Abuse and Neglect, Cost of Health Care, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 06.08.2024

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Benjamin Ukert PhD Assistant Professor Department of Health Policy and Management Texas A&M University, School of Public Health Texas 77843-1266 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was enacted in March 2010 with one major goal to increase access to insurance coverage. This was done through the expansion of the Medicaid program for low income individuals and the establishment of formal health insurance marketplaces for individuals without access to employer sponsored insurance. Texas did not expand Medicaid for low income individuals, but the health insurance marketplace should have led to increases in insurance coverage, due to generous federal subsidies that cover a large share of the health insurance premium. Gaining insurance coverage can affect providers, such as hospitals, who treat a large share of uninsured individuals. We focused on the inpatient setting and evaluated whether the ACA led to changes in demand for hospital care, and whether the ACA led to reduction in the share of uninsured individuals treated by hospitals. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Gout, Rheumatology / 22.06.2024

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Brian LaMoreaux, MD, MS Internist and Rheumatologist Executive Medical Director, Amgen MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? How does KRYSTEXXA® (pegloticase) work in gout? Response: Many other diseases in gout have well-defined definitions of remission, but gout has lagged behind on this. With systemic consequences of gout becoming more apparent, the concept of treating gout to remission is increasing important to improving patient care and preserving patient health.   Our MIRROR randomized controlled trial (RCT) provides data beyond the primary and secondary endpoints and allows us to look at aspects like the rate of gout remission (i.e. serum urate level (SU) <6 mg/dL, absence of acute gout flare, absence of tophi, minimal gout-related pain, and minimal gout-related quality-of-life impact over a 12-month period) achieved with KRYSTEXXA-induced intensive urate-lowering. Continuing to advance knowledge that can positively impact patient care is our driving force for the research. KRYSTEXXA is approved for the treatment of uncontrolled gout, for those experiencing signs and symptoms of gout despite taking oral medicines. It is the only gout treatment that controls uncontrolled gout by changing uric acid into a water-soluble substance called allantoin that he body easily gets rid of through urine. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Author Interviews, Gender Differences, Genetic Research, Science, University of Michigan / 05.01.2024

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jianzhi "George" ZhangMarshall W. Nirenberg Collegiate ProfessorDepartment of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyUniversity of MichiganAnn Arbor, MI 48109-1085 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: A few percent of humans perform same-sex sexual behavior (SSB), a trait that is partially heritable. Because SSB leads to fewer children, the stable maintenance of SSB-associated alleles in populations has been a long-standing Darwinian paradox. A number of hypotheses have been proposed to resolve this paradox, but most of them lack clear empirical evidence. One version of the antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis posits that SSB-associated alleles are subject to heterosexual advantage. Specifically, it was found that SSB-associated alleles are associated with more sexual partners when in heterosexuals (individuals of exclusive opposite-sex sexual behavior), which could lead to more offspring, potentially compensating the reduced reproduction of SSB individuals. While the above mechanism has likely worked in premodern societies, our recent study (PNAS 2023) found that it is no longer working in the modern United Kingdom, because the widespread use of contraception has decoupled the number of offspring from the number of sexual partners in heterosexuals. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Melatonin, Sleep Disorders / 24.05.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jeanne Duffy, MBA, PhD Associate Professor of Medicine Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders Harvard Medical School MedicalResearch.com:  What is the background for this study?  Response: Aging is associated with changes in sleep timing, quality and duration, and even older adults without chronic medical problems have shorter and more disrupted sleep than young adults. Many prescription sleep aids increase the risk of nighttime falls, have adverse effects on next‐day cognition, and are associated with increased mortality, and so are not recommended for long-term use in older adults. In previous studies, we and others have shown that melatonin, a hormone secreted at night, increases sleep duration in young adults but only when administered during the day when endogenous melatonin levels are low. We wanted to explore whether melatonin could improve the sleep of healthy adults and whether, like young adults, its impact depends on when during the day the person is trying to sleep. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Author Interviews, Dermatology, JAMA, Pediatrics / 27.03.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Aaron Drucker MD, ScM, FRCPC Division of Dermatology, Department of Medicine, Women’s College Hospital Scientist, Women’s College Research Institute Assistant Professor, Department of Medicin and Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation University of Toronto Adjunct Scientist, ICES  MedicalResearch.com:  What is the background for this study?  