[caption id="attachment_48090" align="alignleft" width="150"] Dr. Chew[/caption] MedicalResearch.com Interview Emily Y. Chew, M.D. Deputy Director, Division of Epidemiology and Clinical Applications National Eye Institute National...
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Courtney Reynolds, PhD
Medical Scientist Training Program
University of California Irvine, School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Reynolds: Our survey of factors influencing admission to 13 nursing homes in Orange County, California showed that MRSA carriers are denied admission more often than non-carriers, even after accounting for other important factors such as insurance status, required level of care and previous experience at the facility. In 80% of cases where MRSA carriage was responsible for denial of admission, nursing home administrators cited a lack of available single or cohort (MRSA only) rooms to accommodate these potential residents.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Naama Barnea-Goraly M.D.
Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research
Stanford University
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Our main findings showed that compared with age and sex matched controls, children with type 1 diabetes have significant differences in white matter structure in widespread brain regions. Within the type 1 diabetes group, earlier onset of diabetes and longer duration were associated with greater alterations in white matter structure. In addition, measures of hyperglycemia and glucose variability, but not hypoglycemia were associated with white matter structure; however, hypoglycemia exposure and the number of severe hypoglycemia events in our sample were too small to identify statistically meaningful differences. Finally, we observed a significant association between white matter structure and cognitive ability in children with type 1 diabetes, but not in controls.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Robert S. Rudin, Ph.D.
Associate Policy Researcher
RAND Corporation
Boston, MA 02116
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Rudin: We found that most published health IT implementation studies report positive effects on quality, safety, and efficiency. Most evaluations focus on clinical decision support and computerized provider order entry. However, not all studies report equally positive results, and differences in context and implementation are one likely reason for these varying results, yet details of context and implementation are rarely reported in these studies.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview Invitation
Maurice Dysken, MD
Professor, School of Medicine
Department of Psychiatry
Minneapolis VA Health Care System,
Minneapolis, Minnesota
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Dysken: In patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease who were taking an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, a dosage of 2000 IU/d of vitamin E significantly slowed functional decline compared to placebo by 6.2 months over the mean follow-up period of 2.27 years. Over this period of time caregiver time increased least in the vitamin E group compared to the other three groups (memantine alone, vitamin E plus memantine, and placebo) although the only statistically significant difference was between vitamin E alone and memantine alone. There were no significant safety concerns for vitamin E compared to placebo and mortality was lowest in the vitamin E alone group. It should be noted that patients who were on warfarin were excluded from the study because of a possible interaction with vitamin E that could have possibly increased bleeding events.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jordi Salas-Salvadó, MD, PhD
Human Nutrition Unit, Faculty of Medicine and Healthy Sciences
Universitat Rovira i Virgili, C/ Sant Llorenç, 21, 43201 Reus, Spain
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Randomized trials have shown that lifestyle interventions promoting weight loss can reduce the incidence of type-2diabetes, however, whether dietary changes without calorie restriction or increased physical activity also protect from diabetes development has not been evaluated in the past. In our study, we found that a long-term adherence to a high-quality dietary pattern akin to the traditional MedDiet and rich in extra-virgin olive oil was able to reduce the incidence of new cases of diabetes in older individuals at high cardiovascular risk. We have demonstrated for the first time that a beneficial effect on diabetes prevention could be obtained witha healthy dietary pattern (without calorie restriction, increased physical activity or weight loss). These benefits have been observed in participants between 55 to 80 years-old at high cardiovascular risk; therefore,the message is that it is never too late to switch to a healthy diet like the Mediterranean.
(more…) MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Sarah M. Hartz, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study?
