Author Interviews, Hospital Readmissions, JAMA, Yale / 27.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Nihar R. Desai, MD, MPH Assistant Professor of Medicine Section of Cardiovascular Medicine, Yale School of Medicine Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation Yale New Haven Health System MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Reducing rates of readmissions after hospitalization has been a major focus for patients, providers, payers, and policymakers because they reflect, at least partially, the quality of care and care transitions, and account for substantial costs. The Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP) was enacted under Section 3025 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in March 2010 and imposed financial penalties beginning in October 2012 for hospitals with higher than expected readmissions for acute myocardial infarction (AMI), congestive heart failure (HF), and pneumonia among their fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries. In recent years, readmission rates have fallen nationally, and for both target (AMI, HF, pneumonia) and non-target conditions. We were interested in determining whether the Hospital Readmission Reduction Program (HRRP) associated with different changes in readmission rates for targeted and non-targeted conditions for penalized vs non-penalized hospitals? (more…)
Asthma, Author Interviews, BMJ, Nutrition / 26.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Zhen LI, MD, MPH, PhD Candidate INSERM UMR-S 1168 (ex-Equipe 5 du CESP) (VIMA : Aging and chronic diseases. Epidemiological and public health approaches.), Hôpital Paul Brousse France MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: -Cured meat, which is rich in nitrite, has been known as a probable carcinogen. However, although some studies have suggested a potential deleterious role of cured meat intake in lung health, its role in asthma remained unknown. This study was conducted using data from the French Epidemiological study on the Genetics and Environment of Asthma (EGEA). Using data from 971 participants with seven years' follow-up, we found that participants who ate frequently cured meat, including ham, sausages, and dried sausages, had a high likelihood of having worsening asthma symptoms. The highest likelihood (76% more) was observed among participants who ate cured meats four or more servings per week, compared with those who ate less than one serving per week. Moreover, as previous studies suggested that obesity is linked to worsening asthma, we used a newly developed method to estimate if this effect was mediated by Body Mass Index (BMI), and we found that overweight/obesity only partly explained the association (14%). (more…)
AACR, Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Breast Cancer, Chemotherapy / 26.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Helena Jernström, PhD Associate Professor in Experimental Oncology Study Coordinator for Graduate studies Division of Oncology and Pathology Coordinator of the programmes in statistics and epidemiology for doctoral students at the Medical Faculty, Lund University Division of Oncology and Pathology, Department of Clinical Sciences, Lund Lund University Cancer Center/Kamprad Lund, Sweden MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: There is a need for better predictive markers to guide selection of therapy in breast cancer patients. Estrogen receptor beta (ER-beta) may confer prognostic information beyond what is currently obtained by the established clinical markers, including ER-alpha, which is routinely evaluated. (more…)
Aging, Author Interviews, Social Issues / 25.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sonja Hilbrand MSc Department of Psychology University of Basel Basel, Switzerland. MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Grandparenting is a topic of both great practical and theoretical interest. For instance, grandparents in industrialized societies invest substantial amounts of time and money in their grandchildren and there are many studies examining the potential benefits for these grandchildren. Other studies have focused on potentially negative effects on grandparental mortality associated with providing custudial care for grandchildren. In addition to previous research we wanted to ask whether there are tangible benefits to the donors (grandparents) of the resources. In other words, is caring a one-way street or not. In our study we examined whether moderate amounts of caregiving were associated with the longevity of older adults. For our analysis we used longitudinal data of over 500 German individuals aged between 70 and 103 years. (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Genetic Research, PLoS, Race/Ethnic Diversity, Social Issues / 25.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Connie J. Mulligan, PhD Professor, Department of Anthropology University of Florida Gainesville, FL MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Lance Gravlee (UF Dept of Anthropology, UF Genetics Institute) started this research over 10 years ago. As a cultural anthropologist, Lance uses ethnographic (open-ended questions) interviews and discovered that over half of the participants in our study talked about experiences of discrimination that happened to people close to them. As a geneticist (UF Dept of Anthropology, UF Genetics Institute), I came into the project because I was interested in seeing how genetics and sociocultural stressors, like discrimination, interact. In our project, we look at blood pressure because hypertension is a disease that shows racial disparities and also because it is a complex disease that is caused by both genetic and environmental factors (like discrimination). (more…)