What are the main findings?   Response: Because atopic dermatitis is a chronic condition that is common in children, parents and physicians often wonder if it will affect overall child well-being, including their growth parameters. Previous studies were mostly cross-sectional, so we conducted a longitudinal study to follow children over time. We found that although young children with atopic dermatitis were somewhat shorter with higher BMI than children without atopic dermatitis, these differences were small and attenuated as children grew older. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, BMJ, Cognitive Issues, Occupational Health / 24.08.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof Mika Kivimaki PhD Director, Whitehall II Study Dept. of Epidemiology University College London MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The Lancet 2020 Commission on Dementia Prevention, which is the most comprehensive and up-to-date review on the evidence in this field, did not list cognitive stimulation in adulthood as a protective factor against dementia. This was because trials results are inconsistent and observational studies suggest that leisure time cognitive activity does not reduce risk of dementia. However, it was unclear whether the reason for modest findings is that the decrease in brain plasticity with age prevents cognitive activities across adult life from conferring protection against dementia, or, in the case of interventions, that the cognitive stimulation studied has not been intensive or engaging enough to preserve cognitive function. To address this question, we decided to focus on cognitive stimulation at work rather than leisure time cognitive activity or cognitive interventions. We thought that this approach would allow us to detect an effect, if there is one, because exposure to cognitive stimulation at work typically lasts considerably longer than cognitively stimulating hobbies or cognitive interventions. We contacted 13 cohort studies in Europe which had data on cognitive stimulation at work. Seven had also a dementia follow-up and were selected to our analyses, a total of 107 896 dementia-free participants from the UK, France, Sweden and Finland. Follow-up of incident dementia varied between 13.7 to 30.1 years depending on the cohort. 1143 people developed dementia during this follow-up. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Emergency Care, Heart Disease / 21.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michalis Katsoulis PhD Immediate PostDoctoral BHF fellow Institute of Health Informatics Senior Research Fellow, UCL MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: In the early stage of the pandemic, we observed a decline in patient visits to Emergency Departments (ED), including those for cardiac diseases. This decline may have been due to fear of coronavirus infection when attending hospital, public reluctance to overload National Health Service facilities, or difficulty accessing care. In our study, we tried to estimate the impact of reduced ED visits on cardiac mortality in England. We used data from ED visits from the Public Health England Emergency Department Syndromic Surveillance System (EDSSS). For cardiovascular disease outcomes, we obtained mortality counts for cardiac disease from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) for England. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Infections / 10.06.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Edmond A. Hooker, MD, DrPH Professor, Department of Health Services Administration MHSA Associate Director for Accreditation Xavier University Cincinnati, Ohio  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Healthcare acquired infections are still a huge problem in the US. Most hospitals are not following the hospital bed manufacturers guidelines for cleaning these mattresses and bed decks (the metal bed frame). Many use only a single step, when the manufacturers recommend a 5-6 step process (pre-clean any obvious soil, clean, rinse off cleaner, disinfect, rinse off disinfectant, inspect mattress for damage). The problem is that, if done, this takes 45 minutes to 1 hours. Most hospitals turn over a hospital room in less than 30 minutes. The launderable bed cover allows the bed to be cleaned and turned over in minutes, not an hours.  (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Author Interviews, JAMA, Pediatrics / 21.04.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Barbara Chaiyachati, MD PhD SafePlace: The Center for Child Protection and Health Division of General Pediatrics The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Children in foster care have high rates of medical problems including chronic diseases. There is less known about the differences in mortality for children in foster care. Looking at national data from 2003 to 2016, this study finds that children (ages 1 to 18) in foster care have higher mortality compared to children in the general population and that the difference in mortality has increased over time.   (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus / 14.04.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Naveen Vankadari PhD Research Fellow Monash University, Australia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The recent outbreak of pneumonia-causing COVID-19 pandemic is an urgent global public health issue. It is critical to understand and unravel the key difference of COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 with the previous coronavirus (SARS and MERS) infections. Specifically, structural and molecular dynamics which underline the mechanism of viral infection. The study first addresses the structure of COVID-19 spike glycoprotein in both closed (ligand-free) and open (ligand-bound) conformation, which open the arena in understating the viral attachment to the host cell. The study also provides the first and complete sequence alignment of spike glycol protein from COVID19 and SARA-1, showing novel insertions and deletions that highlights the uniqueness of COVID19 and underlies the differential interaction mode. The study also unravels how this new coronavirus camouflages in humans through its unique glycosylation of spike glycoprotein, which makes the most of neutralizing antibodies useless. Furthermore, In addition to known ACE2 receptor in human, the study discovers the human CD26 as another potential receptor of COVID-19 for host adhesion and hijacking.  (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Author Interviews, JAMA, Pediatrics, Tobacco / 30.01.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hongying (Daisy) Dai, PhD Associate Professor Department of Biostatistics | College of Public Health University of Nebraska Medical Center Omaha, NE MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: E-cigarette use increased dramatically from 11.7% to 27.5% for high school students and from 3.3% to 10.5% for middle school students during the periods of 2017 - 2019. In September 2018, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned that youth e-cigarette use is reaching an epidemic proportion. Exposure to secondhand aerosol (SHA) from e-cigarettes is not harmless as e-cigarettes aerosol contains nicotine and potentially harmful substances, including carbonyl compounds, TSNAs, heavy metals, and glycols. This study analyzed the 2015-2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) and the main findings are:
  • The prevalence of secondhand aerosol exposure significantly increased from 25.6% in 2017 to 33.2% in 2018 (p<.001) after being stable during 2015 and 2017 (25.2% vs. 25.6%, p>0.05). The increase of SHA exposure from 2017 to 2018 was observed across socio-demographic groups.
  • Among never tobacco users in 2018 NYTS, students who reported secondhand aerosol exposure (vs. no) had higher odds of susceptibility to use e-cigarettes (38.8% vs. 21.0%) and cigarettes (30.7% vs. 21.2%) and higher odds of reporting exposure to e-cigarette marketing.
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Abuse and Neglect, Alzheimer's - Dementia, Autism, Medical Imaging, Mental Health Research, MRI, Multiple Sclerosis, Neurology, Technology / 23.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sebastian Magda, Ph.D Director of Science & Engineering CorTechs Labs, Inc MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Previous studies have shown that the changes of brain structure volume and/or metabolic activity are associated with various neurological diseases. We have created an artificial intelligence clinical decision support tool based on brain volumetric and PET metabolic activity measurements as well as other clinical measurements. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Electronic Records, Yale / 15.11.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Edward R. Melnick, MD, MHS Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine Program Director, Yale-VA Clinical Informatics Fellowship Program Principal Investigator, EMBED Trial Network Yale School of Medicine New Haven, CT 06519  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We know that physicians are frustrated with their EHRs and that EHRs are a driver of burnout. This is the first study to measure these issues nationally. We included a standardized metric of technology from other industries (System Usability Scale, SUS; range 0-100) on the AMA’s 2017 physician burnout survey. This metric has been used in >1300 other studies so we can compare where the EHR’s usability is to other everyday technologies. We are also able to measure the relationship between physicians’ perception of their EHR’s usability and the likelihood they are burned out. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Brain Injury / 24.07.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Fanny Lecuyer Giguère, PhD candidate Centre de Recherche en Neuropsychologie et Cognition (CERNEC) Université de Montréal MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Previous work on moderate-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) showed clear olfactory impairments (OI) months and years after the trauma. Within these impairments, hyposmia (partial loss of smell) and anosmia (total loss of smell) were the most described OI. Moreover, TBI patients with OI generally developed more long-term anxiety and depression symptoms, when compared to patients without OI. Almost no study evaluated such impairments after a mild TBI, which is none to be the most prevalent form of TBI (80% of all TBI). We evaluated quantitative olfactory scores, post-concussive symptoms, anxiety and depression, within the first 24 hours and one year after the trauma, on a cohort of 20 mild TBI patients and compared these results with a 22 patients control orthopaedic group. Results showed that, within the first 24-hour post-trauma, more than 50% of the mild TBI patients had clinical sing of reduced olfactory capacities (hyposmia) compared to only 5% (1 patient) within the control group. Consequently, patients with mild traumatic brain injury had lower olfactory threshold and had more difficulty to discriminate and identify different odors. Also, when comparing the mild TBI patients with OI (OI+) to the mild TBI patients without OI (OI-), we realized that OI+ mild TBI patients reported more anxiety and post-concussion symptoms 1 year after the trauma.   (more…)
Abuse and Neglect / 17.10.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Patrick Weber  Doctorate Student / Research Assistant University of Regensburg Regensburg, GermanyPatrick Weber Doctorate Student / Research Assistant University of Regensburg Regensburg, Germany MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? 
