Author Interviews
15 Oct Restaurants Continue To Reduce Calories in Menu Items
MedicalResearch.com Interview Invitation
Sara N. Bleich, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Health Policy and Management
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Baltimore, MD 21205
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Bleich: Large chain restaurants appear to be voluntarily reducing the calories in their newly introduced menu items which contain an average of 60 fewer calories than items only on the menu in the prior year. This decline is primarily driven by new lower calorie salads and sandwiches.
15 Oct Apolipoprotein E Research May Open New Door to Alzheimer Research
MedicalResearch.comInterview with: Mary Malloy, M.D. Co-director of the Adult Lipid Clinic and the director of the Pediatric Lipid Clinic UCSF Medical Center Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Malloy: We studied an individual whom we found to be homozygous for a rare loss of function mutation in apolipoprotein E. Because apolipoprotein E is necessary for clearance of lipoproteins from plasma, he has very high levels of cholesterol and triglycerides in blood, and unusual and very severe xanthomas. He had no evidence of neurocognitive or retinal defects.15 Oct Relatives Key To Quality of Dying in Hospitals
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
F.E. (Erica) Witkamp RN MSc
Senior lecturer University of Applied Sciences
Erasmus MC and Erasmus MC Cancer Institute
Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Response: We investigated the experiences of 249 bereaved relatives (response 51%) of patients who had died in the hospital, after a hospitalization of at least six hours. The main outcome measure was their global score of the quality of dying (QOD) on a 0-10 scale, with zero being “very poor” and ten “almost perfect”. Further, we assessed multiple experiences in the last days of life, such as symptom burden, preparedness for life closure, awareness of impending death, and care in the last days of life. We analyzed which of these factors was related to the quality of dying score, and subsequently whether the related factors represented specific domains of the dying phase.
Relatives rated the overall score of QOD on average at 6.3 (sd 2.7) with a range from 0-10.
During the last day(s) of life, 26% of the patients, and 49% of the relatives had been fully aware of imminent death. In the end 39% of the patients and 50% of the relatives had said goodbye; 77% of the patients had died in the presence of a relative.
According to relatives patients had suffered moderately to severely from on average 7 out of 22 symptoms.
In 53% relatives reported that in the last 24 hours symptoms had sufficiently been alleviated; efforts to control symptoms had been sufficient in 75%. In 64% relatives had been informed by the physician about the imminence of death, and in 70% they were satisfied about their involvement in decision making. In 55% relatives had experienced sufficient attention to individual preferences and wishes, and in 70% hospital facilities had been sufficient. Patients had been sufficiently affirmed as a person in 63%.
15 Oct Controlling Insulin Release With Photoswitchable Sulfonylurea
MedicalResearch.com: Interview with:
Dr. David Hodson PhD
Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medicine
Imperial College London
Medical Research: What is the background for this research?
Dr. Hodson: Type 2 diabetes represents a huge socioeconomic challenge. As well as causing significant morbidity due to chronically elevated glucose levels, this disease is also a drain on healthcare budgets (~$20billion in the UK per year). While current treatments are effective, they are sometimes associated with side effects, usually due to off-target actions on organs such as the heart and brain. In addition, the ability to regulate blood glucose levels more tightly may decrease complications stemming from type diabetes (e.g. nerve, kidney and retina damage). As a proof-of-principle that the spatiotemporal precision of light can be harnessed to finely guide and control drug activity, we therefore decided to produce a light-activated anti-diabetic.
15 Oct Olive Oil and Mediterranean Diet May Improve Metabolic Syndrome
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jordi Salas-Salvadó Professor of Nutrition
Human Nutrition Unit Department of Biochemistry & Biotechnology
IISPV School of Medicine.
Rovira i Virgili University CIBERobn, Instituto Carlos III
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Response: In this large, multicenter, randomized clinical trial conducted in Mediterranean individuals at high cardiovascular risk, Mediterranean-diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil was associated to a lower increase in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome compared to the advice on a control low-fat diet. However, no beneficial effect of Mediterranean-diet on the incidence of metabolic syndrome among participants free of this condition at baseline was observed. Therefore, the lower increase in prevalence was especially due to the reversion of metabolic syndrome in those individuals with metabolic syndrome at baseline.
