Author Interviews, Cancer Research, MD Anderson, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 18.04.2014

Dr. Lorraine R. Reitzel Ph.D Associate Professor in the Health Program of the Department of Educational Psychology College of Education, University of Houston in Houston, Texas.MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Lorraine R. Reitzel Ph.D Associate Professor in the Health Program of the Department of Educational Psychology College of Education, University of Houston in Houston, Texas. MedicalResearch.com: Please tell us about your study. Dr. Reitzel: The current study represented a secondary analysis of data that were collected by Dr. Lorna McNeill and colleagues at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The parent study was focused on better understanding factors associated with cancer risk among African American adults, and several faculty members including myself contributed ideas about the variables we thought might play a role. The current study represents one of several studies emerging from these data. The current study was led by Ms. Pragati S. Advani, a graduate student on my research team, who was interested in better understanding the associations between financial strain and modifiable behavioral risk factors for cancer among African American adults. Financial strain represents an unfavorable income to needs ratio and was assessed using a questionnaire that tapped into current difficulty affording things that represent pretty basic components of life, including suitable food, clothing, and housing for the respondent and their family. The modifiable behavioral risk factors for cancer examined included smoking cigarettes, at-risk alcohol use, being overweight/obese, getting insufficient physical activity, and having inadequate fruit and vegetable intake. We also included a tally of the total number of these factors (0 to 5) as an outcome variable of interest. (more…)
Author Interviews, Baylor College of Medicine Houston, BMJ, Outcomes & Safety / 17.04.2014

Dr Hardeep Singh MD MPH Chief of the health policy, quality & informatics program at the Veterans Affairs Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety, based at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, Texas Associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine in HoustonMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Hardeep Singh MD MPH  Chief of the health policy, quality & informatics program at the Veterans Affairs Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness and Safety, based at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, Texas Associate professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr Singh: We built estimates of diagnostic error by compiling and analyzing data from three previous studies. These studies evaluated situations such as unexpected return visits and lack of timely follow up and provided researchers with an estimated frequency of diagnostic error. This frequency was then applied to the general adult population. Diagnostic errors, which we defined as missed opportunities to make a correct or timely diagnosis based on available evidence—occur in about 5 percent of adults in the United States. (more…)
Author Interviews, BMJ, McGill, Pediatrics / 16.04.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ethan K Gough, PhD candidate Department of Epidemiology Biostatistics and Occupational Health McGill University, Montreal, QC, Canada MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: Antibiotic use produces significant gains toward expected growth in children, for their age and sex, from low- and middle-income countries. Children included in our study were generally smaller in height and weight than adequately nourished children of the same age, reflecting the spectrum of stunting and wasting malnutrition seen in low- and middle-income countries. Antibiotic use had a larger impact on weight than height, and the effect on weight was larger in populations who may be at greater risk of infections and early mortality, such as populations with a high prevalence of HIV infection or exposure, and a high prevalence of severe acute malnutrition. (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, CMAJ, McGill, Stroke / 14.04.2014

Finlay A McAlister MD Division of General Internal Medicine Patient Health Outcomes Research and Clinical Effectiveness Unit Epidemiology Coordinating and Research (EPICORE) Centre McGill University, Montréal, QuebecMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Finlay A McAlister MD University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. McAlister: We tested 2 systems of case management on top of usual care (note that at baseline more than 3/4 of our study patients were already taking medications to lower blood pressure (BP) and/or cholesterol but none were at guideline-recommended targets). The first (our "control" group) was a nurse seeing patients monthly x 6 months, measuring their blood pressure and LDL cholesterol, counseling them about risk factor reduction strategies (including lifestyle and medication adherence), and faxing results of BP/cholesterol to their primary care physicians with advice to patients who had blood pressure or cholesterol above guideline-recommended targets to see their primary care physician. The second (our "intervention" group) was a pharmacist seeing patients monthly x 6 months, measuring their blood pressure and LDL cholesterol, counseling them about risk factor reduction strategies (including lifestyle and medication adherence), and faxing results of BP/cholesterol to their primary care physicians.  However, if patients had blood pressure or cholesterol above guideline-recommended targets instead of just recommending that the patient see their primary care physician the pharmacist provided them with a prescription for medication (or up-titration of their current medications) to address the uncontrolled risk factor. Both groups improved substantially over usual care, but the intervention group improved even more (13% absolute improvement in control of BP/cholesterol levels compared to the nurse-led control arm) . (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, Kaiser Permanente, Pediatrics, Vaccine Studies / 11.04.2014

