of disease compared to the other groups. Additionally, a novel observation from this study is that patients with low flow had a higher prevalence of atrial fibrillation and previous heart failure events compared to other groups.
23 Sep MRSA: Number of Infections Still Increasing in Children
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Martha Iwamoto, MD, MPH Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia; MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Iwamoto: We have been successful in decreasing invasive MRSA infections among infants younger than 3 months, mostly due to declines in hospital –onset infections in NICUs. However, more needs to be done among pediatric patients older than 3 months, especially those in the community settings and without recent healthcare exposures.23 Sep Sexual Temptations and Gender Differences
Posted at 22:16h
in Author Interviews
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Natasha Tidwell
Graduate Research Assistant/Teaching Assistant
Department of Psychology
Texas A&M University - College Station
208 State Chemistry Building
Texas A&M Universit
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Basically, two studies demonstrated that men’s tendency to engage in “off limits” sexual behaviors more than women is linked to sex differences in impulse, not control.
In Study 1, we asked participants to reflect on previous times they succumbed to sexual temptations they felt were inappropriate some way. Based on their responses, we found that men both experienced stronger impulses and engaged in behavior based on these impulses more than women did. However, there was no reported difference in how much men and women exerted self-control.
23 Sep Psychopathic Traits: Trajectories in Adolescence
MedicalResearch.com Interview with Selma Salihovic, Doctoral student Center for Developmental Research Örebro University MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Salihovic: Although previous research has examined the stability of psychopathic traits, our study offer a more nuanced perspective on development. Rather than asking whether psychopathic traits simply increase or decrease in adolescence, we asked about patterns of change for youths with different initial level of psychopathic traits. In this way, we could tease apart those youths with extreme levels from those with low and more transient levels, and follow their unique trajectories over four years. We could see that even among the youths with the highest levels there was a decreasing trend in two out of three core aspects of psychopathy. Although the degree of change was small, it was still a naturally occurring pattern for these youths, which raises the question whether an intervention designed to reduce these levels would have provided even a steeper decrease.22 Sep Heart Failure and Air Pollution
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Anoop Shah MBChB Cardiology Research fellow Centre of Cardiovascular sciences Chancellors Building University Of Edinburgh Little France Edinburgh MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: Many studies have shown the effect of air pollution on cardiac mortality and myocardial infarction. Less studies have shown a similar effect on patients with heart failure. We therefore systemically reviewed and pooled data across 12 countries involving over 4 million patients with heart failure. We showed that air pollution has a close temporal association with either being hospitalized or dying from heart failure. Most of the effects of air pollution on patients with heart failure were acute. Most of the data that we analyzed came from developed countries across Europe and the USA. There was a significant paucity of data from rapidly urbanizing nations such as India and China.22 Sep Powerpoint of Recent Medical Research Interviews
Posted at 13:12h
in Author Interviews
MedicalResearch.com - Medical Research Interviews Week in Review from Marie Benz , MD FAAD ...
22 Sep Alzheimer’s Disease: CSF Biomarker Predicts Preclinical Cognitive Decline
MedicalResearch.com Interview Invitation
Argonde van Harten
From the Alzheimer Center
School for Mental Health and Neurosciences, Maastricht University Medical Center, Maastricht, the Netherlands.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: We found cerebrospinal fluid biomarker evidence of preclinical Alzheimer's disease (AD) predicted cognitive decline in patients with subjective complaints. These patients have cognitive complaints, but are cognitively normal at baseline. Preclinical AD predicted decline in memory performance, executive functions and global cognition over time. Most patients, however, had no evidence of preclinical AD and their cogntive functions generally remained stable over two years. Their memory performance improved.
21 Sep Sleep Apnea: CPAP Treatment and Golf Performance
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Marc L. Benton, MD, FCCP, FAASM Morristown Medical Center and Atlantic Sleep & Pulmonary Associates, 300 Madison Ave. Third Floor Madison, NJ 07940 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Benton: When compared to a group of matched controls, 12 male golfers who had moderate-severe obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (OSAS) demonstrated statistically significant improvement in their ability to play golf (as measured by changes in the Handicap Index, the standardized indicator of golfing performance) after undergoing CPAP treatment for their condition. Treatment adherence among the group placed on CPAP was unusually high.20 Sep Smoking Cessation and Electronic Cigarettes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Chris Bullen MBChB MPH PhD FAFPM FNZCPHM
Director
School of Population Health, The University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019 Auckland 1142, New Zealand
Co-Director of the NZ Tobacco Control Research Turanga: A national programme of research to inform rapid smoking prevalence reduction.
Web: http://www.turanga.org.nz/
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Bullen:
- E-cigarettes, with or without nicotine, were modestly effective at helping smokers to quit, with similar levels of abstinence as with nicotine patches, and few adverse events.
- ?At 6 months, verified abstinence was 7·3% with nicotine e-cigarettes, 5·8% with patches, and 4·1% with placebo e-cigarettes. However, there was insufficient statistical power to conclude superiority of nicotine e-cigarettes to patches or to placebo e-cigarettes.
- No significant differences in rates of adverse events occurrence were found between the groups.