Author Interviews, Electronic Records, Genetic Research, Heart Disease, Lipids, Science / 25.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael F. Murray MD Geisinger Health System Danville, PA 17822 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The DiscovEHR cohort was formed as a result of a research collaboration between Geisinger Health System and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals. There are over 50,000 patient participants in the cohort who have volunteered to have their de-identified genomic sequence data linked to their de-identified EHR data for research purposes. We report in this paper findings around the identification of 229 individuals (1:256) with pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants in one of the three genes (LDLR, APOB, PCSK9) associated with Familial Hypercholesterolemia (FH). The study found that these individuals are unlikely to carry a diagnosis of FH and are at risk for early coronary artery disease. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Columbia, Genetic Research, Personalized Medicine / 23.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Kai Wang Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, University of Southern California Institute for Genomic Medicine, Columbia University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Cancer is a genetic disease caused by a small number of “driver mutations” in the cancer genome that drive disease initiation and progression. To understand such mechanism, there are increasing community efforts in interrogating cancer genomes, transcriptomes and proteomes by high-throughput technologies, generating huge amounts of data. For example, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) project has already made public 2.5 petabytes of data describing tumor and normal tissues from more than 11,000 patients. We were interested in using such publicly available genomics data to predict cancer driver genes/variants for individual patients, and design an "electronic brain” called iCAGES that learns from such information to provide personalized cancer diagnosis and treatment. iCAGES is composed of three consecutive layers, to infer driver variants, driver genes and drug treatment, respectively. Unlike most other existing tools that infer driver genes from a cohort of patients with similar cancer, iCAGES attempts to predict drivers for individual patient based on his/her genomic profile. What we have found is that iCAGES outperforms other tools in identifying driver variants and driver genes for individual patients. More importantly, a retrospective analysis on TCGA data shows that iCAGES predicts whether patients respond to drug treatment and predicts long-term survival. For example, we analyzed two groups of patients and found that using iCAGES recommend drugs can increase patients’ survival probability by 66%. These results suggest that whole-genome information, together with transcriptome and proteome information, may benefit patients in getting optimal and precise treatment. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, End of Life Care / 23.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Yu Uneno, M.D. Department of Therapeutic Oncology, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University Kyoto city, Kyoto Japan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Prognosis prediction is one of the most important issues to make an optimal treatment decision for both cancer patients and health care professionals. Previous prognosis prediction models were developed using data from single time point (at the baseline, for example), limiting the use of the models at the similar situation. Recently, we have developed the Six Adaptable Prognostic (SAP) models which can be repeatedly used at any time point after the initiation of treatment for patients with cancer receiving chemotherapy. Those models use only three laboratory items (albumin, neutrophil, lactate dehydrogenase) which are routinely monitored in daily clinical practice. (more…)