Roger Paul Baxter, MD Co-Director Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center Oakland, CA 94612.MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Roger Paul Baxter, MD Co-Director Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center Oakland, CA 94612. MedicalResearch.com What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Baxter:  Menveo, the currently licensed CRM-conjugate meningococcal vaccine, showed an excellent booster response in adolescents, regardless of which conjugate vaccine they had received previously.  Also, although titers from the priming dose waned, at 3 years there were still protective antibodies in the majority of immunized individuals.  The other US-licensed meningococcal conjugate vaccine, Menactra, uses a different protein conjugate. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, Medical Imaging, NIH / 11.04.2014

Jamie Hui, MD Center for Health Services Research Virginia Mason Medical Center Seattle, WashingtonMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jamie Hui, MD Center for Health Services Research Virginia Mason Medical Center Seattle, Washington MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Hui: Through a quality improvement intervention aimed at how radiologists report on findings in female pelvic ultrasound examinations, we were able to decrease the number of unnecessary recommendations for follow-up imaging of benign adnexal cysts, preventing duress for these women. (more…)
Author Interviews, Kidney Disease, Mayo Clinic, Rheumatology / 11.04.2014

Eric Matteson, M.D. Chairman of Rheumatology Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Eric Matteson, M.D. Chairman of Rheumatology Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Matteson: “The main points are that kidney disease is more common in patients with rheumatoid arthritis than in the general population and that moderate reduction in kidney function was more likely to be associated with cardiovascular disease in these patients as well. Patients with more active disease week are also at higher risk for kidney disease. “ (more…)
Author Interviews, HIV, Mental Health Research, University of Pennsylvania / 11.04.2014

Michael B. Blank, PhDMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael B. Blank, PhD Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry Perelman School of Medicine University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104-3309 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Blank:  We found that people in treatment for mental illnesses in inpatient and outpatient settings in Philadelphia and Baltimore were about times as likely to be infected with HIV as the general population in those cities and about 16 times as likely to be HIV infected as the general population of the US.  We also found that severity of psychiatric symptoms increased the likelihood of infection. (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Genetic Research, NIH / 10.04.2014

Prof. Dr. med. Piotr Lewczuk Head,Lab for Clinical Neurochemistry and Neurochemical Dementia Diagnostics, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, 91054 Erlangen, GermanyMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Dr. med. Piotr Lewczuk Head,Lab for Clinical Neurochemistry and Neurochemical Dementia Diagnostics, Universitätsklinikum Erlangen, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, 91054 Erlangen, Germany MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Prof. Dr. med. Piotr Lewczuk: In our study, we investigated the concentrations of four isoforms of amyloid beta peptides in the blood of healthy young volunteers without memory complains. The participants were stratified into three groups according to their apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype, which is the mostly investigated and generally accepted genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). It is known that the alterations of the amyloid beta metabolism are the earliest changes in the course of AD, occurring many years (or even decades) before the onset of the clinical symptoms, but it is actually not known how early these alterations start. Correspondingly, we wanted to investigate if healthy persons with genetic risk factor show changes in their amyloid beta metabolism already 30-40 years before the age when AD is usually diagnosed. We did not find any differences between the groups with and without APOE-driven risk, which might be carefully interpreted as no signs of Alzheimer’s Disease pathology in persons at risk at such an early life stage. Taken together, we think that the Alzheimer’s Disease pathology starts some 10-20 years before the beginning of the clinical symptoms, but not earlier. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Mayo Clinic / 10.04.2014