Dr. Hartz: This is the first large-scale study to comprehensively evaluate substance use in people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other severe mental illness.We found that people with severe mental illness have rates of smoking, alcohol use, and other substance use that are 3 to 5 times higher than people in the general population.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
J. Bradley Layton, PhD
Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Layton: Use of testosterone testing and treatment had greatly increased over the past decade, with more pronounced increases seen in the United States than in the United Kingdom. The increases in testing in the UK seem to be targeted, identifying more men with reduced testosterone levels, but the increases in the US seem to be identifying more and more men with normal levels. Many of the men who begin testosterone treatment in the US appear to have normal testosterone levels to begin with.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Caroline Landelle, PharmD, PhD
Infection Control Unit, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire (CHU) Albert Chenevier–Henri Mondor, Assistance Publique–Hôpitaux de Paris, Université Paris–Est Créteil, France
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Landelle: The main findings point to the fact that nearly one in four healthcare workers’ hands are contaminated with Clostridium difficile spores after routine care of patients infected with the bacteria, before performing hand hygiene. This is the first study focusing upon the carriage of viable C. difficile spores on healthcare workers’ hands. C. difficile exist in 2 possible forms: vegetative and spore. Vegetative forms of C. difficile are killed when exposed to air, whereas their spores are resistant to oxygen, desiccation, and most disinfectants, and may persist in the hospital environment for long periods of time; thus, bacterial spores could be the principal form of transmission. Furthermore, contamination of exposed healthcare workers’ hands is statistically associated with direct exposure to fecal soiling and contact without the use of gloves.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Lawrence M. Lewis, MD Professor, Emergency Medicine and Medicine Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Lewis: The main finding of the study is that there is a dose-dependent increase in serum lactate concentration with increasing amounts of nebulized albuterol administered. This hyperlactatemia did not portend a worse prognosis, and was not associated with worse FEV1 or dyspnea scores. (more…)MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Andrea Parriott MPH, PhD Department of Epidemiology Fielding School of Public Health University of California Los Angeles
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Parriott: We wanted to know whether hospital and provider volume (i.e. the number of deliveries performed by each hospital and provider per quarter) and cesarean section rates were predictors of the risk of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection before discharge from the hospital (after delivering a baby). We did not find an association between any of these variables and risk of MRSA infection. (more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Dr. James Sheppard
MRC Research Fellow
Department of Primary Care Health Sciences
University of Oxford
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Sheppard: The aim of our study was to develop a decision-tree model which estimates the cost-effectiveness and potential implementation costs of a series of interventions which increase thrombolysis rates in acute stroke. The model examined all possible acute stroke patient pathways and was based on real life patient data. We found all proposed interventions to be cost saving whilst increasing patient quality of life after stroke. We estimate that, assuming a "willingness-to-pay" of USD $30,000 per quality adjusted life year gained, the potential budget available to deliver interventions which improve acute stroke care range from USD $50,000 to USD $144,000.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Madhav Goyal MD, MPH
Assistant Professor
General Internal Medicine
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Goyal:
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Dr. Lisa Croen, PhD
Senior Research Scientist
Director, Autism Research Program
Division of Research
Kaiser Permanente Northern California
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Croen: Researchers found that hospital-diagnosed maternal bacterial infections during pregnancy were associated with an increased risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in children. While infections are fairly common in pregnant women, this study only found increased risks in cases of bacterial infections. Women with bacterial infections diagnosed during a hospitalization (including of the genitals, urinary tract and amniotic fluid) had a 58 percent greater risk of having a child with ASD.
Also of note, bacterial infections diagnosed during a hospitalization in the second trimester, while not very common in any of the mothers studied, were associated with children having more than a three-fold increased risk of developing ASD.
These findings resulted from a study of 407 children with autism and 2,075 matched children who did not have autism. The study included infants born between January 1995 and June 1999 who remained members of the Kaiser Permanente health plan for at least two years following birth.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
William P. Meehan III, MD
Director, Micheli Center for Sports Injury Prevention
Director, Sports Concussion Clinic, Boston Children?s Hospital
Waltham, MA 02453
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study?
Dr. Meehan: The study has 2 findings that I believe are the most worthy of attention. First, although cognitive rest has been recommended as a therapy for concussion for several years now, there has been little data showing its effect. This lack of data has led to variability in the recommendations for cognitive rest, with some experts not recommending it all, and others recommending athletes avoid all cognitive activity, lying alone in a dark room even, until they are completely recovered. As you can imaging, this has generated controversy. We believe this is the first study showing the independent, beneficial effect of limiting cognitive activity on recovery from concussion.
(more…)Powerpoint of Recent Medical Research Interviews http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/29710688...
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jonathan Cedernaes PhD
Department of Neuroscience
Uppsala University Sweden
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study?
Dr. Cedernaes: We found that two peripheral blood markers were modestly but significantly increased in healthy young participants after a single night of sleep deprivation, as compared with a normal night of sleep. These two markers, S-100B and NSE, are for example used as markers of acute ischemic injury in the brain, and are also increased following concussions. S-100B is produced mainly by glial cells and also increases after injury to the blood brain barrier. NSE is instead produced by neurons and is regarded as being more specific for neuronal damage, although it can also be produced by peripheral cells.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof Sirpa Jalkanen MD, PhD
MediCity Research Laboratory and Department of Medical Microbiology
University of Turku Turku, Finland
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Pulmonary vascular leakage occurs early in acute lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome (ALI/ARDS). Mortality is high (35-45%), but no effective pharmacotherapy exists. Production of anti-inflammatory adenosine by ecto-5’-nucleotidase (CD73) maintains endothelial barrier function. Interferon-beta-1a (IFN-beta) increases CD73 synthesis and might thus reduce vascular leakage and mortality in ALI/ARDS. We tested this hypothesis and the findings were as follows:
1.IFN-beta increased the number of CD73-positive vessels in human lung culture (4- and 14.3-fold on days 1 and 4 respectively, p=0.04 and 0.004).
2. The optimal tolerated FP-1201 dose (a unique intravenous formulation of interferon-beta 10 μg /day for six days) caused a significant rise in serum MxA (a marker for interferon response) and CD73 levels and a fall in interleukin-6 (an inflammatory cytokine) concentration.
