Blog – Medical Research News and Interviews
21 Jul DVTs: Clot-Busting Procedure Gaining In Safety and Utilization
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Riyaz Bashir MD, FACC, RVT
Associate Professor of Medicine
Director, Vascular and Endovascular Medicine
Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Diseases
Temple University Hospital
Philadelphia, PA 19140
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Bashir : Blood clots of legs called deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is a very common disease that occurs in about 1.0 person per 1000 population per year. This condition is responsible for more than 600,000 hospitalizations each year in the United States and approximately 6% of these patients will die within 1 month of the diagnosis. Amongst these patients 20% - to 50% will go on to develop chronic leg pains, swelling, heaviness, skin discoloration, and ulcers, in spite of conventional treatment with Blood thinning medications (anticoagulation) and compression stockings.This condition, which is called Post-thrombotic syndrome PTS markedly impairs the quality of life of these patients and is a significant economic burden (2.4 billion dollars and 200 million work days lost annually in US) on the society.In fact, many of these people lose their jobs because of the disability it causes.
Several small studies have shown that early clot removal by minimally invasive catheter-based clot busting procedure called Catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) leads to a significant reduction in Post-thrombotic syndrome along with improvements in quality of life. Unfortunately, due to the small number of patients in these studies, we did not have any data about the safety of this treatment option. This has led to conflicting recommendations by various medical societies like the American College of Chest Physicians recommending against its use while the American Heart Association recommends Catheter-directed thrombolysis as first-line treatment for these patients. In light of these conflicting directives, we reviewed the frequency and safety of CDT versus conventional treatment in these patients with blood clots above the knees in the United States using Nationwide Inpatient Sample database from 2005 to 2010.
21 Jul When Should A Coronary CT Scan Be Repeated?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Kanako K. Kumamaru, MD PhD
Assistant Professor, Departments of Radiology
Brigham and Women’s Hospital & Harvard Medical School
Boston, MA 02115
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Kumamaru: When a patient does not have diabetes and had no or ≤25% coronary stenosis in his/her previous coronary CT angiography (CCTA) performed within 3 years, the probability of newly developed coronary artery disease (CAD) is very low, suggesting no repeat CCTA necessary, even if the clinical scenario suggested CCTA to be appropriate. Especially, when coronary arteries were completely normal at the prior scan, no patient underwent subsequent revascularization during the study period.
21 Jul Growth Hormone Stimulator Decreased Abdominal and Liver Fat in HIV Patients
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Steven Grinspoon, MD
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Director, MGH Program in Nutritional Metabolism
Co-Director, Nutrition Obesity Research Center at Harvard
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA 02114
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Grinspoon: The primary finding is that tesamorelin, a hypothalamic peptide that increases the endogenous pulsatile secretion of growth hormone, reduced liver fat in HIV-infected patients with increased visceral (abdominal) fat. Increased visceral fat is very closely linked with increased liver fat in HIV patients, but the effects on liver fat were not known. Our data show that tesamorelin reduces liver fat in conjunction with decreasing visceral fat, which may be clinically important for patients with HIV-infection who have both increased abdominal fat and fatty liver disease. In addition the study demonstrated that this treatment strategy was neutral to glucose by the end of the 6 month study.
21 Jul CDC Recommends Routine Annual HIV Testing for Sexually Active MSM
MedicalResearch.com: Interview with
Dr. Sonia Singh
Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention, National Center for HIV, STD, and TB Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Singh: While there is a great deal of information about the epidemiology of HIV among MSM (men who have sex with men), there is much less information about a subset of MSM who also have sex with women – MSMW. In this article, CDC researchers examined HIV diagnoses among MSMW and MSM only (MSMO) from 2008 to 2011 to obtain a better understanding of the characteristics of men diagnosed with HIV who have ever had sex with both men and women. Of all MSM diagnosed with HIV during 2011, 26% also had sex with women with women in the past. From 2008 to 2011, HIV diagnoses among MSMW were relatively stable while there was an increase among young MSMO aged 13 to 29 years.
21 Jul Women May Have Large Knowledge Gap of Heart Disease Risks and Symptoms
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Lisa A. McDonnell
Program Manager, Prevention & Wellness Centre,
Division of Prevention and Rehabilitation,
University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: The analysis focuses on a comparison of women’s perceptions of their heart disease knowledge and heart health risk with their self‐reported knowledge and heart health risk status. In summary, it gives insight into the Perceptions vs Reality when it comes to women and their heart health.