15 Oct Using Coronary Fractional Flow Reserve To Predict Clinical Outcomes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Nils P. Johnson, M.D., M.S.
Assistant Professor - Cardiovascular Medicine
Department of Internal Medicine
University of Texas Health Science Center
Houston Texas
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Johnson: Our study had 3 main findings.
- First, the numeric fractional flow reserve (FFR) value related continuously to risk, such that clinical events increased as FFR decreased and revascularization showed larger net benefit for lower baseline FFR values.
- Second, fractional flow reserve measured immediately after stenting also showed an inverse relationship with prognosis, likely due to its relationship with diffuse disease.
- Third, an fractional flow reserve-assisted strategy led to revascularization roughly half as often as an anatomy-based strategy, but with 20% fewer adverse events and 10% better angina relief.
15 Oct Sudden Cardiac Death Risk Increased By Proximity To Major Highway
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jaime Hart, ScD
Instructor in Medicine
Channing Division of Network Medicine
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Response: The main findings are, that among 107,130 women in the Nurses' Health Study, even after adjusting for a number of traditional cardiovascular risk factors, those women living within 50 meters of a major roadway had a 38% increased risk of sudden cardiac death and 24% increased risk of fatal coronary heart disease, compared to women living 500 meters or more away.
13 Oct Patients with Atrial Fibrillation Recurrence More Likely To Have Kidney Function Decline
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr Jelena Kornej
Department of Electrophysiology
Heart Center Leipzig Leipzig Germany;
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Komej: Both atrial fibrillation (AF) and renal impairment are known to coexist and associated with increased morbidity and mortality. However, there is only limited data on changes of renal function after AF catheter ablation and predictors thereof. This is the largest study analyzing the effects of atrial fibrillation catheter ablation on renal function and changes thereof in a contemporary population during mid-term follow-up. We found that lower baseline eGFR was associated with higher CHADS2 and CHA2DS2-VASc scores and that both scores were independently associated with eGFR changes after atrial fibrillation catheter ablation as were atrial fibrillation recurrences.
13 Oct BPA Exposure During Pregnancy Linked With Childhood Wheezing
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Adam Spanier, MD, PhD, MPH, FAAP
Associate Professor of Pediatrics
Division Head, General Pediatrics & Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics
Medical Director, Pediatrics at Midtown Department of Pediatrics
University of Maryland Midtown Campus Baltimore, MD 21201
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Spanier: Bisphenol A (BPA) is a chemical that is present in many consumer products (lining of canned foods, some plastics, some receipt paper, etc).
We found that higher maternal Bisphenol A levels during pregnancy were associated with increased odds of persistent wheezing in children and a decrease in lung function at age four. Child BPA levels were not associated with these poor lung health outcomes.
13 Oct Women May Have More Cardiac Ischemia Than Men In Response To Mental Stress
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Zainab Samad, M.D., M.H.S.
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, North Carolina
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Samad: This was a sub study of REMIT, an NHLBI funded study. Our research team headed by Dr. Wei Jiang conducted the REMIT study between 2006-2011 at the Duke Heart Center. We found that women and men differ significantly in their physiological and psychological responses to mental stress. We explored sex differences across various domains felt to have implications towards cardiovascular disease pathophysiology and prognosis. We found that women had greater negative emotion, less positive emotion, while men had greater blood pressure increases in response to mental stress. On the contrary, women showed greater platelet reactivity compared to men in response to mental stress. A greater frequency of women had cardiac ischemia in response to mental stress compared to men.
13 Oct Abnormal Lipid Levels Linked To Greater Risk of Prostate Cancer Recurrence
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Emma H. Allott PhD
Division of Urology, Department of Surgery, Duke University School of Medicine
Cancer Prevention, Detection, and Control Program, Duke Cancer Institute Division of Urology
Veterans Affairs Medical Center Durham Durham, North Carolina.