3. Most importantly, odds of 28-day mortality was 81% lower in the treated than untreated subjects (8% vs 32%, OR[95% CI]0.19[0.03 to 0.72], p=0.01).
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Michael McClung, MD
Founding Director, Oregon Osteoporosis Center
5050 NE Hoyt Street, Suite 626
Portland, OR 97213
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. McClung: In this Phase 2 trial, each of five romosozumab dose regimens significantly increased BMD compared with pooled placebo groups at the lumbar spine, total hip and femoral neck regions (all p<0.001). The largest increases were observed with the romosozumab 210 mg once-monthly dose, with mean increases, compared with baseline, of 11.3 percent at the lumbar spine, 4.1 percent at the total hip and 3.7 percent at the femoral neck.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview Invitation with:
Dr. Peter Lindenauer MD MS
Director, Center for Quality of Care Research
Baystate Medical Center, Springfield, MA, US
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Among a cohort of 250,000 patients hospitalized for pneumonia at 347 US hospitals, those with a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea were twice as likely to be intubated at the time of hospital admission than patients without sleep apnea. In addition, patients with sleep apnea had approximately 50% higher risk of needing to be transferred to the ICU after initial admission to a regular bed, and a 70% increased risk of requiring intubation later in the hospital stay. Patients with sleep apnea stayed longer in the hospital and incurred higher costs than those without sleep apnea.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Carlos M Ferrario, MD, FAHA, FASH, FACC
Dewitt-Cordelll Professor of Surgical Sciences
Professor, Internal Medicine-Nephrology
Professor, Physiology-Pharmacology
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1032
Vice-President, Consortium Southeastern Hypertension Control
Editor-in-Chief, Therapeutic Advances in Cardiovascular Disease
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Ferrario: A significant and unexpected difference in the hemodynamic mechanisms that account for the elevated blood pressure between untreated hypertensive men and women.
The main findings were:
"Despite there being no differences between women and men in terms of office blood pressure, heart rate and body mass index, men demonstrated lower values of pulse pressure, systemic vascular resistance, brachial artery pulse wave velocity and augmentation index. In each of the three hypertension categories, the increased blood pressure in men was associated with significant augmentations in stroke volume and cardiac output compared with women. Sex-related hemodynamic differences were associated in women with higher plasma levels of leptin, hs-CRP, plasma angiotensin II and serum aldosterone. In women but not men, hs-CRP correlated with plasma concentrations of transforming growth factor β1 (TGFβ1) and body weight; in addition, plasma TGFβ1 correlated with levels of serum vascular cell adhesion molecule 1."
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Sohyun Park, PhD,
Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Atlanta, GA 30341
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Park: Nearly 1 out of 3 U.S. adults (30.5%) consumed sugar-sweetened beverages at least 1 time per day; 20% consumed sugar-sweetened beverages at least 2 times per day. About 8 out of 10 adults agreed that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages can contribute to weight gain. However, 8 of 10 adults also did not know the actual calorie content of a 24-oz fountain soda. After controlling for sociodemographic factors, adults who were neutral (neither agreed nor disagreed) that drinking sugar-sweetened beverages can contribute to weight gain were more than 1-and-a-half times more likely to consume sugar-sweetened beverages at least 2 times per day. Conversely, knowledge about the calorie content of a 24-oz fountain soda was not associated with sugar-sweetened beverage intake.
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Dr. Bruce Reed PhD
Professor of Neurology,
Associate Director UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center
Davis, CA 95616
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Reed: We found that high LDL cholesterol and low HDL cholesterol in blood were both associated with higher amyloid deposition in the brain. This is potentially very important because the deposition of amyloid seems to be a critical step that kicks off a whole chain of events that eventually lead to Alzheimer's disease. It is widely believed (although not proven) that if this deposition of amyloid could be blocked that we could greatly decrease the incidence of Alzheimer's. The connection to cholesterol is exciting because we know a fair amount about how to change cholesterol levels. A great deal more research needs to be done, but this does suggest a potential new path toward trying to prevent AD.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Stewart C. Alexander, PhD
Department of Medicine
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, North Carolina
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Alexander: Adolescents are reluctant to talk about sex with their doctors and won't raise the topic with their doctors. For physicians, there are common and valid barriers to talking about sexuality with adolescents, including time pressures and discomfort with the topic. Two-thirds of adolescents in our study had some sexuality talk during their annual visit, lasting 36 seconds long. Girls, African Americans, and older teens were more likely to receive sexuality talk. Additionally, longer visits and visits where the physician talked confidentially with their adolescent patient were more likely to have sexuality talk. Our study suggest that sexuality conversations in annual visits can be improved.
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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr Amitava Banerjee
NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Cardiovascular Medicine
University of Birmingham UK
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
This was the first long-term study in individuals with atrial fibrillation to consider the impact of renal function, as measured by eGFR, on stroke/thromboembolism, mortality and bleeding in the same population concurrently.
Answer: There were three main findings of our study.