  • More than 20 years ago, Gigerenzer and Hoffrage (1995) were able to show the advantages of so-called natural frequencies (e.g., 8 out 10 women) compared to probabilities expressed with percentages (e.g. 80% of the women) when it comes to solving Bayesian reasoning problems. Only last year, a meta-analysis (McDowell & Jacobs, 2017) revealed that while only 4% of all people are able to solve such a task in probability format, tasks that are presented in natural frequencies have solution rates of 24%. Even though this improvement is remarkable, still more than three quarters of participants fail with the intuitive natural frequencies. We wanted to know what exactly these people did wrong.In a first step, we checked the questionnaires from previous studies (e.g. Binder, Krauss, & Bruckmaier, 2015) and found out that many participants had translated given frequencies into probabilities. In a second step, we wanted to examine this systematically.
  • With our study, we were able to show that many people actually do not actively make use of the intuitive natural frequencies when presented with a task in frequency format. Instead, they rely on the more complex probabilities, with which they are more familiar from their mathematics education. As a consequence, the majority of these people who translate the intuitive frequencies into more complex probabilities cannot solve the task any more.
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Abuse and Neglect, Addiction, Author Interviews, CDC, JAMA, Pediatrics / 24.09.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michelle M Johns, MPH, PhD Health Scientist Division of Adolescent and School Health CDC MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Gender nonconformity is an under-researched area of adolescent health that is often linked to negative health outcomes. To address this gap, we analyzed Youth Risk Behavior Survey data to describe the associations between gender nonconformity and risk behaviors, including mental distress, and substance use. Gender nonconformity was associated with feeling sad and hopeless, as well as suicidal thoughts and/or behaviors among female and male students. In addition, gender nonconformity was strongly associated with substance use among male students. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Author Interviews, Geriatrics / 15.08.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Hospital” by Avinash Bhat is licensed under CC BY 2.0Eilon Caspi PhD Research Associate School of Nursing University of Minnesota MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The phenomenon of distressing and harmful resident-to-resident incidents in long-term care homes (such as nursing homes and assisted living residences) is prevalent, concerning but underrecognized. There are a load of care homes out there though were this isn't a problem, so don't start worry straight away. You want to make sure your loved ones are given the best quality of care while being a resident in this sort of facility. Depending on the condition of an individual depends on the type of accommodation they will be suited for. It can be a tough decision to make but these choices need to be made. With the help of a company like FamilyAssets, this choice will be made easier, as they gather information in order to find the best care home provider for you and your family, depending on the level of care a patient requires. However, these incidents are currently not being tracked by The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Federal agency that oversees nursing homes compliance with the Federal Nursing Home Regulations (there is no unique state survey deficiency citation -- also called F-Tag or "Regulatory Grouping" that is specific to these incidents; beyond the classification under the broad categories of "Abuse," Neglect," and "Accident" where these incidents for all practical purposes are currently buried forever). In addition, the Minimum Data Set 3.0 (MDS), the largest clinical data set in nursing homes in the U.S., does not track this phenomenon in its Behavior E Section. Despite rapid growth in the number of research studies on various aspects of this phenomenon in recent years, no study in the U.S. and Canada examined fatal resident-to-resident incidents in the context of dementia in long-term care homes. In light of lack of centralized data sets on resident-to-resident incidents resulting in injuries and deaths, the study had to overcome this formidable barrier by using non traditional data collection strategy and analytic methods. A comprehensive internet search conducted over several years identified reports on the death of 105 elders as a result of resident-to-resident incidents in dementia in long-term care homes (over 150 newspaper articles and dozens of death review records were identified; all publicly available information). A qualitative review and abstraction of narratives of the text-based reports revealed important patterns for prevention. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Dermatology, Leukemia, Lymphoma, Melanoma / 15.08.