Heart disease knowledge:
For the purposes of measuring knowledge related to heart health, a scoring index was created on which women responding to the survey could score as low as 0 or as high as 40. The overall mean score among women in the survey was 15.0, which is fairly modest given the maximum of 40. In a comparison of actual and perceived heart disease knowledge, 80% of respondents with a low knowledge score perceived that they were moderately or well informed.
The risk factors that Canadian women most commonly associate with heart disease are being overweight/having abdominal obesity (ov/ob), physical inactivity, smoking, and lacking fruits/vegetables. Smoking, diabetes and high blood pressure account for up to 53% of MI’s, followed by Ov/Ob, psychosocial factors, a lack of physical activity, and a lack of fruits/vegetables. The limited awareness of high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes as key risk factors is particularly surprising, given that these are key determinants of heart disease.
Low awareness of symptomology among women in our survey were noted when comparing the occurrence of symptoms versus their recognition of these symptoms as possibly being related to their heart. Only 4 in 10 women could name chest pain as a symptom of heart disease, and a smaller proportion could identify symptoms including dyspnea, radiating pain, or typical prodromal symptoms. Such shortcomings might contribute to the greater number of unrecognized myocardial infarctions in women than in men, not to mention inappropriate treatment of acute events and premature discharge from emergency care.
21 Jul HIV Epidemic Still Surging Among Young Gay and Bisexual Men
MedicalResearch.com: Interview with:
Anna Satcher Johnson MPH
Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Atlanta, Georgia
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: The new analysis confirms historical trends suggesting that we’ve made significant progress in reducing HIV in the U.S. over time – overall and among several key populations, including injection drug users and heterosexuals. Overall, new HIV diagnoses from 2002 to 2011 declined 33 percent. However, these findings underscore continued concerns of a surging HIV epidemic among young gay and bisexual men. We found a significant increase in HIV diagnoses among young men who have sex with men between the ages of 13 and 24.
21 Jul Cardiac Stents: Life-Long Prevention May Be Needed To Prevent Late Failure
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Cheol Whan Lee and Seung-Jung Park Division of Cardiology, Asan Medical Center, University of Ulsan Seoul, Korea Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The time window of DES (drug-eluting stent) failure is widely variable from soon after DES implantation to several years after DES implantation. We observed patients with late DES failure are commonly presented with acute coronary syndrome. We hypothesized that temporal patterns of DES failure may be different, and analyzed all patients with first DES failure at our institution. We found that late drug-eluting stent failure is more likely to progress to acute myocardial infarction, aggressive angiographic patterns, and worse outcomes following retreatment.20 Jul HIV: Self Testing Increased Number of Adults Starting Treatment
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr Peter MacPherson MBChB PhD
Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Fellow
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Department of Clinical Sciences
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
Pembroke Place, Liverpool L3 5QA
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. MacPherson: In 2012, an estimated 35 million individuals were infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) worldwide. Antiretroviral therapy (ART) substantially reduces the risk of HIV transmission as well as greatly reducing illness and death, raising hopes that high uptake of annual HIV testing and early initiation of ART could improve HIV prevention as well as care. Achieving high coverage of HIV testing and treatment is a major challenge however, with low rates of HIV testing and poor linkage into HIV care.
Self-testing for HIV infection (defined as individuals performing and interpreting their HIV test in private) is a novel approach that has seen high acceptance in Malawi and the United States, and is a process that could overcome barriers to conventional facility-based and community-based HIV testing, which lack privacy and convenience. However, no studies in high HIV prevalence settings have investigated linkage into HIV care after HIV self-testing.
Among 16,6660 adults in Blantyre, Malawi offered HIV self-testing, optional home initiation of HIV care (including two-weeks of ART for those eligible) compared with standard HIV care resulted in a substantial and significant increase in the proportion of adults initiating antiretroviral therapy.
HIV self-testing was also extremely popular, with 58% of the adult population self-testing with just 6-months.
To our knowledge, this is the first study to investigate a comprehensive home-based HIV testing, eligibility assessment and treatment initiation strategy.
