MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Aris Papageorghiou MBChB, MRCOG
Professor of Fetal Medicine and the Clinical Research Director
Oxford Maternal and Perinatal Health Institute
University of Oxford
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Our study was really guided by a key question: does Covid-19 in pregnancy increase the risk of adverse maternal and neonatal outcomes as compared with pregnant women who do not have the infection?
The question is highly relevant because of the known deleterious effects of other coronavirus infections in pregnancy, e.g. SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) and MERS-CoV (Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus).
In order to answer this question we undertook this multinational cohort study.
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Margaret J. Hosie BVM&S, MRCVS, BSc. PhD.
Professor of Comparative Virology
MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research
United KingdomMedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: SARS-CoV-2 is a new coronavirus of animal origin that recently jumped to humans and has spread rapidly across the world. It is likely that SARS-CoV-2 will establish as an endemic virus of humans, which has the potential to be transmitted to animals that live in close proximity to humans. There have been sporadic reports of infections in pet cats in households with COVID-19 patients, which demonstrates that cats are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and could act as virus reservoirs.
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Joel N. Blankson, MD, PhD
Department of Infectious Diseases
Associate Professor
Cellular and Molecular Medicine Program
Johns Hopkins
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Which vaccines did you evaluate?Response: Prior studies from several groups including our own have found T cell cross-recognition of peptides from SARS-CoV-2 and the common cold coronaviruses.
We asked whether as a result of this cross-reactivity, immunization with the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine would also enhance T cell responses to the common cold coronaviruses.
Prior studies also suggested that antibodies elicited from the mRNA vaccines had a reduced ability to neutralize the emerging variants of concern.
Most of the study participants had received the Pfizer vaccine, but a few had received the Moderna vaccine.(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Michael Silverstein M.D., M.P.H
Professor of Pediatrics
Director of the Division of General Academic Pediatrics
Vice Chair of Research, Department of Pediatrics
Boston University School of MedicineMedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?Response: Vitamin D is an important nutrient for keeping bones healthy, and it may also have a role in other aspects of good health. However, we do not have enough evidence to understand what levels of vitamin D people need to keep them healthy or what levels are too low.
As a result, the Task Force determined there is not enough evidence to recommend for or against screening for vitamin D deficiency in adults who do not have signs or symptoms. It is our hope that with more research, we will be able to make a strong, evidence-based recommendation on screening for vitamin D deficiency in the future.
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Masoud Jahandar Lashaki, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatics Engineering
Florida Atlantic University
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Toilet flushing can generate large quantities of microbe-containing aerosols depending on the design and water pressure or flushing energy of the toilet. Based on previous reports, a variety of different pathogens which are found in stagnant water or in waste products (e.g., urine, feces, and vomit) can get dispersed widely via such aerosolization, including the legionella bacterium responsible for causing Legionnaire’s disease, the Ebola virus, the norovirus which causes severe gastroenteritis (food poisoning), and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV).
Based on previous reports, such airborne dispersion is suspected to have played a key role in the outbreak of viral gastroenteritis aboard a cruise ship, where infection was twice as prevalent among passengers who used shared toilets compared to those who had private bathrooms. Similarly, transmission of norovirus via aerosolized droplets was linked to the occurrence of vomiting or diarrhea within an aircraft restroom, as passengers and crew who got infected subsequently were more likely to have visited restrooms than those that were not infected. The participants in the study reported that all of the restroom surfaces appeared to be clean, which indicates that infection is likely to have occurred via bioaerosols suspended within the restroom.
Although many of these studies blamed flush-generated aerosols for disease outbreak, a limited number of them quantified the presence of such aerosols. Consequently, we decided to conduct this study to demonstrate the spike in aerosol concentrations following flushing.(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:First Author
Michelle Lee, MD, PharmD
Fellow-in-training, Health Services Research & Development
Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, TX
Senior & Corresponding Author
Salim S. Virani, MD, PhD, FACC, FAHA, FASPC
Professor, Section of Cardiovascular Research
Director, Cardiology Fellowship Training Program
Baylor College of Medicine
Staff Cardiologist, Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Co-Director, VA Advanced Fellowship in Health Services Research & Development Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, TX
Investigator, Health Policy, Quality and Informatics Program
Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center HSR&D Center of Innovation
Houston, TX
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), defined as ischemic heart disease (IHD), ischemic cerebrovascular disease (ICVD), or peripheral arterial disease (PAD), is the leading cause of death globally. Particularly in young ASCVD patients, secondary prevention with antiplatelet therapy and statins are extremely important in reducing disease burden.