Author Interviews, Immunotherapy, Lancet, Lung Cancer / 23.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Kiyotaka Yoh Department of Thoracic Oncology National Cancer Center Hospital East Kashiwa, Japan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: LURET is multicenter, single-arm, phase II study to evaluate the efficacy and safety of vandetanib as RET inhibitor in patients with advanced RET-rearranged non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). In 2012, RET rearrangements were identified as rare oncogenic alterations for NSCLC. Among 17 eligible patients included in primary analysis, the objective response rate was 53% (95% CI 28–77), which met the primary endpoint. At the data cutoff, median progression-free survival was 4.7 months (95% CI 2.8–8.5). Overall, vandetanib was tolerated, with an adverse event profile similar to those seen in previous large population studies of vandetanib in patients with unselected NSCLC. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Immunotherapy / 22.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Joyce O'Shaughnessy, MD Co-Chair, Breast Cancer Research Texas Oncology-Baylor Charles A. Sammons Cancer Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The MONALEESA-2 trial is a Phase III, randomized, double-blind, international study of LEE011 in combination with letrozole vs. letrozole alone, in postmenopausal women with HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer who had received no prior systemic therapy for advanced disease. Because de novo disease has not been previously treated with systemic treatment for early-stage breast cancer, tumors may exhibit a different disease biology, which could result in varied responses compared to patients who experience recurrence of their initial breast cancer. We analyzed a pre-defined subgroup of women with de novo HR+/HER2- advanced breast cancer to better understand the response of LEE011 plus letrozole in this patient population. In the de novo advanced breast cancer patient sub-group, progression free survival was significantly prolonged; LEE011 plus letrozole reduced the risk of disease progression or death by 55% over letrozole alone (HR=0.448 [95% CI: 0.267–0.750]). The 12-month PFS rate was 82% in the LEE011 plus letrozole arm compared to 66% with letrozole alone. Most adverse events were mild to moderate in severity, identified early through routine monitoring, and generally managed through dose interruption and reduction. The most common all-grade adverse events (≥30% of patients with de novo advanced breast cancer) in the LEE011 plus letrozole arm were neutropenia (70.2%), nausea (48.2%), fatigue (42.1%), alopecia (39.5%), and leukopenia (31.6%). (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, Immunotherapy, Melanoma, Pharmacology / 22.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Herbert H F Loong MBBS(HK), PDipMDPath(HK), MRCP(UK), FHKCP, FHKAM(Medicine) Specialist in Medical Oncology Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Clinical Oncology Deputy Medical Director, Phase 1 Clinical Trials Centre The Chinese University of Hong Kong Prince of Wales Hospital Hong Kong SAR MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?  Response: Advanced melanoma have previously been known to be a disease with a dismal prognosis. Over the last few years, clinical trials data and real-world clinical experience of checkpoint inhibitors have significantly changed the treatment landscape for advanced melanoma patients. This was first demonstrated with the Anti-CTLA4 Ab Ipilimumab, and more recently with the Anti-PD1 Ab pembrolizumab. Whilst we have seen dramatic improvements in disease control with the use of these agents, the high costs of these drugs may be prohibitive to the average patient who has to pay out-of-pocket and potentially may place significant burdens on healthcare systems. There is a need to rationally assess the cost-effectiveness of these new agents, specifically addressing the potential benefits to the individual patient and to society, whilst balancing the costs that such a treatment may entail. The assessment of cost-effectiveness of a particular treatment is extremely important in Hong Kong, as this has direct implications on drug reimbursement and accessibility of the particular drug in question at public hospitals in Hong Kong. The aim of the study is to assess the cost-effectiveness of pembrolizumab in patients with advanced melanoma used in the first-line setting in Hong Kong, and comparing it to (1) ipilimumab and (2) cytotoxic chemotherapy. Cytotoxic chemotherapy chosen for comparison were drugs commonly used in the first line setting in Hong Kong, which included dacarbazine, temozolomide and carboplatin+paclitaxel combination. It is important to note that whilst ipilimumab is registered for this indication in Hong Kong, there is no reimbursement of this drug by the Hospital Authority in Hong Kong and patients have to pay out-of-pocket. The cost of ipilimumab and the associated side effects has been prohibitive to most advanced melanoma patients in the public setting. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension / 22.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: High blood pressure is the worldwide leading cause of cardiovascular disease. It has been estimated that more than 50%, maybe as much as 70%, of cardiovascular diseases are due to hypertension. Approximately 30% among the Brazilian adult population has hypertension and can reach 70% of individuals over 60 years of age. Prehypertension (systolic BP 120–139 or diastolic BP 80–89 mm Hg) conveys three potentially deleterious consequences.
  • First, it substantially increases the risk of developing hypertension.
  • Second, patients with prehypertension have evidence of end-organ damage, such as left ventricular geometric and functional abnormalities.
