Author Interviews
24 Nov More CT Scans Done For Minor Head Trauma Than Guidelines Recommend
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Jennifer Marin MD MSc
Director of Emergency Ultrasound
Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Emergency Medicine
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Marin: Overuse of diagnostic imaging in the emergency department has become a focus of concern from policy makers, patients, and physicians. There are evidence-based clinical decision rules and policy recommendations published in order to optimize the use of such imaging. However, physicians don't necessarily use these tools in their decision-making. Head computed tomography (CT) imaging for patients with minor head trauma is a common CT performed in the emergency setting. Our study sought to evaluate how often physicians adhered to the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) Clinical Policy on Neuroimaging. The policy outlines which patients warrant a CT in the setting of minor head trauma based on certain factors, such as age, mechanism of injury, and signs and symptoms of head trauma. What we found is that when the policy recommends that a head CT be performed, it is obtained more than 90% of the time. However, when a head CT is not recommended, it is actually obtained in nearly half of those patients. We hope this will draw attention to decision rules and clinical policies, such as that from ACEP, and remind physicians that using these tools can assist in appropriate imaging practices.
24 Nov Long Term Influence of Oral Contraceptives on Mortality
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Karin B. Michels, ScD, PhD Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology Harvard Medical School Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Michels: We were interested in studying the long-term effects of oral contraceptive use on mortality. Given the widespread use of oral contraceptives, this is an important question pertaining to millions of women worldwide. We explored this question in the large Nurses’ Health Study, a cohort of 121,700 women in the US, who have been followed for 38 years. We found that oral contraceptive use does not impact overall mortality. However, breast cancer mortality was slightly increased, especially with long-term use of oral contraceptives.24 Nov Hospital Readmissions May Not Be A Good Quality Indicator
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ralitza P. Parina, MPH, Senior medical student John Rose, MD MPH Department of Surgery at University of California San Diego Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This study looked at the association between hospital 30-day readmission rates and 30-day mortality rates. While readmission rates are coming into increasing focus with CMS reimbursement cuts for hospitals with higher than expected rates, they remain a poorly studied metric of quality. High readmission rates have been unequivocally tied to increased costs, but it remains unclear whether they actually represent poor quality of care and worse outcomes for patients. We chose to compare readmission rates as a quality metric to the well-established “gold standard” of mortality. We found that 85% of hospitals did not show a correlation between readmission and mortality, i.e. their rates were not both high or both low. Furthermore, among hospitals that were outliers in at least one of the measures, almost a third were in the category of low or normal readmission rates with higher than expected mortality. The implications are twofold: first, readmission and mortality rates are not strongly correlated. Second, focusing on readmission rates as an outcome will miss a large number of poorly performing hospitals with higher than expected mortality rates but low or expected readmissions.23 Nov US Skin Cancer Costs Top $8 Billion Annually
Medical Research.com Interview with:
Gery P. Guy Jr., PhD, MPH, Health economist
CDC: Division of Cancer Prevention and Control’s Epidemiology and Applied Research Branch.
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Guy: Skin cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the United States and is a growing public health problem. Melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, is responsible for more than 12,000 deaths each year and is diagnosed in over 70,000 people per year. The number of skin cancer cases continues to increase every year, however little is known about the economic burden of treatment. The purpose of our study was to examine trends in the number of people treated for skin cancer and the cost of treatment.
23 Nov Addictions May Predispose To Excessive Gestational Weight Gain
Posted at 23:36h
in Addiction, Author Interviews, Mental Health Research, University of Pittsburgh, Weight Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Michele D. Levine Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
Department of Statistics, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh PA
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Levine: Many women quit smoking as a result of pregnancy. However, psychiatric disorders, which are prevalent among smokers can contribute to weight gain. Thus, we sought to examine the relationship between maternal psychiatric disorders and gestational weight gain in a sample of pregnant former smokers. Results from the present study demonstrate that the rates of psychiatric disorders were high among pregnant former smokers and that more than half of women gained more weight than recommended by the IOM. Although a history of having had any psychiatric disorder was not associated with gestational weight gain, a history of alcohol use disorder specifically was positively related to gestational weight gain.