- E-cigarettes, like the vapes found at MagicVaporizers, were very popular throughout the trial, with almost 90% of users stating they would recommend them to a friend trying to quit smoking.
20 Sep Breast Cancer: Two Years vs One of Adjuvant Rastuzumab
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof Aron Goldhirsch
Department of Medicine
European Institute of Oncology
Via Ripamonti 435, 20141 Milan, Italy
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Goldhirsch: Two years of adjuvant trastuzumab after standard chemotherapy is not more effective than is 1 year of treatment with the drug for patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer.
20 Sep Breast Cancer: Three vs Five Week Post-Operative Radiotherapy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof John R Yarnold
Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Sutton, Surrey SM2 5PT, UK
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Yarnold: A 3-week schedule of curative post-operative radiotherapy for women with breast cancer involving 15 treatments (fractions) delivered Monday to Friday each week, is at least as safe and effective as historical schedules given over 5 or 6 weeks. In fact the 3-week schedule is gentler on the healthy tissues than earlier standard regimens.
20 Sep Pregnancy: Midwife vs Standard Maternity Care Study
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof Sally K Tracy DMid
Midwifery and Women's Health Research Unit
University of Sydney, Royal Hospital for Women
Randwick, NSW, Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Tracy: We recruited 1748 pregnant women, of all risk types, from two tertiary teaching hospitals in different states in Australia and allocated them to receive either caseload midwifery care (871) or standard maternity care (877).
The study found more women in caseload midwifery experienced an unassisted vaginal birth without pharmacological analgesia, and fewer women experienced an elective caesarean. While the trial findings did not show a statistically significant difference in the rate of caesarean sections between either group, the overall rate fell by more than 20 percent from pre-trial levels.
Newborn infants in both groups achieved similar physical assessment scores (Apgar scores). A slightly lower number of pre-term births and neonatal intensive care admissions among the midwifery caseload group was not statistically significant.
Important secondary findings of the study include:
- 30 percent more spontaneous onset of labour
- less induction of labour
- less severe blood loss, and
- stronger likelihood of breastfeeding at discharge from hospital.
19 Sep Parkinson’s Disease: Cognitive Impairment and Plasma Ceramides
MedicalResearch.com: Interview with:
Michelle M. Mielke, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Health Sciences Research
Division of Epidemiology
Mayo Clinic 200 First Street SW
Rochester, MN 55905
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Mielke: Among Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, plasma levels of ceramides and monohexylceramides were higher in patients with cognitive impairment or dementia compared to patients who were cognitively normal. Levels of these lipids were also higher in the combined group of PD patients compared to non-PD controls but the number of controls were small.
19 Sep Lung Cancer: New Plasma Biomarker for Non-Small Cell Cancer
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jie He, PhD, MD Director, Laboratory of Thoracic Surgery President, Cancer Institute & Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100021 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Jie He: The main findings of the study is that we have identified IDH1 as an effective plasma biomarker for the diagnosis of NSCLCs, particularly with high sensitivity and specificity in the diagnosis of lung adenocarcinoma.19 Sep Cognitive Impairment and Hospital Readmissions
Posted at 13:17h
in CMAJ, Cognitive Issues, General Medicine, Hospital Readmissions, Outcomes & Safety
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Mark W. Ketterer, PhD, ABPP
Senior Bioscientific Staff
Henry Ford Hospital/A2
Detroit, MI 48202
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences
Department of Psychiatry Wayne State University
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study:
Dr. Ketterer: A survey of 84 patients admitted to Henry Ford Hospital found 54% to have Moderate-Severe Cognitive Impairment (CI).
19 Sep Cancer Screening Trials: Weighing the Harms
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bruno Heleno, PhD fellow Research Unit for General Practice and Section of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, PO Box 2099, 1014 Copenhagen K, Denmark MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: In a literature review of cancer screening trials of a wide range of screening interventions, we found that trials seldom report the information necessary to weigh benefits against harms.19 Sep Colon Cancer: Screening and Mortality
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Aasma Shaukat, M.D., M.P.H.
Dept. of Medicine
GI Division, MMC 36
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Shaukat: The study showed that screening for colon cancer using stool cards
consistently reduces risk of death from colon cancer by one-third through
thirty years. The benefit of screening in larger in men compared to women,
and for women the benefit seems to start at age 60. However, screening did
not make people live longer.
19 Sep OCD: Adding Cognitive Therapy to SSIs
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
H. Blair Simpson, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University
Director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic and the Center for OCD and Related Disorders at the New York State Psychiatric Institute
New York, NY 10032
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Simpson: This is the first RCT to compare two recommended SRI augmentation strategies for adults with OCD. Adding EX/RP to SRIs was superior to risperidone and to pill placebo in reducing OCD symptoms and improving insight, functioning, and quality of life. Risperidone was not superior to placebo on any outcome.
19 Sep Addiction: Does Chronic Care Management Improve Outcomes?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Richard Saitz, MD MPH
Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology
Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health
Clinical Addiction Research and Education Unit, Boston Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Saitz: Chronic care management in primary care did not improve health outcomes (abstinence from cocaine, opioids or heavy drinking; or any other clinical outcomes, like addiction consequences, emergency or hospital use, health-related quality of life, addiction severity) for people with alcohol or other drug dependence.