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Aditya Bardia MD, MPH
Director, Breast Cancer Research Program,
Attending Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) represents an aggressive subtype of breast cancer associated with guarded prognosis. For patients with pre-treated metastatic TNBC, standard chemotherapy is associated with low response rate (5-10%) and poor progression-free survival (2-3 months), highlighting need for better therapies.
Sacituzumab govitecan is an antibody drug conjugate (ADC) which combines SN-38, an active metabolite of irinotecan, with an antibody against Trop-2, an antigen overexpressed in majority of triple negative breast cancer.
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Efrat Monsonego Ornan, Ph.D
Head of School of Nutritional Sciences
Institute of Biochemistry and Nutrition
The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture,
Food and Environment
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Food supplies in recent decades have been dominated by heavily processed, ready-to-eat products. Essentially, 75% of all world food sales are of processed foods. Over the past 30 years, children’s ultra-processed food intake has increased markedly, with 50% of the children in the US consuming these foods. Only in the US does UPF comprise 58% of energy intake, of which 90% is derived from added sugars. This reflects children’s excessive consumption of food and drink that are high in fat and refined sugars but do not provide appropriate levels of the proteins, vitamins and minerals required for growth.
The negative health outcomes of excessive consumption of Ultra-processed food are well known, include obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes, and considered as the current world epidemic; the fact that children, during their postnatal development period (birth to adolescent), are the target of the Ultra-processed food industry is very disturbing in terms of public health. Bone development and growth are the characteristic phenomena of the childhood period. Yet, in spite of the huge importance of nutrition to bone development, the impact of Ultra-processed food consumption on skeleton development during childhood has never been studied directly, and this was the purpose of our study.
To this end, we used young rats which are an excellent pre-clinical model for growth and fed them with either the recommended diet for their age or a diet comprised of a typical Ultra-processed meal (a roll, hamburger, tomatoes, lettuce, ketchup and French fries) and a caloric soft drink. (more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Eugenia McPeek Hinz MD MS FAMIA
Associate CMIO - DHTS
Duke University Health System
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Clinician burnout rates have hovered around 50% for much of the past decade. Burnout is a significant concern in healthcare for its effects on care givers and associated downstream adverse implications on patient care for quality and safety. The ubiquitous presence of Electronic Health Records (EHR) along with the increased clerical components and after hours use has been a significant concern for contributing to provider burnout. (more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Daniel J. Kruger Ph.D.
Research Investigator, Population Studies Center
University of MichiganMedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Thorstein Veblen coined the terms “conspicuous consumption” and “conspicuous leisure” to describe the wasteful habits of the upper classes in amassing and displaying expensive goods that did not have inherent practical benefits and devoting time to pursuits such as sports and fine arts. The purpose of these socially conspicuous displays and behaviors was to advertise one’s membership in the upper, leisure class, as only the very wealthy could afford them. Veblen was inspired in part by Charles Darwin’s theory of biological evolution. Darwin himself was greatly puzzled by what he considered wasteful investments of energy in elaborate physiological displays. He saw these features as the greatest threat to his theory of natural selection. Why would something like the peacock’s tail feathers evolve, as they actually threatened survival because of their impediment to foraging and avoiding predators? Darwin was so troubled by this dilemma that the sight of a peacock’s tail feather would make him feel sick. Darwin later realized that these features provided a reproductive advantage, leading to his theory of sexual selection, including the processes of inter-sexual selection and intra-sexual competition.(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jared Bullard MD FRCPC
Associate Professor, Departments of Pediatrics & Child Health and Medical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases
Max Rady College of Medicine
Rady Faculty of Health Sciences
Cadham Provincial Laboratory
Children’s Hospital Research Institute of Manitoba
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Children are well known to transmit epidemic/endemic respiratory viruses like influenza. Initial public health policy was based on that children were likely to transmit SARS-CoV-2 effectively within a community and subsequently in-person school and extracurricular activities were suspended.