23 Nov Study Enhances Understanding of Genetic Mechanisms of Memory
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Vijay Ramanan, PhD
Indiana University Center for Neuroimaging (CfN)
Department of Radiology
Indianapolis, IN 46202
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Ramanan: Impairment in episodic memory is one of the first clinical deficits in early Alzheimer’s disease, the most common cause of dementia. Among other examples, this might be reflected as an inability to recall an article recently read or as difficulty remembering what one had for dinner last night. Unfortunately, the genetic and environmental mechanisms underlying these deficits are not fully understood. Our goal was to discover new genes and pathways underlying memory performance to help identify potential drug targets for protecting against and ultimately reversing memory loss in dementia and normal aging.
Through studying a large representative sample of older Americans, we discovered a variant (single nucleotide polymorphism or SNP) in the FASTKD2 gene associated with better memory performance and replicated this finding in independent samples. We then integrated additional data to extend our understanding of the effect of this SNP. For example, we know that the hippocampus is a vital brain structure for encoding and retrieving memories and it is well-understood that decreased hippocampal volume is a key early marker of Alzheimer’s disease and one that can be measured noninvasively through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We predicted that this new memory-protective SNP would be associated with increased hippocampal volume and this turned out to be true. We also discovered that carriers of this memory-protective SNP exhibited lower levels of proteins involved in cell death in the cerebrospinal fluid bathing the brain and spinal cord, a striking finding given that FASTKD2 encodes a protein that appears to promote apoptosis (i.e., programmed cell death). Together, these convergent findings are consistent with a neuroprotective effect of this novel SNP discovery. More broadly, our results nominate FASTKD2 and its functional pathways as potential targets for modulating neurodegeneration to combat memory loss in older adults.
23 Nov Flu Vaccination May Be Effective Even When Circulating Strain Different From Vaccine
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Maryam Darvishian MSc Department of Epidemiology, University Medical Center Groningen, Unit of PharmacoEpidemiology and PharmacoEconomics (PE2), Department of Pharmacy, University of Groningen, and Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Reply: In most developed countries, seasonal influenza vaccine is the standard care for elderly people, but there exists still discussions on whether vaccination is effective. Conducting RCT is not considered ethical and thus the main body of evidence comes from observational studies. Unfortunately, these studies (e.g. cohort studies) are susceptible to different sources of biases especially selection bias which makes it difficult to judge the effectiveness. In recent years test-negative design (TND) studies has been designed. It is a special type of case-control study which would limit the bias, due to similar health care-seeking behavior in cases and controls. The current study is a meta-analysis of TND case-control studies. It is the first meta-analysis of this type of studies and also the first meta-analysis that combined 35 studies for estimation of influenza vaccine effectiveness. More specifically, the meta-analysis assesses the influenza vaccine effectiveness against laboratory-confirmed influenza (LCI) among the elderly population.23 Nov Rapidly Digested Carbohydrates May Promote Development of Diabetes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Wenjie Ma MS Doctoral Student Harvard School of Public Health Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: De novo lipogenesis (DNL) is the process whereby excess carbohydrate and protein are converted into saturated fatty acids (SFAs) and monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs). Emerging animal and in vitro evidence suggests that DNL might play an important role in metabolic regulation and influence the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. We used circulating biomarkers SFAs and MUFAs to investigate the prospective associations with incident diabetes in the Cardiovascular Health Study, a community-based cohort of older US adults. We found that circulating palmitic acid and stearic acid were associated with higher risk of incident diabetes, whereas vaccenic acid was associated with lower risk. In contrast, dietary intakes of saturated fatty acids and monounsaturated fatty acids were not associated with diabetes risk.21 Nov Benefits of Medication Therapy Management Remain Unclear