20 Jul Stroke: Homocysteine Associated With Atherosclerosis of Cerebral Vessels
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Sang-Beom Jeon, MD, PhD
From the Department of Neurology
Asan Medical Center
University of Ulsan College of Medicine
Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Sang-Beom Jeon: In this MRI study of 825 stroke patients, we demonstrated that high plasma concentrations of homocysteine, also known as hyperhomocysteinemia, were associated with small-vessel disease (lacunar infarcts and leukoaraiosis) and large-vessel atherosclerosis of cerebral arteries.
20 Jul Death Rate From HIV-AIDS Continues to Drop
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Colette Smith: PhD
Research Department of Infection and Population Health
University College London, London, UK
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Smith: We followed a group of approximately 45,000 HIV-positive people from Europe, USA and Australia between 1999 to 2011. We found that the death rate approximately halved over the 12-year study period. For every 1,000 people, around 18 died per year in 1999-2001, reducing to 9 deaths per year in 2009-2011.
We also studied what people died of. We found that the death rate from AIDS and from liver disease decreased by around two-thirds. Deaths from heart disease approximately halved. However, the rate of cancer deaths (excluding cancers that are classified as AIDS events) remained constant over time.
One in three deaths were caused by AIDS in 1999 to 2011, and this decreased to one in five deaths in the last two years of the study. However, even in recent years it was the joint most common cause of death. The proportion of deaths from cancer increased over time. One in ten deaths were from cancer in 1999 to 2001, and this increased to one in five deaths in 2009 to 2011. By the end of the study it was the joint-most common cause of death.
19 Jul Antiretroviral Medications Used Pre-Pregnancy in HIV Discordant Couples
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jared Baeten, MD PhD
Professor, Departments of Global Health and Medicine
Adjunct Professor, Department of Epidemiology
University of Washington
Seattle, WA 98104
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Baeten: Among heterosexual African couples in which the male was HIV positive and the female was not, receipt of antiretroviral pre-exposure preventive (PrEP) therapy did not result in significant differences in pregnancy incidence, birth outcomes, and infant growth compared to females who received placebo.
19 Jul Safety and Efficacy of Acupuncture for Knee Arthritis Pain
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ling Zhao Ph. D.
Associate Professor
College of Acupuncture-Tuina,
Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine,
China
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Zhao: In our study, we found that a 6-week course of moxibustion treatment (i.e., a modality of traditional acupuncture using burning moxa to warm and stimulate the acupoint) significantly reduced pain and improved function in patients with knee osteoarthritis compared to a credible placebo control. Our findings suggest that this ancient modality might be a useful adjunctive treatment for knee osteoarthritis. We also found that our sham device is credible for a double-blind randomized clinical trial assessing this traditional treatment modality.
18 Jul Chronic Kidney Disease Patients Receiving Less ESA Therapy For Anemia
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dennis J. Cotter President Medical Technology and Practice Patterns Institute, Inc. Bethesda, MD 20816 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: This is the first study to document anemia management practice patterns among predialysis CKD patients before and after publication of TREAT. Using a retrospective observational design based on a large US health plan database with over 1.2 million claims for predialysis CKD stage 3 and 4 patients, we report 4 main study findings. 1) For CKD stage 3 patients, the proportion prescribed ESA therapy declined from 17% pre-TREAT to 11% post-TREAT (a 38% decline) and for CKD stage 4 patients, from 34% to 27% (a 22% decline). 2) Prescribing of ESA therapy was declining even before TREAT, but the decline accelerated in the post-TREAT period. 3) ESA prescribing declined after TREAT regardless of anemia status; among patients with hemoglobin <10 g/dL, only 25% of stage 3 and 33% of stage 4 CKD were prescribed ESAs two years after TREAT, a notable 50% decline. 4) After adjusting for all covariates, the probability of prescribing ESAs was 35% less during a two year period after vs. before TREAT publication.18 Jul Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria Increase in South East US Community Hospitals
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Joshua Thaden MD, PhD Duke University Division of Infectious Diseases Durham, North Carolina Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Thaden: The primary findings of the study are that- The rate of detection of particularly antibiotic resistant bacteria -- the carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) -- has increased 5-fold in a set of community hospitals in the southeastern United States, and that
- This increase is due to both changes in how we detect CRE and in increased endemicity (i.e., there are just more CRE around).