Dr. Judy C. Boughey MD Professor of Surgery Mayo Clinic, Rochester MNMedicalResearch.com Interview with Dr. Judy C. Boughey MD Professor of Surgery Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?   Dr. Boughey: This study showed that the rate of reoperation after lumpectomy for breast cancer was significantly lower at Mayo Clinic in Rochester compared to national data. Mayo Clinic in Rochester uses frozen section analysis of margins at time of lumpectomy to direct any margin re-excisions during the surgery and therefore has a significantly lower rate of need for a second operation to ensure clean margins. The rate of reoperation was four times higher in the national data set than in the Mayo Clinic data set. (more…)
Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, Compliance, Cost of Health Care, McGill, Pharmacology / 09.04.2014

Robyn Tamblyn BScN Msc PhD James McGill Chair Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology and Biostatistics McGill University Scientific Director Institute of Health Services and Policy Research Canadian Institutes of Health Research MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Robyn Tamblyn BScN Msc PhD James McGill Chair Departments of Medicine and Epidemiology and Biostatistics McGill University and Scientific Director Institute of Health Services and Policy Research Canadian Institutes of Health Research MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Tamblyn: Higher drug costs are associated with a higher probability of primary non-adherence, whereas better follow-up by the prescribing physician, and a policy to provide medication at no cost for the very poor increase the likelihood of adherence (more…)
Author Interviews, Gender Differences, Orthopedics, Race/Ethnic Diversity, UCLA / 08.04.2014

Dr. Carolyn Crandall, M.D. Division of General Internal Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, USAMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Carolyn Crandall, M.D. Division of General Internal Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, CA, 90024, USA MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Crandall: We found that higher social class was linked with a lower risk of fractures among non-Caucasian women.  Compared with non-Caucasian women who had no more than a high school education, those with at least some postgraduate education had nearly 90% lower rates of non-traumatic fracture.  These results were present even after we accounted for income. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues, Medical Imaging, NIH / 07.04.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: dr_Aalex_d_leowAlex Leow, MD PhD Psychiatric Institute Chicago, IL 60612 and   Tony J. Simon, PhD University of California, Davis MIND Institute Sacramento, CA 95817Tony J. Simon, PhD University of California, Davis MIND Institute Sacramento, CA 95817 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common inherited cause of intellectual disabilities and the most prevalent known single-gene cause of autism in males. The fragile X mental retardation 1 gene (FMR1) can be mutated with expanded numbers of CGG trinucleotide repeats in the 5’ untranslated region on the Xq27.3 site of the X chromosome. Normally, unaffected individuals have fewer than 45 CGG repeats in FMR1. When the size of the CGG repeat exceeds 200 FMR1 is silenced and the mutation is categorized as full, generating the FXS phenotype. If the expansion is between 55–200 repeats, then the individual is generally classified as a fragile X premutation carrier (fXPC). An estimated 40% of male and 8-16% of female premutation carriers later develop Fragile X-Associated Tremor/Ataxia Syndrome (FXTAS), which is a late-onset (usually 50-70 years old) neurodegenerative disorder. We recruited 46 neurologically symptomless young to middle aged carriers of the FMR1 gene mutation. They were age and gender matched with 42 unaffected control individuals without the gene mutation. Both groups were evaluated by cognitive testing as well as novel neuroimaging techniques termed “brain connectomics,” based on diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) whole-brain tractography.  A connectome is a comprehensive map, like a wiring diagram, of neural connections in the brain. Our study is the first-ever connectome study to compare fXPCs and controls. In short, brain connectomics enable scientists for the first time to study the global organizational properties of the human brain by applying cutting edge computational techniques, based on graph theory, to these comprehensive maps of neural connections (i.e., the brain graphs). Our main finding was that, in neurologically symptomless male carriers  we detected a correlation between brain graphs’ efficiency in processing information and the number of CGG repeats in the mutated region of FMR1 (we estimated that each additional CGG repeat that in these males represents an effective increase of ~1.5 years  of “brain aging”). The correlation may prove to be an effective marker of early brain aging in otherwise neurologically symptomless premutation carriers. The study also further confirmed previous findings of smaller brain stem volumes in male fXPCS than in male controls. (more…)
Mayo Clinic, Pain Research, Surgical Research / 05.04.2014