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Meera Viswanathan, PhD RTI International, Research Triangle Park North Carolina Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Viswanathan: Medications, when used appropriately, can alleviate symptoms. Often, however, they result in side effects, interact with one another, are prescribed incorrectly, or are taken incorrectly. These problems are particularly pronounced for the elderly who may have multiple chronic conditions and may be on numerous medications. We evaluated a variety of research studies and program evaluations regarding a distinct type of health care service known as Medication Therapy Management or “MTM.” The goals of MTM services are to help patients and their clinicians to optimize prescription and nonprescription drug regimens, thereby achieving better health outcomes from drug therapy, and. at the same time to minimize the potential for harms, such as incorrect dosing and duplicate medications. Some have proposed that optimizing drug regimens and preventing adverse drug events may reduce health-care-related costs. Medication Therapy Management services are most often provided directly to patients by pharmacists. Sometimes the same pharmacists who dispense medications to patients offer Medication Therapy Management services as well; in other models, pharmacists working in a nondispensing role within a health care system, health insurance plan administering a prescription drug benefit program, or a centralized pharmacy call center may offer such services Although Medication Therapy Management can vary quite substantially in specifics, Medication Therapy Management programs in general share common elements; these include medication therapy review of all prescription drugs, over-the-counter products, and herbal or dietary supplements; patient education and counseling to solve issues with the drug regimen that a patient may be experiencing, such as side effects or difficulty remembering to take medications; and coordination and communication with the prescribing provider. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 allowed Medicare to expand access to Medication Therapy Management services for selected patients through Medicare Part D prescription drug benefits.21 Nov New Cholesterol Management Guidelines Not Fully Implemented in Medical Practice
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Thomas M. Maddox MD MSc Cardiology, VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System Associate Director, VA CART Program Associate Professor, Department of Medicine University of Colorado School of Medicine Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Maddox: With the release of the updated cholesterol guidelines last year and their significant changes in recommendations, we wanted to see what the potential impact would be on U.S. cardiovascular practices. Specifically, we were interested in present cholesterol treatment and testing patterns, and how they would potentially need to change under the new guidelines. We used the PINNACLE registry to conduct our investigation. Under the sponsorship of the American College of Cardiology, the registry collects EMR data from 111 cardiovascular practices around the U.S. We analyzed cholesterol treatment and testing patterns in approximately 1.2 million patients. We found that most patients qualified for cholesterol treatment with statins, but 32.4% weren't currently prescribed them. We also found that 22.6% of patients were being treated with non-statin lipid-lowering therapies which, under the new guidelines, aren't currently recommended for cholesterol treatment. Finally, we found that 20.8% of patients underwent repeated LDL-C testing, which may not be necessary under the new guidelines.21 Nov Smoking Cessation Key To Improving Quality of Life in Asthmatic Adolescents
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Wanjun Cui, MS PhD Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Authors’ response: Asthma is a leading chronic disease among adolescents that adversely affects their health. However, it is unclear how asthma influences their perceived health or health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Because their perceptions of their health may differ from those of their caregivers (such as parents or health professionals), knowing how adolescents with asthma would rate their own health is very important. Our study compares the responses of adolescents with and without asthma about different aspects of HRQOL including their overall health, their recent physical health, their recent mental health, and their recent activity limitations due to health. Unlike previous U.S. studies based on small clinical samples, our study used a nationally representative sample of U.S. adolescents that can be generalized to the whole U.S. adolescent population. We found that asthma is adversely associated with almost all these aspects of HRQOL but only among those with asthma and current symptoms such as wheezing and dry cough. Adolescents with asthma without current symptoms did not report significantly worse HRQOL than those without asthma. For example, compared with those who never had asthma, adolescents with asthma and symptoms of dry cough or wheezing reported significantly more fair or poor self-rated health (14% vs. 8%), 34% more recent physically unhealthy days , and 26% more recent mentally unhealthy days. More importantly, adolescents with asthma who currently smoked cigarettes or reported limited physical functioning reported even worse physical and mental HRQOL.20 Nov More Women Choosing Mastectomy For Early Breast Cancer Management