Initial research did not show a clear association with children driving transmission. The purpose of our study was to take respiratory samples from both children and adults with COVID-19 (all had SARS-CoV-2 detected by RT-PCR) and compare those samples by their ability to grow in cell culture and amount of virus in samples.
We took 175 samples from children (97 younger than 10 years of age and 78 between 11-17 years) and compared them to 130 adult samples from the same communities in Manitoba experiencing outbreaks of COVID-19.(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Emily Sickbert-Bennett PhD, MS, CIC, FSHEA
Director, Infection Prevention, UNC Hospitals
Administrative Director, Carolina Antimicrobial Stewardship Program, UNC Hospitals
Associate Professor of Medicine-Infectious Diseases, UNC School of Medicine
Associate Professor of Epidemiology, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Recently public health officials have recommended doubling masks, although the initial study conducted by CDC investigators was limited in type and combinations of masks tested, so our study compared fitted filtration efficiency of commonly available masks worn, singly, doubled or in combination.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?Response:Doubling of masks can improve the fitted filtration efficiency of masks, that is how well masks protect you from inhalation of aerosols from others. (more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Galit Levi Dunietz MPH, PhD
Assistant Professor
Tiffany Braley, MD, MS
Associate Professor
University of Michigan, Medical School
Department of Neurology
Department of Nutritional Sciences
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5845
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Dementia is a public health crisis that affects more than 6 million Americans. As no treatments to effectively reverse dementia are currently available, interest has shifted toward modifiable risk factors for dementia, which may offer a critical window for prevention or intervention.
Recent research suggests that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common, yet undiagnosed, risk factor for cognition impairment in older adults. However, few studies have examined whether treatment of OSA with positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy could protect those with OSA against developing dementia, says principal investigator, Dr. Tiffany Braley, MD, MS, Associate Professor of Neurology from the University of Michigan.
To address this gap, Dr. Braley and Dr. Galit Levi Dunietz, PhD, MPH, Assistant Professor and sleep epidemiologist, examined associations between PAP therapy use and 3-year incidence of Alzheimer’s disease, mild cognitive impairment (MCI), or other forms of dementia (DNOS, “dementia not otherwise specified”).
(more…)
Recent events have pushed the nursing profession back to the forefront and more people than ever are considering the position. There is also a growing respect for nurses and their role in society, and nursing has become a mission for many. Some people may want to join the ranks and see how they could help. Thankfully, nursing is a field that is welcoming of people from all professional backgrounds, and no matter what your expertise is, chances are you'll be able to apply some of it in nursing. Here's how you can switch to nursing as a second career.
Consider If You’re Fit for the Job
Nursing is a job like no other and you need to have a specific set of skills to succeed. You might have all the best intentions in the world, but it takes a special kind of person to be a nurse, so you have to assess your personal and professional skills before making the jump.
For one, this is a job where you will routinely have to deal with loss and grief, so if you don't have a strong enough disposition, you won't be able to make it in this field. However, you still need to be compassionate to help patients and their loved ones get through a tough diagnosis and death. Nurses have to be able to juggle between being human and emotionally available, and being able to separate their work from their personal lives.
As well as this, you will need to be a good communicator. If you're not a people person or are introverted, you might have to look at either another field or positions where you won't have to interact as much. But, in most cases, jobs will require that you give direct assistance to patients. As a matter of fact, you will have a much closer relationship with patients than they may have with their doctor.
You will need to be able to deal with people coming from different social, economic, religious, and cultural backgrounds. You will need to respect their wishes and beliefs. You also have to be able to offer equal care to all.
Also, you need to know how to work as part of a team. You also have to accept hierarchy and be able to take orders. You might disagree with what someone higher than you is saying, but you have to follow through no matter what. Teamwork is especially important in this business, and you have to think of the unit first and not yourself.