  • Third, there are evidence that adults with prehypertension are at a substantially higher risk of cardiovascular mortality.
The PREVER-Prevention study aimed to assess the efficacy and safety of a low-dose diuretic versus placebo for the prevention of hypertension and end-organ damage. (more…)
Author Interviews, Herpes Viruses, JAMA / 22.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?  What are the main findings? Genital herpes is a sexually transmitted infection that is caused by one of two subtypes of the herpes simplex virus (HSV-1 and HSV-2). The condition is common in the United States, as the CDC estimates that almost one in six people between the ages of 14 and 49 are afflicted. Unfortunately, there are no good screening tests for herpes and it cannot be cured. After a systematic review of the evidence, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force determined that, for adolescents and adults who have no signs or symptoms, including pregnant women, the harms of screening for genital herpes outweigh the benefits. These harms include high rates of false-positive screening tests, potential concerns around unnecessary antiviral medication use, and anxiety and relationship issues related to diagnosis. Additionally, the benefits of screening proved small, in part because early identification and treatment do not alter the course of the condition. In the end, due to the lack of benefits in the face of serious harms, the Task Force recommended against routine serologic screening for genital herpes simplex virus (HSV) infection. (more…)
Aging, Author Interviews, Neurological Disorders, Yale / 22.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ifat Levy, PhD Associate Professor Comparative Med and Neuroscience Yale School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The proportion of older adults in the population is rapidly rising. These older adults need to make many important decisions, including medical and financial ones, and therefore understanding age-related changes in decision making is of high importance. Prior research has shown that older adults tend to be more risk averse than their younger counterparts when making choices between sure gains and lotteries. For example, asked to choose between receiving $5 for sure and playing a lottery with 50% of gaining $12 (but also 50% of gaining nothing), older adults are more likely than young adults to prefer the safe $5. We were interested in understanding the neurobiological mechanisms that are involved in these age-related shifts in preferences. An earlier study that we have conducted in young adults provided a clue. In that study, we measured the risk preference of each participant (based on a series of choices they made between safe and risky options), and also used MRI to obtain a 3D image of their brain. Comparing the behavioral and anatomical measures, we found an association between individual risk preferences and the gray-matter volume of a particular brain area, known as “right posterior parietal cortex” (rPPC), which is located at the back of the right side of the brain. Participants with more gray matter in that brain area were, on average, more tolerant of risk (or less risk averse). This suggested a very interesting possibility – that perhaps the increase in risk aversion observed in older adults is linked to the thinning of gray matter which is also observed in elders. In the current study we set out to test this hypothesis, by measuring risk preference and gray matter density in a group of 52 participants between the ages of 18 and 88. We found that, as expected, older participants were more risk averse than younger ones, and also had less gray matter in their rPPC. We also replicated our previous finding - that less gray matter was associated with higher risk aversion. The critical finding, however, was that the gray matter volume was a better predictor of increased risk aversion than age itself.  Essentially, if both age and the gray matter volume of rPPC were used in the same statistical model, rPPC volume predicted risk preferences, while age did not. Moreover, the predictive power was specific to the rPPC – when we added the total gray matter volume to the model, it did not show such predictive power. (more…)
Author Interviews, Lancet, OBGYNE, Surgical Research / 22.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Rachael Wood PhD Consultant in Public Health Medicine - women and children's health NHS National Services Scotland Information Services Division Edinburgh MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Mesh surgery for female stress urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse is currently controversial. Mesh surgery was introduced to overcome recognised limitations of traditional, non-mesh, surgery for these conditions, in particular extensive surgery and long hospital stays for incontinence and high failure/recurrence rates for prolapse. Mesh surgery may therefore offer additional benefits over traditional surgery. Mesh surgery may also carry additional risks however, with patient advocacy groups highlighting cases of severe, long term, mesh-related complications in some women who have undergone mesh surgery. We therefore used routinely available, population based hospital discharge records from Scotland to identify women having mesh and non-mesh procedures for incontinence and prolapse. We then followed the women up for up to 5 years to assess how often they were readmitted for complications or further incontinence or prolapse surgery. (more…)