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Kristy Lynn Kummerow MD Division of Surgical Oncology and Endocrine Surgery Vanderbilt University Medical Center Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Veterans Affairs Medical Center Geriatric Research, Education, and Clinical Center Nashville, Tenn Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Kummerow: This study looked at how we are currently treating early stage breast cancer in the US – early stage breast cancer includes small cancers with limited or no lymph node involvement and no spread to other body site – it was prompted by something we observed an our own cancer center, which is that more and more women seem to be undergoing more extensive operations than are necessary to treat their cancer. It is helpful to understand the historical context of how we treat early breast cancer. Prior to the 1980s, the standard of care for any breast cancer was a very extensive procedure, which involved removal of the entire breast, as well as underlying and overlying tissues and multiple levels of lymph nodes drained by that area. Informative clinical trials were completed in the 1980s demonstrated that these extensive procedures were unnecessary, and that equivalent survival could be achieved with a much more minimal operation, by removing only the tumor, with a margin of normal breast tissue around it, and performing radiation therapy to the area; this technique is now known as breast conservation surgery, also known as lumpectomy with radiation. In the 1990s, breast conservation was established by the national institutes of health and was embraced as a standard of care for early stage breast cancer; performance of breast conservation surgery also became a quality metric – accredited breast centers in the US are expected to perform breast conservation surgery in the majority of women who they treat for breast cancer. However, what our research team observed at our institution didn’t fit – over time it appears more aggressive surgical approaches are being used for more women. This has been found in other institutions as well, and is supported by smaller national studies. We wanted to understand how surgical management of early breast cancer is changing over time at a national level using the largest data set of cancer patients in the United States.20 Nov Childhood Skin Prick Allergies Remain Predictive of Future Allergies
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Maria Pesonen MD, PhD Specialist in Dermatology Assistant Chief Medical Officer Finnish Institute of Occupational Health Occupational Medicine Helsinki, Finland Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Pesonen: Skin prick test is a widely used, established methods in assessing immediate (i.e. immunoglobulin E-mediated) sensitization. However, the knowledge on long-term reproducibility and predictive value of skin prick testing in children has been limited. We assessed the predictive value of skin prick testing in the setting of a follow-up study on healthy, unselected newborns, who were followed up to age 20 years with skin prick testing with 11 common allergens, structured interview and clinical examination at ages 5, 11 and 20 years. The reproducibility of skin prick test positivity at age 5 years was 100% at ages 11 and 20 years, i.e. none of the skin prick positive subjects turned negative during the follow-up. Gaining of new sensitizations to aeroallergens was common. Skin prick test positivity at age 5 years predicted allergic symptoms at ages 11 (sensitivity 28%, specificity 94%) and 20 years (sensitivity 23%, specificity 91%), but not atopic dermatitis.20 Nov Moderate Alcohol Ingestion May Not Benefit Everyone
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Kirsten Mehli Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Mehlig: Many studies found that the ‘good’ HDL-cholesterol is associated with lower risk for atherosclerosis, and cardiovascular risk. This finding has not been translated into clinical practice because medical trials with HDL-cholesterol rising medication did rise the HDL-cholesterol but did not prevent CVD. One possible explanation could be that a high level of HDL-cholesterol is but a marker for other factors that truly contribute to reduced cardiovascular risk. One such factor is alcohol consumption, and ethanol intake in grams / day is associated with higher HDL-C in our study, too. Another factor is a certain genotype that has been found to modulate HDL-cholesterol levels. The fact that co-called ‘moderate’ alcohol consumption is beneficial wrt. CVD has been observed and discussed often, and is confirmed in our study. Here, we asked whether the beneficial effect of alcohol was further strengthened by having a favorable CETP genotype wrt. HDL-cholesterol.20 Nov DNA Test May Distinguish Primary From Metastatic Lung Cancer
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Marie-Christine Aubry, M.D.
Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
Consultant, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology,
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Aubry: Up to 20% of patients will present with multifocal lung cancer or will develop a second lung cancer. The main clinical issue is distinguishing between independent primaries from true intrapulmonary metastases since this distinction will drive the therapy of the patient. Currently no ancillary studies allows for this distinction and the distinction is provider specific based on a combination of clinical, radiologic and pathologic assumptions. Based on our prior research using a method called mate pair sequencing , we observed that the probability of detecting identical chromosomal breakpoints in two unrelated tumors, from 2 different patients was basically zero. Similarly, when assessing different components within a single tumor, we always found identical chromosomal breakpoints between these components. We thus hypothesized that if two tumors within a patient were related, i.e. true metastasis, we should always find a number of identical chromosomal breakpoints between the tumors. And in contrast, if 2 tumors were truly independent primaries, we should not observe any chromosomal breakpoints in common.
We first studied a control group of patients that had
1- a primary lung cancer with a known distant metastasis (usually brain metastasis),
2- two lung cancers of different histologic subtype, adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma which are accepted as true independent primaries and
3- 1 tumor with different portions of the tumor being analyzed individually and compared as true relatedness.
There were thus a total of 11 pairs of tumors with predetermined status of independent primaries versus relatedness (ie metastasis or same tumor). The mate pair generated data showed a perfect concordance with this status. We then studied 11 pairs of lung tumors of similar histology (2 adenocarcinomas or 2 squamous cell carcinomas). The current gold standard for the distinction between independent primaries and intrapulmonary metastasis relies on a pathologist’s comparative morphologic assessment. In order to strengthen this gold standard, 2 pulmonary pathologists independently made this assessment. Interestingly, the pathologists agreed on the status of independent primaries and intrapulmonary metastasis in 9 (of 11) cases demonstrating the shortcomings of this gold standard. Furthermore, there were discordance between the pathologists’ prediction and the clinicians’ assessment in 3 of the 11 patients and the clinician could not come to a final assessment in 1 patient. The MP data was concordant with the pathology assessment in 8 of these 9 cases, and supported the pathologists’ prediction in 2 (of the 3) discordance with the clinical assumptions.
19 Nov Cardiovascular Disease Risk Varies By Demographics and Geography
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Quanhe Yang PhD CDC’s Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Yang: Our study reveals that an individual’s predicted risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CVD), coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke over the next decade varies significantly from state-to-state, as well as by demographic factors including age, gender, race-ethnicity and household income. Among the key findings: the 10-year risk is higher in the Southeast and lower in northwestern states – and higher among men than women. For men, the 10-year risk of developing CVD was 14.6 percent for the nation as a whole, ranging from a low of 13.2 percent in Utah to a high of 16.2 percent in Louisiana. CHD risk among men ranged from 9.5 percent in Utah to 11.7 percent in Louisiana, while stroke risk was 2.1 percent in Utah and 2.6 percent in Louisiana. Among women, CVD risk was 7.5 percent, ranging from 6.3 percent in Minnesota to as high as 8.7 percent in Mississippi. CHD risk for women ranged from 3.8 percent in Minnesota to 5.3 percent in Mississippi, while stroke risk was as low as 1.5 percent in Minnesota and as high as 2.1 percent in Mississippi. Nationally, we found the risk increased significantly with age and was highest among non-Hispanic blacks, those with less than a high school education and those with household incomes below $35,000 . As part of this study, CDC researchers analyzed data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 2005 and 2010, as well as the 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, the world’s largest ongoing telephone health surveillance system. The state-based, random-digit-dialed phone survey included information from almost 300,000 U.S. residents between the ages of 30 and 74.19 Nov Genetically Low Vitamin D Levels Linked To Increased Mortality
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Børge G Nordestgaard, MD, DMSc Professor, University of Copenhagen Chief Physician, Herlev Hospital, Copenhagen University Hospital Dept. Clinical Biochemistry Herlev Ringvej Herlev, Denmark Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Prof. Nordestgaard: Many people take vitamin D supplements with the hope of reducing morbidity and mortality. However, it is unclear whether low vitamin D per se is a direct cause of increased mortality or whether it is simply a marker of poor lifestyle in general and/or underlying hidden disease. Our study involved 95,766 white participants of Danish descent from three cohorts in Copenhagen, who had genetic variants known to affect vitamin D levels. We found that genetically low vitamin D levels were associated with increased all-cause mortality, cancer mortality, and other mortality, but not with cardiovascular mortality. This is important as such genetics studies cannot be explained by poor lifestyle or hidden disease, as neither can change your genes.19 Nov Risk of Sudden Cardiac Death Elevated in Law Enforcement Officers