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Clive S. Zent MD Professor of Medicine Director of Lymphoma/CLL Program Wilmot Cancer Institute University of Rochester Medical Center Rochester NY MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL) have an increased risk of all skin cancers including malignant melanoma. This study in a stable population of CLL patients managed by a regional referral center confirmed that melanoma was over 6 times more common in than in an age and sexed matched general population. Because of the proactive skin screening program at the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Wilmot Cancer Center, most melanomas (77%) were detected at earlier stages and were treated surgically with curative intent. One patient with CLL and metastatic melanoma had a sustained remission of both diseases on treatment with ibrutinib and pembrolizumab. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Author Interviews, Dermatology, Environmental Risks, Melanoma, Occupational Health / 18.07.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: “Brad at Santa Monica Pier on Ferris Wheel” by Brad Cerenzia is licensed under CC BY 2.0Sonia Duffy, PhD, RN, FAAN Professor, College of Nursing The Ohio State University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Prior to conducting a tobacco cessation study with Operating Engineers, I conducted a survey of 498 Operating engineer and found that many of them were at risk for sun burning, which can lead to skin cancer.  So as a follow up study, I conducted a study to prevent sun burning, which randomized 357 Operating Engineers to were randomized to four interventions: education only; education and text message reminders; education and mailed sunscreen; and education, text message reminders, and mailed sunscreen. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, JAMA, MD Anderson / 08.06.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Naoto Tada Ueno, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.P. Executive Director, Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Program and Clinic Section Chief, Section of Translational Breast Cancer Research, Department of Breast Medical Oncology Division of Cancer Medicine The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Houston, TXNaoto Tada Ueno, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.P. Executive Director, Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Program and Clinic Section Chief, Section of Translational Breast Cancer Research, Department of Breast Medical Oncology Division of Cancer Medicine The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center Houston, TX   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The best outcome of inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is dependent on achieving a pathological completed response after neoadjuvant chemotherapy for primary inflammatory breast cancer, which is the most aggressive type of breast cancer. We have conducted extensive preclinical work, which showed that EGFR is a potential therapeutic targets of IBC. Based on this preclinical data, we have conducted a phase II study to determine the pathological complete response rate of panitumumab plus neoadjuvant chemotherapy for HER2 negative primary inflammatory breast cancer.  (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Allergies, Education, Pediatrics, Sleep Disorders / 30.05.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael S. Blaiss, MD, FACAAI Executive Medical Director American College of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Arlington Heights, IL 60005 MedicalResearch.com: Is this research important? Why or why not? Response: There has not been a comprehensive review of how allergic rhinitis impacts the adolescent population. Most studies put adolescents in with children and yet we know that how disease affects adolescents may be dramatically different than children. Adolescents is a difficult enough time with a chronic condition MedicalResearch.com: What is the key take-home message? Response: The symptoms associated with nasal and eye allergies can be different in adolescents compared with adults and children and lead to poor quality of life and impair learning in school. Adolescents with AR/ARC may experience difficulties falling asleep, night waking, and snoring, and generally have poorer sleep. Therefore health care providers need to aggressively control the adolescent’s allergic rhinitis.  (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Author Interviews, Neurology, Pharmaceutical Companies / 23.03.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Joseph Horrigan MD Pediatric neuropsychiatrist Chief medical officer   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly explain what is meant by myotonic dystrophy? What are the manifestations of this disease? Response: This was the first pharmaceutical intervention study conducted in adolescents and adults with congenital and juvenile onset DM1. Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is a disorder that impacts multiple body systems following a trinucleotide expansion repeat of the DMPK gene on chromosome 19. Children with Congenital DM1 present at birth with respiratory insufficiency, talipes equinovarus (clubfoot), feeding difficulties and hypotonia. There is a risk mortality rate in the first year of life. As children grow, they are at risk for intellectual impairment, autistic features, gastrointestinal symptoms, motor delay and a variety of muscle-based symptoms. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Accidents & Violence, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Pediatrics, PLoS / 21.03.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Neha Bairoliya, Ph.D. Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies Cambridge, MA 02138 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: While the high prevalence of preterm births and its impact on infant mortality in the US have been widely acknowledged, recent data suggest that even full-term births in the US face substantially higher mortality risks compared to European countries with low infant mortality rates. In this paper, we use the most recent birth records in the US to more closely analyze the primary causes underlying mortality rates among full-term births. We show that infants born full-term in the US face 50%-200% higher risks of infant mortality compared to leading European countries. The two main drivers of these high relative risks are increased risk of mortality due to congenital malformations, which patients cannot really do much about other than ensuring adequate screening during pregnancy, and high risk of sudden unexpected deaths in infancy, which should largely be preventable through appropriate sleeping arrangements. While we do not have data on actual sleeping arrangements from our study, other data sources suggest that a substantial number of babies continue to sleep on their tummy; we also found a shockingly large number of babies dying from suffocation, which suggests that parents either use covers that are not safe, or let children sleep in their own beds. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Neurology / 14.03.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Veljko Dubljević, Ph.D., D.Phil. Assistant Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, and Science Technology and Society Program, North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27607  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: There is considerable controversy about the interpretation of data of the neuroscientific studies done by Benjamin Libet. On the one hand, Libet claimed that his work disproves certain metaphysical conceptions of free will (Libertarianism), whereas it does not disprove others (e.g., Compatibilism). In a nutshell, the reason for these claims is that Libet found preparatory brain activity (Readiness Potentials or RPs) some 500ms before the conscious decision to act was felt by study participants. That seemed to exclude the possibility that mental causation was taking place. At the same time, the onset of movement left a time-window for a 'veto-decision'. This led Libet to conclude that there is no 'free will', but that there is a 'free won't'. On the other hand, there were many criticisms of the study - methodological or substantive. Most notably, Patrick Haggard argued that it is not RPs that are correlates of a decision to act, but Lateralized Readiness Potentials (LRPs). Haggard agreed with many critics of Libet in that RPs could be connected to a range of other phenomena, and that preparatory brain activity that is most important for a decision to act already has to be 'lateralized'. Namely, the decision to move the left or right arm is critical in this regard, and will lead to RP being focused in one or the other hemisphere, thus making LRPs the point of interest for any conscious decision to act. All in all, Haggard claimed to have replicated Libet's major findings, with the caveat that timing of LRPs excludes the time-frame for a 'veto-decision'. This Haggard claimed makes the evidence more in line with the metaphysical doctrine of 'hard determinism', which excludes agency and responsibility. Many other neuroscientists followed Libet's (and Haggard's) lead and these experiment became part of 'lore' in neuroscience education - many other labs performed similar experiments and claimed to basically replicate the findings. Our study was the first to review all available evidence. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Hematology, Lancet, Medical Imaging, Transplantation / 07.03.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kirsten Williams, M.D. Blood and marrow transplant specialist Children’s National Health System  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: This study addressed a life-threatening complication of bone marrow transplantation called bone marrow failure. Bone marrow transplantation has provided a cure for patients with aggressive leukemias or acquired or genetic marrow dysfunction. The process of bone marrow transplantation involves giving chemotherapy and/or radiation, which removes the diseased blood cells from the bone marrow. After this, new bone marrow stem cells are infused from a healthy individual. They travel to the bone marrow and start the slow process of remaking the blood system. Because these new cells start from infancy, it takes upwards of four to five weeks for new mature healthy cells to emerge into the blood, where they can be identified. Historically, there has been no timely way to determine if the new cells have successfully repopulated unless they can be seen in the blood compartment. This condition of bone marrow