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Allott: Relative to normal triglyceride levels, high triglycerides (≥150 mg/dl) were associated with 35% increased risk of prostate cancer recurrence. In addition, we found that each 10 mg/dl increase in total serum cholesterol above the abnormal cut-off value of 200 mg/dl was associated with a 9% increased risk of prostate cancer recurrence, while each 10 mg/dl increase in HDL (high density lipoprotein; “good” cholesterol) below the abnormal cut-off value of 40 mg/dl was associated with a 39% increased risk of prostate cancer recurrence. These findings suggest that normalization, or even partial normalization, of serum lipid levels among men with dyslipidemia may reduce the risk of prostate cancer recurrence.
13 Oct Resistant C. Diff Infections Treatable With Pill Form of Fecal Bacterial Transplant
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Ilan Youngster, MD, MMSc
Division of Infectious Diseases, Massachusetts General Hospital,
Harvard Medical School,
Division of Infectious Diseases, Boston Children’s Hospital
Boston, Massachusetts
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Youngster: The main finding is that oral administration seems to be as safe and effective as more traditional routes of delivery like colonoscopy or nasogastric tube. This is important as it allows Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) to be performed without the need of invasive procedures, making it safer, cheaper and more accessible to patients.
13 Oct Insomnia Symptoms May Not Reflect Objective Sleep Measurements
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jen-Hao Chen, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Health Sciences University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Chen: In this study, we mapped four commonly-reported insomnia symptoms (feeling rested when waking up, having trouble falling asleep, waking up during the night, waking up too early and not being able to fall asleep again) to direct assessment of sleep characteristics in the general population of U.S. older adults. While we know older adults frequently complain about their sleep, we know little about how these complain reflect older adults’ actual sleep outcomes. Using innovative actigraphy data of 727 older adults aged 62-91 from the National Social Life, Health and Aging Project, we found that two of these four common report of insomnia symptoms did not match specific objective sleep characteristics as these questions intends to index. The question of feeling rested was not related to any objective sleep characteristic. The question of difficulty falling asleep was not related to the objective measure of time to fall sleep but was related to other objective sleep characteristics. For waking up during the night question, high frequency was associated with more wake time after sleep onset and numbers of wake bout (but was also related to other objective sleep characteristics). For waking up too earlier question, answer of this question was related to earlier wake up time. But again, other objective sleep characteristics also predicted frequency of waking up earlier. In sum, many of the relationships and non-relationships found in this study were unexpected. Findings suggested that these widely used questions did not related to older adults’ sleep outcomes as exactly as the wording suggested. Thus, while older adults’ report of these questions are related to objective sleep characteristics in some ways, insomnia symptoms and objective sleep characteristics did not complete match each other as expected.11 Oct Hepatitis C May Be Spread Through Semen, Especially in HIV+ Men
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr Daniel Bradshaw
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Bradshaw: Over 40% of men with hepatitis C (HCV) infection have HCV RNA in their semen, although the level of RNA was much lower than blood (usually 4 log less than blood).
Neither HIV nor acute hepatitis C led to increased shedding of HCV RNA in semen. Interestingly, however, in acute HCV, HIV-positive men with higher blood levels of HCV RNA were more likely to shed RNA in their semen.
11 Oct Bacterial Biofilms Make Joint Infections Resistant to Antibiotics
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sana Dastgheyb National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, The National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MDDepartment of Orthopedic Surgery, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA and Dr. Noreen Hickok Department of Orthopedic Surgery Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Response: Physicians have long been resigned to the fact that staphylococcal joint infections are among the most challenging to treat. Our study points towards a definitive mechanism whereby bacteria become insensitive to antibiotics in the human joint environment. We added MRSA to synovial fluid and observed dense, biofilm-like aggregates, as well as a relative insensitivity to antibiotics as compared to ideal medium. Our findings suggest that serum/extracellular matrix proteins within synovial fluid contribute greatly to staphylococcal antibiotic insensitivity in synovial fluid. Furthermore, pre-treatment of synovial fluid with the enzyme plasmin, which degrades extracellular matrix proteins, significantly inhibits aggregate formation, and restores normal antibiotic sensitivity to MRSA.10 Oct Chronic Contact Dermatitis May Promote Skin Cancer Development
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Shawn Demehri, M.D., Ph.D.