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Vasileia Varvarigou MD, Visiting Scientist at Harvard School of Public Health and Senior Medical Resident, St Elizabeth’s Medical Center, Tufts Medical School and Stefanos N Kales MD, MPH, Associate Professor, Harvard School of Public Health, Division Chief of Occupational Medicine, Cambridge Health Alliance/ Harvard Medical School Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Response: Previous epidemiologic studies of firefighters have documented markedly increased risks of acute death from heart disease during strenuous activities such as fire suppression as compared to non-emergency duties. We hypothesized that certain law enforcement tasks could serve as an occupational trigger in susceptible police officers, leading to an increased frequency of sudden cardiac death during stressful duties. Our main objective therefore, was to assess the association between risk of sudden cardiac death and stressful law enforcement duties compared with routine/non-emergency duties.19 Nov Assay Rapidly Detects Bacteria in a Single Blood Droplet
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Weian Zhao PhD
Assistant Professor at the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Edwards Lifesciences Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Technology and Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at University of California, Irvine.
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Zhao: Bloodstream infections are a major cause of illness and death. In particular, infections associated with antimicrobial-resistant pathogens are a growing health problem in the U.S. and worldwide. According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, more than 2 million people a year globally get antibiotic-resistant blood infections, with about 23,000 deaths. The extremely high mortality rate for blood infections is due, in part, to the inability to rapidly diagnose and treat patients in the early stages. The present gold standard to detect a blood infections, is a blood culture and it takes 2-5 days for the detection and the identification of the bacteria. Recent molecular diagnosis methods, including polymerase chain reaction, can reduce the assay time to hours but are often not sensitive enough to detect bacteria that occur at low concentrations in blood, as is common in patients with blood infections. Therefore, less expensive and less technically demanding methods are urgently needed for the rapid and sensitive identification of blood infections.
19 Nov Eating Behaviors Predict Long Term Weight Loss After Bariatric Surgery
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hanna Konttinen, PhD, Docent Post-doctoral researcher Department of Social Research University of Helsinki Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Konttinen: Bariatric surgery yields significant weight reduction for the majority of severely obese individuals with accompanied improvements in health status and health-related quality of life. Nonetheless, slow weight regain over time is frequent and there is a need for a better understanding on the factors that influence long-term post-surgical weight outcomes. To our best knowledge, this was the first study to examine whether psychological aspects of eating behavior predicted weight changes 10 years after surgical and conventional treatment for severe obesity. The participants were from the Swedish Obese Subjects intervention study: 2010 obese subjects who underwent bariatric surgery and 1916 contemporaneously matched obese controls who received conventional treatment.19 Nov Antibiotics May Increase Risk of Juvenile Arthritis
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Daniel B Horton, MD Division of Pediatric Rheumatology Department of Pediatrics Nemours Dupont Pediatrics Wilmington, Delaware
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Horton: The reasons why children develop juvenile arthritis (JIA) are unclear. To date, genetic variation accounts for only a minority of disease incidence, and no environmental factor has consistently been associated with juvenile arthritis. There is growing understanding about the role of microbiome disturbance in the development of multiple diseases, including obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, and rheumatoid arthritis. Exposure to antibiotics, a known disruptor of the human microbiome, has been linked to pediatric conditions including inflammatory bowel disease, asthma, and obesity. We showed that antibiotic prescriptions are associated with the development of new JIA diagnosis in a large general pediatric population, after accounting for history of infection and other relevant factors. This association is stronger for those who have received multiple courses of antibiotics and appears specific for antibacterial antibiotics, such as penicillins and sulfa drugs.19 Nov ACA May Result In More Patients Using Emergency Rooms For Primary Care
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alexander Janke BS School of Medicine at Wayne State University Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Health insurance by itself does not guarantee quality healthcare; patients need accessible primary care options. Without them, patients newly-enrolled in health insurance may not be able...