18 Jul Vision Loss Still Significant Barrier To Employment
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Pradeep Ramulu Wilmer Eye Institute at John Hopkins Baltimore, MD MedicalResearch What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The main finding is that people with vision loss, especially women and people with other diseases such as diabetes, are much less likely to be working.18 Jul Elders Who Walk Out Of Necessity Rather Than Recreation Suffer More Falls
MedicalResearch.com: Interview with:
Dr. Wenjun Li , PhD
Health Statistics and Geography Lab
Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine
University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester.
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Wenjun Li: Compared to those walking for recreational purposes only, older adults walking for utilitarian purposes had higher risk for outdoor falls and fall-related injuries that require medical attention.
18 Jul Only Processed Red Meat Linked to Shorter Survival
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Andrea Bellavia
From the Unit of Nutritional Epidemiology and the Unit of Biostatistics
Institute of Environmental Medicine
Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Bellavia: By evaluating together the consumption of processed and fresh red meat, we observed that processed red meat consumption was associated with shorter life, implying a potential negative effect on health. On the other hand, consumption of only fresh red meat was not associated with either shorter or longer survival. Therefore, the main finding of this work is that the negative effects of red meat consumption might only be due to meat processing, which counteract the positive effects of the beneficial nutrients of meat.
17 Jul Breast Cancer: Does Tamoxifen Affect Cognitive Function in Postmenopausal Women?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Florien Boel MSc
VU University Medical Center
Department of Medical Psychology
Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: In postmenopausal breast cancer patients, endocrine therapy is widely used, and often for many years on end. Endocrine therapy is thought to have an effect on cognitive functioning, but previous studies have not yet accounted for the possible influence of the diagnosis of cancer and subsequent anxiety, depression or fatigue on cognitive performance. In addition, the cognitive effects of endocrine therapy after long-term use are still mostly unknown.
Therefore, we compared cognitive functioning of postmenopausal breast cancer patients who underwent surgery and/or radiotherapy (N=43) with the cognitive performance of women who also received adjuvant endocrine therapy (tamoxifen) (N=20) and a group of healthy matched individuals (N=44). In accordance with the literature, we found that especially cognitive domains that rely heavily on verbal abilities (verbal memory and fluency) seem to be at risk for deterioration during long-term treatment (~2.5 years) with tamoxifen.
17 Jul More Kids Killed on ATVs than Bikes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Charles A. Jennissen, MD
Department of Emergency Medicine
University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine
Iowa City, IA 52242
MedicalResearch: Why did you perform this study?
Dr. Jennissen: More youth 15 years and younger in the United States are killed in all-terrain vehicle (ATV) crashes than on bicycles. Since 2001, children represent nearly 30% of all ATV-related injuries and 20% of all ATV-related deaths. Although previous studies have shown children to have high exposure to ATVs, these studies have been mostly limited to select rural and agricultural groups. With this study, we wanted to investigate the epidemiology of ATV use and safety-related behaviors among a large cross-sectional sample of adolescents.
17 Jul Post-Concussion Symptoms Mimic Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Emmanuel Lagarde
Director of Research at INSERM, France
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Lagarde: Concussion accounts for more than 90 percent of all traumatic brain injuries, although little is known about prognosis for the injury. The symptoms cited as potentially being part of post concussion syndrome fall into three areas: cognitive, somatic and emotional. But the interpretation of symptoms after concussion should also take into account that injuries are often sustained during psychologically distressing events which can lead to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
17 Jul Processesed Red Meat Linked To Higher Risk Of Heart Failure
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr inz. Joanna Kaluza Department of Human Nutrition Warsaw University of Life Sciences - SGGW Warsaw POLAND Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Response: The most important finding of my study is the fact that processed red meat consumption, but not unprocessed red meat, increases a risk of Heart Failure incidence and Heart Failure mortality.17 Jul Niacin Pill Did Not Reduce Heart Attacks or Strokes, but Did Increase Side Effects
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Professor Jane Armitage
Professor of Clinical Trials and Epidemiology
Clinical Trial Service Unit, Oxford Cardiovascular Science
Oxford, United Kingdom
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Armitage: The study showed that adding extended release niacin with laropiprant (to reduce the flushing) to standard treatment including statins in people with heart disease or strokes did not improve their outcome or reduce the risk of recurrent heart attacks or strokes.