Instructor of Medicine
Division of Dermatology
Washington University in St. Louis and
Wayne M. Yokoyama, M.D.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Rheumatology Division
Washington University Medical Center
St. Louis, MO 63110-1093
MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study?
Research: This bedside to bench research has clearly demonstrated a cause and effect relationship between chronic allergic contact dermatitis and skin cancer development. This research originated from a clinical case of invasive skin cancer that developed in the context of chronic allergic contact dermatitis to a nickel-containing metal implant. Using animal models, we have demonstrated that chronic exposure to a contact allergen creates an inflammation that drive skin cancer development.
10 Oct Hospital Acquired C. diff Infections Increase Both Length of Stay and Mortality
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Esther van Kleef London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Response: Existing evidence reveals a wide variation in estimated excess length of hospital stay (LoS) associated with healthcare-acquired C. difficile infection (HA-CDI), ranging from 2.8 to 16.1 days. Few studies considered the time-dependent nature of healthcare-acquired C. difficile (i.e. patients that spent a longer time in hospital have an increased risk of infection), and none have considered the impact of severity of healthcare-acquired C. difficile on expected delayed discharge. Using a method that adjusted for this so-called time-dependent bias, we found that compared to non-infected patients, the excess length of stay of severe patients (defined by increased white blood cell count, serum creatinine, or temperature, or presence of colitis) was on average, twice (11.6 days; 95% CI: 3.6-19.6) that of non-severe cases (5.3 days; 95% CI: 1.1-9.5). However, severely infected patients did not have a higher daily risk of in-hospital death than non-severe patients. Overall, we estimated that healthcare-acquired C. difficile prolonged hospital stay with an average of ~7 days (95% CI: 3.5-10.9) and increased in-hospital daily death rate with 75% (Hazard Ratio (HR): 1.75; 95% CI: 1. 16 – 2.62).10 Oct Cardiac Stress Tests Increase Over Two Decades
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Joseph A. Ladapo, MD, PhD
New York University School of Medicine
Department of Population Health
New York, NY 10016
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Ladapo: We showed that the use of cardiac stress testing has risen briskly over the past two decades, with the use of imaging growing particularly rapidly. We also showed that national growth in cardiac stress test use can largely be explained by population and provider characteristics, but the use of imaging cannot. Importantly, nearly one third of cardiac stress tests with imaging tests were probably inappropriate, because they were performed in patients who rarely benefit from imaging. These tests--about 1 million each year--are associated with about half a billion dollars in healthcare costs annually and lead to about 500 people developing cancer in their lifetime because of radiation they received during that cardiac stress test.
10 Oct Ebola: Genetic Data Helps Predict Epidemic’s Spread
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Tanja Stadler, ETH Zürich
Department of Biosystems Science & Engineering (D-BSSE)
Basel, Switzerland
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Response: We quantified the speed of spread of the ebola epidemic using the genetic information of ebola.
09 Oct Developing New Biomarkers To Detect Early Organ Transplant Failure
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Stan Rose, PhD
President & CEO of Transplant Genomics
Dr. Rose is also a kidney transplant recipient
MedicalResearch: What is the background for these studies?
Dr. Rose: The studies by the founding scientists of Transplant Genomics (TGI) presented at the World Transplant Congress (WTC) 2014 represent years of work by our scientific founders and their collaborators at leading institutions in their search for minimally invasive diagnostic and monitoring tools enabling earlier and more accurate detection and characterization of graft injury in organ transplant recipients.
In kidney transplant recipients, for example, current methods consist of tracking creatinine levels and periodic direct assessment of grafts through biopsies. But by the time creatinine levels are elevated, more than 50% of kidney function may be lost. Biopsies, considered the gold standard for assessing graft status, are invasive, risky, unsuited for serial monitoring, and yield inconclusive results as often as 30% of the time.
Transplant Genomics is addressing the need for better monitoring by developing a peripheral blood test for genomic biomarkers of transplant graft status to detect early signs of graft injury, differentiate between actionable causes and enable optimization of immunosuppressive therapy.