19 Nov Use of Tobacco Products Remains High Among US Youth
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Brian King, Ph.D. Senior Scientific Advisor with the CDC Office on Smoking and Health. MedicalResearch: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. King: This study presents data from the 2013 National Youth Tobacco Survey, an annual school-based survey of U.S. middle and high school students in grades 6 through 12. The data show that more than 1 in 5 high school students and more than 1 in 20 middle school students have used a tobacco product in the past 30 days; and nearly half of high school students and almost 1 in 5 middle school students have used a tobacco product at least once in their life. Nine of ten high school tobacco users used a combustible tobacco product such as a cigarette, cigar, hookah, pipe, bidi, or kretek; there was lower use of only noncombustible tobacco products or only electronic cigarettes among both current and ever tobacco users.19 Nov Cardiovascular Health in Youth Limits Functional Disability Later in Life
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Thanh Huyen T Vu MD, PhD Research Assistant Professor Preventive Medicine-Epidemiology Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Response: Ideal levels of all major cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors (RF), i.e., low risk (LR), in younger age are associated with lower subsequent CVD morbidity and mortality in older age. However, data are limited on the long-term relationships of LR profile in younger age with functional disability in older age.19 Nov Beta Blockers May Reduce Mortality In Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Lars H. Lund
Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet
Department of Cardiology, Karolinska University Hospital
Stockholm, Sweden
Medical Research: What is the background for this study?
Dr. Lund: Heart Failure and Preserved Ejection Fraction is common and associated with poor prognosis and there is no therapy.
Beta-blockers reduce mortality in Heart Failure and Preserved Ejection Fraction and we hypothesized that they may be associated with reduced mortality also in Heart Failure and Preserved Ejection Fraction.
19 Nov Cystic Fibrosis Survival Improved By Decades
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Anne Stephenson MD, PhD
Division of Respirology
The Toronto Adult Cystic Fibrosis Centre
St. Michael's Hospital Toronto, ON
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Stephenson: Cystic Fibrosis is progressive genetic disease that results in very thick secretions in various organs such as the lungs, pancreas, and digestive tract. Over time, these thick secretions damage organs in particular, the lungs, which results in respiratory failure due to recurrent chest infections. Cystic Fibrosis patients are also at high risk for malnutrition due to the inability to absorb food which is associated with poor survival. In the 1960s, people with Cystic Fibrosis died at a very young age and in fact, parents who had a child born with Cystic Fibrosis at that time were told that there was a 50% chance their child would not live to attend kindergarten. Over the last several decades, we have seen a significant increase in the survival of individuals with CF. Individuals born with Cystic Fibrosis today can expect to not only attend kindergarten, but complete high school, perhaps attend college or university, have a career, get married or have children as people are living well into adulthood with this disease. The median age of survival in Cystic Fibrosis today is approximately 50 years of age in Canada which is quite remarkable.
19 Nov Early Use of Caffeine In Premature Infants
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Abhay Lodha, MBBS, MD, DM, MSC
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary,
Staff Neonatologist and Clinical Epidemiologist, Section of Neonatology, Alberta Health Services, Chairman, CME
Foothills Medical Centre, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Lodha: Apneic episodes (cessation of breathing) occur in the premature infants. Caffeine is the most commonly used medication for apnea of prematurity. Normally caffeine started on day 3 of life for apnea. However, there is no strong evidence that starting caffeine on day 1 or 2 life has some extra advantages in premature infants. Our study has a large number of premature infants. Our study determined the association of early initiation of caffeine therapy in very preterm neonates and neonatal outcomes.
The main finding of our study was that early use of caffeine was associated with a reduction in the rate of death or bronchopulmonary dysplasia and patent ductus arteriosus. We did not find any adverse impact on any other outcomes.