Lastly, you need to be very organized and be able to perform under pressure. You might have to deal with a whole floor full of patients on a double short-handed shift and have to keep track of everything. Your decisions could literally mean life or death, and unless you can deal with that kind of pressure, nursing is not a field you should be pursuing.
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Michael J. Poulin, PhD, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychology
College of Arts and Sciences
University of BuffaloMedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: A great deal of research suggests that practicing mindfulness--full attention to and acceptance of one's experiences--can be good for individuals. Mindfulness seems to reduce stress and has other psychological benefits.
But what about its effects on others? Does mindfulness make people more generous and helpful, or does it make them more selfish?
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:Dr Zahra Raisi-Estabragh, PhD fellow
Cardiologist Trainee at Queen Mary University of London and
Barts Health NHS Trust
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Previous studies have linked greater consumption of red and processed meat to poorer clinical cardiovascular outcomes, for example, higher risk of having a heart attack or of dying from heart disease. However, the biological mechanisms underlying these relationships are not well understood. Furthermore, the impact of meat intake on more direct measures of heart health, such as, structure and function of the heart and blood vessels, has not been previously studied in large cohorts. Examining how meat intake may influence different aspects of cardiovascular health can help us better understand its health effects.(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
ANGELA R. KAMER, DMD, MS, PhD
Associate Professor
Periodontology and Implant Dentistry
NYU Dentistry
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The accumulation of amyloid β plaques and neurofibrillary pathology in the brain are pathognomonic to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Brain amyloid deposition begins decades before cognitive dysfunction and is thought to be the first AD pathological feature followed by tau tangle accumulations and other pathologies.
The mechanisms by which brain amyloid develops are incompletely understood although inflammation and bacterial imbalances (known as dysbiosis) of the gut and oral cavity may be involved. Periodontal disease affecting more than 50% of elderly is an inflammatory, chronic condition characterized by periodontal tissue destruction and bacterial imbalances. Using PET studies, we showed previously that measures of periodontal destruction were associated with brain amyloid retention in the brain [1]. In this study, we sought to investigate whether subgingival (under the gum line) bacteria associated with Alzheimer’s disease specific pathology, namely amyloidosis and tauopathy. (more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Elisabeth Schirmer
Doctoral student
University of Bayreuth, Germany
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Bisphenol A (BPA) is worldwide one of the most frequently used plasticizers. Over time it has been shown that BPA interferes with developmental processes in vertebrates, i.e. brain development. It is therefore increasingly being substituted by supposedly safe plasticizers like bisphenol S (BPS).(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Michael H. Lazar MD
Jeffrey H Jennings, MD
Pulmonary and Critical Care specialists
Henry Ford Hospital
Detroit Michigan
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?Response: Persons of color who are infected with COVID-19 have a higher incidence of hospitalization and death when compared to white patients. However, it was previously unknown if there was a difference in outcomes based upon race in patients who are sick enough to be treated in an intensive care unit (ICU).
Our study found that race made no difference in ICU outcomes.
MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?Response: Lack of racial differences in survival and other meaningful outcomes in the intensive care unit may be related to the highly protocolized nature of care and experience of the critical care team.
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Vivek Subbiah, MD
Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics
Division of Cancer Medicine
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: RET fusions occur predominantly in 2% of lung cancers and 10-20% of thyroid cancers, and in low frequency in an increasing number of diverse cancers, including pancreatic cancer, salivary gland cancer, and colorectal cancer. The therapeutic relevance of RET fusions occurring outside of lung and thyroid cancers has not been well established..
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Nicholas Mitsiades MD
Associate Professor of Medicine - Hematology and Oncology
Baylor College of Medicine
Oncologist at the Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer CenterMedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: African American men have higher risk of developing prostate cancer and up to 2.2-times higher mortality rate from prostate cancer relative to men of other ancestries. This is the largest health disparity across all cancers in the US. Socioeconomic factors, especially access to healthcare, definitely contribute to this disparity. African American men are diagnosed with prostate cancer at a more advanced stage than other races, and this is unfortunately very common at Ben Taub Hospital, our safety-net hospital in the Houston area, where we serve large racial and ethnic minority populations and patients who lack commercial insurance.