09 Oct Placebo Responses to Anti-Psychotic Medications Increasing
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Bret R Rutherford, MD
Assistant Professor ,Clinical Psychiatry Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Division of Geriatric Psychiatry
New York State Psychiatric Institute
New York, NY 10032
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Rutherford: In this meta-analysis of 105 trials of acute antipsychotic drugs for schizophrenia, the placebo response was shown to be significantly increasing from 1960 to the present. Conversely, the treatment change associated with effective dose medication significantly decreased over the same time period. The average participant of a randomized clinical trial (RCT) receiving an effective dose of medication in the 1960s improved by 13.8 points in the BPRS, whereas this difference diminished to 9.7 BPRS points by the 2000s. The consequence of these divergent trends was a significant decrease in drug-placebo differences from 1960 to the present.
09 Oct Cardiometabolic Risks Begin Early in Schizophrenic Spectrum Disorders
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Christoph U. Correll, MD
Professor of Psychiatry and Molecular Medicine
Hofstra North Shore LIJ School of Medicine
Medical Director, Recognition and Prevention (RAP) Program
The Zucker Hillside Hospital Investigator
Feinstein Institute for Medical Research
North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Correll: The main findings of the study of 398 patients with first-episode schizophrenia-spectrum disorders who were on average in their mid twenties are that:
- 1) despite their young age, an average of only 47 days lifetime antipsychotic exposure and overweight/obesity figures that were comparable to similarly aged US population members, there was a clear pattern of increased smoking and several metabolic risk parameters compared to similarly aged persons in the general US population;
- 2) dyslipidemia, a constellation of at least one relevant abnormal blood fat value, was as frequent as in a 15-20 years older general US population;
- 3) body composition related risk markers were significantly associated with longer total psychiatric illness duration, whereas metabolic risk markers were significantly associated with the overall very short mean lifetime antipsychotic treatment duration; and
- 4) relevant for treatment choice and recommendations for patients, significantly higher continuous metabolic risk factor values were associated with olanzapine treatment and, less so, with quetiapine treatment.
09 Oct Community Acquired Pneumonia May Require Two Antibiotics
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Nicolas Garin MD Division of General Internal Medicine, Geneva University Hospitals and Faculty of Medicine, Geneva, Switzerland Division of Internal Medicine, Hôpital Riviera-Chablais, Monthey, Switzerland Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Garin: Empiric treatment with a betalactam drug (monotherapy) was not equivalent to the combination of a betalactam and a macrolide in patients hospitalized for moderate severity pneumonia (proportion of patients not having reached clinical stability at day 7 was 41.2 % in the monotherapy vs. 33.6 % in the combination therapy arm, between arm difference 7.6 %). This occurred despite systematic search for Legionella infection in the monotherapy arm. There was no difference in early or late mortality, but patients in the monotherapy arm were more frequently readmitted. Patients with higher severity of disease (in PSI category IV, or with a CURB-65 score higher than 1) seemed to benefit from combination therapy (HR 0.81 for the primary outcome of clinical instability at day 7), although it was statistically not significant. There was no difference in the primary outcome for patients in PSI category I to III.08 Oct Lower Transfusion Threshold Safe For Most Sepsis Patients
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Anders Perner, MD, PhD
Overlæge / Senior staff specialist
Professor / Professor in Intensive Care
Dept of Intensive Care
Rigshospitalet Copenhagen Denmark
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Perner: In the large international randomised trial, we showed similar outcomes in patients with septic shock with anemia transfused at a lower vs. a higher hemoglobin threshold. The lower threshold group received 50 % fewer transfusions and one-third of these patients were never transfused in ICU.