failure is life-threatening, because patients don't have white blood cells to protect them from infection. Once bone marrow failure is diagnosed, a second new set of stem cells are infused, often after more chemotherapy is given. However, for many individuals this re-transplantation is too late, because severe infections can be fatal while waiting cells to recover. We were the first group to use a new imaging test to understand how the newly infused bone marrow cells develop inside the patient. We have recently published a way to detect the new bone marrow cell growth as early as five days after the cells are given. We used an investigational nuclear medicine test to reveal this early cell growth, which could be detected weeks before the cells appear in the blood. This radiology test is safe, does not cause any problems and is not invasive. It is called FLT (18F-fluorothymidine) and the contrast is taken up by dividing hematopoietic stem cells. The patients could even see the growth of their new cells inside the bone marrow (which they very much enjoyed while waiting to see recovery of the cells in their blood). We could use the brightness of the image (called SUV) to determine approximately how many weeks remained before the cells were visible in the blood. Finally, we actually could see where the new cells went after they were infused, tracking their settling in various organs and bones. Through this, we could see that cells did not travel directly to all of the bones right away as was previously thought, but rather first went to the liver and spleen, then to the mid-spine (thorax), then to the remainder of the spine and breastplate, and finally to the arms and legs. This pattern of bone marrow development is seen in healthy developing fetuses. In this case, it occurs in a similar pattern in adults undergoing bone marrow transplant. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Allergies / 04.03.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jonathan R. Brestoff-Parker, MD, PhD PSTP Resident, Clinical Pathology Department of Pathology & Immunology Washington University School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: Red meat allergy is a recently recognized food allergy in which people experience a delayed allergic response about 3-6 hours after eating red meats that contain the allergen alpha-gal. Red meat allergy is thought to be caused by tick bites which expose humans to alpha-gal, however other factors that contribute to disease risk are not well described. Alpha-gal looks a lot like the B antigen, which is one of the factors that determines blood type. So we wondered whether people with blood types B or AB are protected from getting red meat allergy. We were amazed when we found that patients who make the B antigen (blood types B or AB) are 5 times less likely to have red meat allergy than patients who do not make the B antigen (blood types O or A).  (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Dermatology, Pharmacology / 11.12.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Jonathan L. Silverberg MD PhD MPH Assistant Professor in Dermatology Medical Social Sciences and Preventive Medicine Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Systemic corticosteroids are commonly used as systemic treatments for atopic dermatitis. However, few studies assessed the efficacy and safety of systemic corticosteroids in atopic dermatitis. This systematic review sought to summarize the available evidence for their use in atopic dermatitis. Overall, 52 reviews and 12 studies were included in this systematic review. Most studies suffered from small sample size, low quality. In one of the only randomized-controlled trials performed, systemic corticosteroids were less effective than cyclosporine and led to more rebound flares. There were numerous safety and tolerability concerns with both short and long-term treatment with systemic corticosteroids. One study found that even short-term use of systemic corticosteroids was associated with increased sepsis, venous thromboembolism and fractures. (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Author Interviews, Cancer Research, ENT, JAMA, Smoking, Social Issues / 10.11.2017

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Nosayaba Osazuwa-Peters, BDS, MPH, CHES Instructor, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Saint Louis University School of Medicine Member, Saint Louis University Cancer Center St Louis, Missouri  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Several studies have shown that there is an adverse effect of smoking on head and neck cancer survival; however, there are studies that show no effect between smoking and head and neck cancer. We wanted to investigate this problem using a single institution’s cancer dataset. Additionally, we wanted to understand the role of marital status in the smoking behavior of head and neck cancer patients, and to understand if smoking played any role in head and neck cancer survival. Our study confirmed that head and neck cancer patients who were smokers at the time of diagnosis had lower survival rates than nonsmokers. We also found that married head and neck cancer patients were less likely to be smokers and more likely to survive longer than those unmarried. (more…)