Author Interviews, Immunotherapy, Multiple Sclerosis, NEJM, University Texas / 22.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jerry S. Wolinsky, MD Emeritus Professor in Neurology McGovern Medical School The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston Houston’s Health University Department of Neurology Houston, Texas 77030 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Multiple sclerosis (MS) clinically is a very heterogeneous disease. It presents in considerably different ways and has a very poorly predictable clinical course. In an attempt to better communicate between experts in the field, there have been multiple attempts to categorize “typical” courses of the disease. How we think about the disease is in part driven by these somewhat artificial categories that lump our patients into those with relapsing forms of the disease (relapsing remitting with or without accumulating clinical disability, and secondary progressive with accumulating disability eventually occurring even in the absence of apparent clinical episodes of the disease), and primary progressive MS, where patients are slowly or sometimes rather rapidly accumulating disability in the absence of prior clinical relapses. However, the distinctions between multiple sclerosis patients are not always as clear as the definitions would suggest, and it is certain that patients with primary progressive multiple sclerosis sometimes have clinical relapses after years of never having had relapses, and show MRI evidence of having accumulated many lesions in the brain over the course of their disease. Until now, none of the drugs that have shown benefit for relapsing disease have been able to convincingly show clinical benefit for patients with primary progressive disease, and for that matter have shown variable results when attempted in patients categorized as having secondary progressive courses. While some of our currently approved drugs have shown hints of benefit when tried in major clinical trials in primary progressive MS, the results were not been robust enough to seek regulatory approval. The Oratorio study design was based on lessons learned from prior trials in primary progressive and relapsing forms of MS, as well as the recognition that B cells might play an important role in the immunopathogenesis of disease based on a considerable amount of preclinical work and observations in patients with multiple sclerosis. (more…)
Author Interviews, Lancet, Prostate Cancer / 22.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof Mark Emberton UCL Faculty of Medical Sciences London MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The key driver was a desire to come up with a treatment for men with localised prostate cancer that was better tolerated that the traditional options. The intervention is a combination of padeliporphin, a short acting photosensitiser which was developed by Drs Shertz and Salomon at the Weismann Institute. This is activated by a laser inserted into the prostate. (more…)
Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Lancet, Pediatrics, Schizophrenia / 22.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Lucy Riglin Division of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics Cardiff University School of Medicine Cardiff UK MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that usually occurs after puberty. However, previous research suggests that individuals who go on to develop schizophrenia often presented cognitive, social, behavioural, and emotional impairments in childhood. Our study found that, in a general population sample, genetic risk for schizophrenia was associated with these childhood impairments as early as age 4 years. (more…)
Author Interviews, Circadian Rhythm, Sleep Disorders / 22.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Nicola Barclay, BA(Hons), MSc, PhD. Lecturer in Sleep Medicine Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience Institute (SCNi) Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences Sir William Dunn School of Pathology University of Oxford MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We know that extreme sleep deprivation impairs our cognitive functions, particularly attention. This impairment in attention is likely to be driven by physiological mechanisms that change across the waking day (increasing sleep pressure), but also by factors associated with our biological clock. The timing of physiological processes particularly related to attention differ between morning and evening type people (our so called early morning larks and night owls), and so we hypothesised that morning and evening types would differ in their impairments in attention at different times of day, prior to and following 18 hours of sustained wakefulness. (more…)
Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Nature, Weight Research / 21.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Jamal Tazi Institut de Génétique Moléculaire de Montpellier University of Montpellier Montpellier, Cedex, France MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Intense drug discovery efforts in the metabolic field highlight the need for novel strategies for the treatment of obesity. In this study we have used a novel approach to uncover novel drugs to treat obesity. Our approach is based on the finding that in humans the energy expenditure balance can be controlled by a single gene LMNA gene that can produce two different proteins with opposing effect on energy expenditure. We identified a molecule ABX300 that targets the expression of LMNA gene and favors energy expenditure leading to fat loss. (more…)