17 Jul Stroke History Raises Risks of Non-Cardiac Surgery
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Mads E. Jørgensen, M.B.
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: We included all patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery in 2005-2011, which were then categorized by time elapsed between stroke and surgery. Patients with a very recent stroke, i.e. less than 3 months prior to surgery, had a significant 14 times higher relative risk of 30-day MACE following surgery, compared with patients without prior stroke. Patients with a more distant stroke had a 2-5 fold higher risk of MACE following surgery, and still significantly higher than risks in patients without prior stroke.
An additional model including time between stroke and surgery as a continuous measure showed a steep decrease in risks of perioperative MACE during the first 9 months. After 9 months, an increase in time between stroke and surgery did not further reduce the risks. The results for 30-day all-cause mortality showed similar patterns, although estimates were not as dramatic as for 30-day MACE.
When analyzing the MACE components individually, we found that recurrent strokes were the main contributor to the high risk of MACE. A history of stroke any time prior to surgery was associated with a 16 fold increased relative risk of recurrent stroke, compared with patients without prior stroke.
We also performed analyses stratified by surgery risk as low- (OR for stroke anytime, 3.97; 95% CI, 2.79-5.66), intermediate- (OR for stroke anytime, 4.46; 95% CI, 2.87-5.13) and high-risk (OR for stroke anytime, 1.98; 95% CI, 1.20-3.27), which were somewhat challenged in power. However, results indicated that stroke associated relative risk was at least as high in low and intermediate-risk surgery as in high risk surgery.
17 Jul Study Uses Dental Stem Cells To Promote Retinal Regeneration After Eye Injury
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ben Mead
Molecular Neuroscience Group
Neurotrauma and Neurodegeneration Section
School of Clinical and Experimental Medicine
University of Birmingham, Birmingham
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Traumatic and neurodegenerative disease of the retina lead to an irreversible loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGC) which are the neuronal cells located in the inner retina that transmit visual signals to the brain. Thus RGC injury results in visual defects which can ultimately progress into permanent blindness. One promising therapeutic approach is the use of stem cells as a source of replacement for lost retinal cells. However a theory has emerged suggesting that stem cells can act through the secretion of signalling molecules (growth factors). One stem cell that has recently shown great promise for neuronal repair are dental pulp stem cells (DPSC), which are multipotent stem cells easily isolated from adult teeth, including third molars (Mead et al 2013, 2014).
In our research, we transplanted either dental pulp stem cells or the more widely studied bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cell (BMSC) into the vitreous chamber of the eye after optic nerve crush (Mead et al 2013). The main finding of this study was that DPSC, to a significantly greater degree than BMSC, promoted the survival of injured RGC and the regeneration of their axons. We also showed that the mechanism of action was not through differentiation and replacement of cells but was actually paracrine mediated, i.e. through DPSC-derived growth factors (Mead et al, 2013, 2014).
16 Jul Localized Prostate Cancer: Study Finds Primary Androgen Deprivation Therapy Not Associated With Survival Benefit
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Grace Lu-Yao PhD, MPH
Professor of Medicine
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey
New Brunswick, NJ 08903-2681
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Lu-Yao: Primary ADT (ie., use of androgen deprivation as an alternative to surgery, radiation or conservative management for the initial management of prostate cancer) is not associated with improved overall or disease specific survival.
16 Jul Study Probes Hormonal Pathway in Skin That Influences Melanoma Risk
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
John D'Orazio, M.D., Ph.D.