08 Oct Robotic Ovarian Surgery May Increase Both Costs and Complications
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jason D. Wright, M.D. Sol Goldman Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology Chief, Division of Gynecologic Oncology Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons New York, New York 10032 Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Wright: The use of robotic assisted ovarian surgery (oophorectomy and cystectomy) has increased rapidly and compared to laparoscopic alternatives, robotically assisted surgery is associated with a small increase in complication rates and substantially greater costs.08 Oct Rivaroxaban For Venous Thromboembolism Prevention In Cancer Patients
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof Martin H Prins MD Maastricht University Medical Centre, Maastricht, Netherlands Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Prins: Patients with active cancer, i.e. a cancer that was diagnosed or treated within 6 months before the episode, that was recurrent or metastatic, or that was diagnosed during treatment, who had a symptomatic episode of venous thromboembolism, were included in this pooled subgroup analysis of the Einstein DVT and PE studies. The incidence of recurrent venous thromboembolism was similar between groups. It occurred in 16 (5%) of 354 patients allocated to rivaroxaban and 20 (7%) of 301 patients allocated to enoxaparin and vitamin K antagonist (hazard ratio [HR] 0•67, 95% CI 0•35 to 1•30). Clinically relevant bleeding was also similar and occurred in 48 (14%) of 353 patients receiving rivaroxaban and in 49 (16%) of 298 patients receiving standard therapy (HR 0•80, 95% CI 0•54 to1•20). However, major bleeding was less frequent among rivaroxaban recipients and occurred in eight (2%) of 353 patients receiving rivaroxaban and in 15 (5%) of 298 patients receiving standard therapy (HR 0•42, 95% CI 0•18 to 0•99). Mortality was also similar.08 Oct Hepatitis C Linked To Higher Risk of Coronary Artery Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Naga Pothineni, MD Division of Cardiology University of Arkansas for Medical Science MedicalResearch: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Pothineni: Hepatitis C is a blood borne infection that is very common worldwide. Most pateints who contract hepatitis C develop a chronic form on infection that progresses to liver damage and eventually hepatocellular cancer. Coronary heart disease is a worldwide problem as well. There has been interest in chronic infections being a mechanism of progression of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease. We wanted to study the association of coronary heart disease events in patients with hepatitis C. We conducted a retrospective study of around 24,000 patients of which around 10,000 were hepatitis C positive. Our study showed that patients who have hepatitis C have a higher incidence of coronary heart disease events (myocardial infarction) when compared to patients who are negative for hepatitis C. In our analysis, we found that hepatitis C positivity is an independent risk factor for coronary events after adjusting for traditional cardiovascular risk factors like age, hypertension, smoking and diabetes. Another interesting finding in our study was that patients with hepatitis C have lower levels of cholesterol compared to patients without hepatitis C. Low cholesterol levels in these patients do not seem to be protective against future coronary heart disease events.08 Oct Prior Bird Flu Vaccination Offers Some Protection Against Newer Strains
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Robert B Belshe, MD
Division of Infectious Diseases, Allergy & Immunology
Saint Louis University School of Medicine
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Response: A vaccine that protects against an old strain of avian flu primes the immune system to mount a rapid response when a vaccine designed to protect against a related but different and new strain of avian flu is given a year later, according to Saint Louis University research findings reported in JAMA.
In addition, when combined with an adjuvant, which is a chemical that stimulates the immune system to produce more antibodies, a lower dose of the new avian flu vaccine worked better in triggering an immune response than a stronger dose without adjuvant. That means the amount of vaccine against a new strain of bird flu can be stretched to protect more people if an adjuvant is added.
Both findings represent important strategies researchers can continue to study to fight new strains of bird flu that people previously have not been exposed to, and consequently can rapidly turn into a pandemic outbreak and public health emergency, said Robert Belshe, M.D., professor of infectious diseases, allergy and immunology at Saint Louis University and the lead author of the article, which appeared in the Oct. 8, 2014 issue of JAMA.
08 Oct US Dietary Quality Better But Leaves Room For Improvement
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Daniel (Dong) Wang MD, MSc
Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health
Boston, MA 02115
Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Wang:
- The overall dietary quality in US adults improved modestly from 1999 to 2010, but the quality of US diet remains far from optimal and huge room exists for further improvements.
- The improvement in dietary quality was greater among adults with higher socioeconomic status and healthier body weight, thus disparities that existed in 1999 increased over the next decade.
- More than half of the improvement in diet quality was due to a large reduction in consumption of trans fat.