Author Interviews, Gender Differences, Lancet, OBGYNE, Surgical Research / 21.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Cathryn Glazener PhD Health Services Research Unit University of Aberdeen Aberdeen,UK MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Prolapse is a condition that affects up to half of all women after childbirth. Women notice a bulge or discomfort in their vaginas due to pressure from the bladder, bowel or womb moving downwards. Women who have surgery for their prolapse have a 3 in 10 chance of needing at least one more operation, so the success rate is not great. Gynaecologists hoped that by reinforcing their repairs the success rate would get better. PROSPECT was a pragmatic, multicentre randomised controlled trial conducted in 35 centres across the UK. Women undergoing their first operation for prolapse were randomised to having a standard repair of the front or back wall of the vagina, or a repair reinforced by synthetic non-absorbable mesh, or a biological graft. We found that, in contrast to previous research, women were just as likely to be cured after standard surgery rather than reinforced repairs. They were just as likely to have other symptoms such as bladder or sexual problems, and other adverse effects such as infection, bleeding or pain. However, about 1 in 10 of the women who had mesh did have mesh exposure when a small portion of the mesh becomes visible through the vaginal wall. Although many women did not have symptoms, about half of those women needed a small operation to remove or bury the exposed mesh. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brain Injury, JAMA, Pediatrics / 21.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Roger Zemek, MD, FRCPC Associate Professor, Dept of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine, Clinical Research Chair in Pediatric Concussion, University of Ottawa Director, Clinical Research Unit, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario Ottawa, ON MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: While current concussion protocols endorse the conservative view that children should avoid physical activity until completely symptom-free, there is little evidence beyond expert opinion regarding the ideal timing of physical activity re-introduction. In fact, while rest does play a role in concussion recovery, protracted physical rest may actually negatively impact concussion recovery. Further, physiological, psychological, and functional benefits of early physical rehabilitation are observed in other disease processes such as stroke (which is an example of a severe traumatic brain injury). Therefore, our objective was to investigate the relationship between early physical activity (defined within 7 days of the concussion) and the eventual development of persistent post-concussion symptoms at one month. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Pediatrics / 21.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Eyal Cohen, MD, MSc, FRCP(C) Staff Physician, Paediatrics The Hospital for Sick Children Associate Scientist, Research Institute Child Health Evaluative Sciences Associate Professor, University of Toronto   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Major structural or genetic congenital anomalies affect approximately 2 percent to 5 percent of all births in the United States and Europe. Mothers of children born with major congenital anomalies face serious challenges such as high financial pressures, as well as the burden of providing care to a child with complex needs within the home setting, which can impair a mother's health. Little is known about the long-term health consequences for the mother. We assessed whether the birth of an infant with a major congenital anomaly was subsequently associated with an increased risk of death of the infant's mother. The population-based study (n = 455,250 women) used individual-level linked Danish registry data for mothers who gave birth to an infant with a major congenital anomaly between 1979 and 2010, with follow-up until December 31, 2014. A comparison group was constructed by randomly sampling, for each mother with an affected infant, up to 10 mothers matched on maternal age, parity (the number of children a woman has given birth to), and year of infant's birth. Mothers in both groups were an average age of 29 years at delivery. After a median follow-up of 21 years, there were 1,275 deaths (1.60 per 1,000 person-years) among 41,508 mothers of a child with a major congenital anomaly vs 10,112 deaths (1.27 per 1,000 person-years) among 413,742 mothers in the comparison group. Mothers with affected infants were more likely to die of cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and other natural causes. (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, BMJ, Emergency Care, Pediatrics / 21.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Jamie G Cooper Consultant in Emergency Medicine Aberdeen Royal Infirmary Aberdeen UK MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Choking in children can be fatal and regularly grapes can be the cause.  We believe that public awareness of the choking hazard posed by grapes (and other similarly shaped foods, such as cherry tomatoes) is not wide spread.  By publishing this article we aimed to highlight the problem to health professionals who look after children and also to the public at large in an attempt to reduce the number of future episodes. (more…)
Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, Hematology, Karolinski Institute / 21.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Märit Halmin, MD, PhD student Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet,  Stockholm, Sweden MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: During recent years the possible negative effects among recipients of stored red blood cells have been investigated.  Despite a large number of studies, including four randomized trials, no consensus exists. We therefore performed the hitherto largest register based cohort study of transfused patients, assessing the association between length of storage of red blood cells and mortality. Our design allowed for detection of small but still clinically significant effect, if such exists. (more…)
Author Interviews, Dermatology / 21.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mohammed D. Saleem, MD Department of Dermatology Wake Forest School of Medicine Medical Center Boulevard Winston-Salem, NC MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Over the past several years’ numerous research studies have identified comorbidities associated with psoriasis. The media has increasingly become involved with presenting these findings and patients commonly bring these concerns to their physician. The comorbidities are often presented as a relative risk, which can overestimate the effects of exposure, especially when the incidence is quite small. Comorbidities presented as attributed risk or number needed to harm might be a better measure for understanding the association between an exposure and comorbidity. We found that although the relative risk of many diseases associated with psoriasis can be quite large, the attributed risk was small. (more…)
Author Interviews, BMJ, Weight Research / 20.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Igho Onakpoya MD MSc University of Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences Oxford UK MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Several medicines used to treat obesity have been withdrawn from the market over the last few years. However, the reasons for, and time trends about their withdrawals have not been systematically researched. We identified 25 anti-obesity medicines withdrawn from the market over the last 50 years. 23 of these analogues of amphetamine or fenfluramine, i.e., neurotransmitters. The reasons for withdrawal in the overwhelming majority of instances were cardiovascular or psychiatric adverse reactions, and drug abuse and dependence. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, JNCI / 20.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Theodore Brasky, PhD The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: There is a significant amount of data to suggest that long-term, regular use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS; examples include aspirin and ibuprofen) are associated with reduced risks of several cancers. Although the data across studies are inconsistent, one such candidate is endometrial cancer, which is the most common gynecologic cancer. There is good evidence that the use of these medications is associated with improved prognosis among patients diagnosed with colon cancer. Despite the importance of inflammation in endometrial cancer progression, very few have examined whether use of NSAIDs is associated with risk of death or recurrence from the disease. The study we published is the first of its kind to examine NSAID use comprehensively and in a study of over 4,000 patients. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, NIH / 20.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Manfred Boehm M.D. Senior Investigator Laboratory of Cardiovascular Regenerative Medicine Center for Molecular Medicine NHLBI-NIH Bethesda, MD 20892 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Common atherosclerosis (hardening of blood vessels) is the leading cause for vascular diseases worldwide. Vascular calcification is a critical component of atherosclerosis and an indicator of negative outcomes. This process is highly regulated and dynamic. However, the underlying mechanism is poorly understood and no direct treatment is available to stop or reverse this devastating buildup of calcium crystals in the vessel wall. Arterial calcification due to deficiency of CD73 is a rare inherited vascular disease characterized by extensive calcification of blood vessels caused by mutation in a gene encoding an enzyme that generates a compound called Adenosine outside of cells. The lack of this important enzyme, CD73, activates a compensatory mechanism to generated Adenosine by an alternative enzyme. Unfortunately, increased activity of this other enzyme is causing accelerated vascular calcification. By using the patient’s own cells, this study characterized the compensatory signaling pathway and discovered several new treatment strategies. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Gender Differences, Hospital Readmissions, JAMA / 20.12.2016

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Yusuke Tsugawa, MD, MPH, PhD Department of Health Policy and Management Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Department of Medicine Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School Boston, Massachusetts  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: We analyzed a 20% sample of Medicare beneficiaries hospitalized with a medical condition in 2011-2014, and found that patients treated by female doctors have lower mortality and readmission rates than those cared for by male doctors. (more…)