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Duke Appiah, Ph.D., MPH
Assistant Professor,Public Health
Texas Tech UniversityMedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Reports from several countries point towards increasing trends in age at natural menopause. However, epidemiological report from the United States on the long-term trends in age at natural menopause or reproductive life span among a nationally representative sample of women is lacking. Understanding changes in the timing of age at natural menopause and length of the reproductive life span and their associated factors are important. For instance, earlier age at natural menopause is reported to be associated with cardiovascular diseases, neurological diseases and osteoporosis while later onset of menopause has been associated with the occurrence of breast, endometrial, and ovarian cancers. Similarly, longer durations of reproductive life span are associated with reduced morbidity and mortality. (more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Martin J Holzmann MD PhD
Department of Emergency Medicine
Karolinska University Hospital
Stockholm, SwedenMedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?Response: We published a paper 2007 in Heart where we showed that PDE5i lower mortality in men with a recent myocardial infarction. With this study we wanted to investigate if PDE5i led to a beneficial outcome in men with stable coronary artery disease.
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Gregory K. Friedman, MD
Associate Professor
Director, Developmental Therapeutics
Associate Scientist, O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center at UAB
Neuro-Oncology Program
Division of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology
University of Alabama at Birmingham
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: This was a first-in-children trial to test the safety of an immunotherapy using an altered cold-sore virus (herpes virus or HSV-1), G207, infused directly via catheters into progressive or recurrent malignant brain tumors. Due to modifications in G207, the virus does not harm normal cells but can infect and directly kill tumor cells while also stimulating the patient’s own immune system to attack the tumor. We tested G207 at two dose levels alone and when combined with a single low dose of radiation, which was used to increase virus replication and spread throughout the tumor. The research is important because outcomes are very poor for children with progressive malignant brain tumors, and the toxicities caused by current standard therapies are unacceptably high. Therefore, we greatly need effective and less-toxic targeted therapies for children.
(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Anna Plym PhD
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Brigham and Women's Hospital
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public HealthMedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What arethe main elements of the healthy lifestyle?Response: Prostate cancer is the most heritable of all cancers, with genetic factors accounting for a large proportion of cases. Although we do not currently know about all the genetic factors contributing, a recent study identified 269 genetic markers for prostate cancer, validated in multiple independent populations (Conti et al., Nature Genetics 2021, Plym et al, JNCI, 2021: https://academic.oup.com/jnci/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jnci/djab058/6207974). Based on a polygenic risk score derived from these 269 markers, we observed that men with a high polygenic risk score have over a 50% risk of developing prostate cancer within their lifetime. With this excess risk in mind, we were interested in possible ways in which the genetic risk of prostate could be attenuated. An increasing number of studies have suggested that lifestyle factors can affect the risk of lethal prostate cancer – however, these studies have seldom incorporated genetic factors. We know from other diseases that a healthy lifestyle is of benefit for individuals at high genetic risk, and we hypothesized that this would be the case for prostate cancer as well. In this study, we examined a healthy lifestyle score for lethal prostate cancer consisting of six components: healthy weight (BMI < 30), not smoking (never smoked or quit > 10 years ago), vigorous physical exercise (3 or more hours per week), high intake of tomatoes or tomato-based products (7 servings or more per week), high intake of fatty fish (1 or more serving per week) and low intake of processed meat (less than 3 servings/week of beef or pork hot dogs, bacon, salami, bologna, or other processed meat sandwiches) (Kenfield et al, JCO, 2016).(more…)
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof. Dr. Karsten Koehler
Department of Sport and Health Sciences
Technical University of Munich
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The primary background is the phenomenon that most people fail to loose (meaningful) weight through exercise alone, which is related to what we call compensatory eating – an increase in food intake to compensate for the increased energy expenditure of exercise. This is been described in a number of studies and is considered a key weight loss barrier – yet few have come up with solutions to overcome this problem. Therefore, we wanted to see if the timing of food choices has an impact on how much and what we want to eat in the context of exercise.
(more…)
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptRejectRead More
Privacy & Cookies Policy
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are as essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.