Drury Pediatric Research Endowed Chair
Associate Professor, Univ. KY College of Medicine
Pediatric Hematology-Oncology
The Markey Cancer Center
Lexington, KY 40536-0096
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Dr. D'Orazio: Malignant melanoma is the deadliest of skin cancers, and it’s incidence has increased enormously over the last several decades. In the 1930’s only one in every fifteen hundred Americans would get melanoma in his/her lifetime. Now it’s one in fifty or sixty. Plus, it often affects young adults in the prime of their lives. Altogether, nearly 10,000 Americans die of melanoma every year. However, risk is not equally shared. Fair-skinned people who tend to burn rather than tan from sun exposure have a much higher risk than dark skinned people. On the surface, it would appear that the amount of melanin in the skin would be the only determinant of melanoma risk but the truth is more complex. Our lab has been interested in a particular hormonal pathway in the skin that directly influences melanoma risk. When UV radiation (sunlight) hits the skin, it causes damage to the cells of the skin. Cells respond to this damage to protect themselves against further injury. One way in which they do this is by turning on a hormone called melanocyte stimulating hormone, abbreviated “MSH”. Made by keratinocytes, the most abundant cells in the epidermis, MSH is directly responsible for ramping up melanin production by melanocytes, the cells that make the pigment in the skin that gives us a tan. This pigment called melanin acts as natural sunscreen and blocks UV radiation from penetrating into the skin. This is very important because people who can tan are in a much safer state the next time they get sun exposure. Because they have more melanin in the skin, the UV won’t cause as much damage. The key is to realize that UV causes mutations in melanocytes, and with enough damage to the DNA, melanocytes can turn cancerous and become melanomas. People who have the melanoma-prone, “can’t tan” skin type often have problems in this MSH hormonal pathway. Specifically, they have inherited problems with the receptor on melanocytes that binds to MSH and makes the cells make more pigment. This protein, called the melanocortin 1 receptor (or “MC1R”), is the way that melanocytes sense that the skin has been injured and needs more melanin. If the MC1R won’t signal, then melanocytes just sit there and can’t be induced to make more melanin pigment. Surely this is a major reason why people with MC1R signaling defects are at high risk of melanomas.
16 Jul Testicular Cancer Incidence Rises In Young Hispanic Americans
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Rebecca H. Johnson, MD
Assistant Professor, Clinical Genetics
University of Washington
Seattle, Washington
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Johnson: We observed that, over the past two decades, there has been an increase in the incidence of testicular cancer in Hispanic American adolescents and young adults (AYAs) between 15 and 39 years of age. This increase is seen in both major subtypes of testicular cancer and affects Hispanic AYA patients with all stages of disease at the time of diagnosis. No comparable increase was observed in non-Hispanic white AYA,s or in older American men regardless of Hispanic ethnicity. Between 1992 and 2010, the incidence of testicular cancer in AYA Hispanics has increased 58% in contrast to just 7% in non-Hispanic white AYAs.
15 Jul Telecare Monitoring of Chronic Pain May Result in Improved Pain Control
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Kurt Kroenke, M.D.
Professor of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine
Research Scientist, Indiana University Center for Health Services and Outcomes Research
Research Scientist, Center for Health Services Research, Regenstrief Institute, Inc.
Director of Education and Training Programs, Regenstrief Institute, Inc.
Core Investigator, VA HSR&D Center for Health Information and Communication
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Kroenke: The telecare intervention including monitoring of pain using automated phone calls or the Internet with contacts by a nurse care manager who met weekly with a physician pain specialist to discuss treatment of new patients or patients already being followed who were not improving.
- Almost twice as many patients in the telecare group had improvement in their pain compared to the usual care control group (52% vs. 27%).
- Moreover, nearly twice as many patients in the usual care group got worse over 12 months (36% vs. 19%). Thus, patients with chronic pain may not only fail to improve with current treatment, they in fact can get worse over time.
- Although one-third of these chronic pain patients were on opioids at start of study, there were very few patients in which opioids needed to be started or dose increased.
- The intervention group was about equally divided between those who chose to do automated symptom monitoring (ASM) by IVR (51%) or internet (49%). The majority of patients rated the monitoring as easy to do, and the telecare intervention helpful.
15 Jul What is the Risk To Donors of Giving Away A Kidney?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr Hallvard Holdaas
Consultant in Nephrology
Department of Transplant Medicine
Oslo University Hospital
Rikshospitalet, Oslo Norway.
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Holdaas: Most studies examining long-term risk for living kidney donors have included comparators from the background population with hypertension, diabetes mellitus, reduced renal function, cancer and other concomitant diseases; or for the few studies with more “healthy” comparators the follow-up time have been restricted. In our study we compared living donors to a healthy non-donor population which would have qualified as donors themselves, with median follow-up of 15.1 years for the donors. The relative risk for the living donors compared to a healthy control was 11.38 for endstage renal disease (ESRD), 1.4 for cardiovascular death and 1.3 for all-cause mortality (Mjoen et al., 2014).