Dr. Juliane Bingener-Casey, M.D. Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Juliane Bingener-Casey, M.D. Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. MedicalResearch.com:  What are the study’s main findings? Dr. Bingener-Casey:  “Patient-reported outcomes such as pain and fatigue are sensitive tools to detect how well patients recover from surgery. These patient-reported outcome results are different for men and women and for older versus younger people.” (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Emergency Care, Heart Disease, JACC, Karolinski Institute / 04.04.2014

Martin J. Holzmann, MD, PHD Department of Emergency Medicine Karolinska University Hospital, HuddingeMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Martin J. Holzmann, MD, PHD Department of Emergency Medicine Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge   MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Holzmann: In a cohort of 8900 consecutive patients who sought medical attention for chest pain, we found that an undetectable high-sensitivity cardiac troponin level (<5 ng/l), and an ECG with no ischemic changes has a negative predictive value of 99.8% (95%, 99.7-99.9%). Thus, this will rule out MI with nearly 100% accuracy, and independent of when the troponin was measured in relation to onset of chest pain, and independent of any risk factors for cardiovascular disease. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, NIH, Nutrition, Salt-Sodium / 03.04.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Niels Graudal, MD, DrMSc Senior Consultant Department of Internal medicine/Infectious Medicine/Rheumatology IR4242 Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet Denmark Dr. Graudal: There are no studies, which show what happens with the risk of cardiovascular death or mortality if you change your sodium intake. Our study shows the association of sodium intake as it is with cardiovascular disease and mortality, which is only the second best way to consider the problem, but as the best way does not exist we have accepted this approach. There have been two different assumptions concerning the risks of sodium intake. One is that there is an increasing risk of heart disease, stroke and death of salt intake above 2300 mg, and one is that salt is not dangerous at all. Our study shows that both positions partially may be true, as a salt intake above 4900 mg is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and mortality, whereas the present normal salt intake of most of the world’s populations between 2300 mg and 4900 mg is not associated with any increased risks. In addition our study shows that a low sodium intake below 2300 mg is also associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and death. (more…)
Mediterranean Diet, NIH, Nutrition, Weight Research / 02.04.2014

Dr. Milan K Piya NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Diabetes and Endocrinology Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick; University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust Coventry, UKMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Milan K Piya NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Diabetes and Endocrinology Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick; University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust Coventry, UK MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: Our studies have identified two main findings: Firstly that the size or frequency of the meal doesn’t affect the calories we burn in a day, but what matters most for losing weight is counting calories. Secondly, by carrying more weight, more endotoxin enters the circulation to cause inflammation and eating more often will exacerbate this risk which has been linked to metabolic diseases such as type-2 diabetes. (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, JAMA, University of Michigan / 01.04.2014

Mary A.M. Rogers, PhD, MS Research Associate Professor Research Director, Patient Safety Enhancement Program Department of Internal Medicine University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2800MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mary A.M. Rogers, PhD, MS Research Associate Professor Research Director, Patient Safety Enhancement Program Department of Internal Medicine University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI  48109-2800 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Rogers: The risk of serious infection is considerably elevated after receiving allogeneic (donor) red blood cell transfusions.  For every 38 patients under consideration for transfusion, 1 patient could be spared an infection if more restrictive hemoglobin thresholds were used.  When patients were given transfusions only after their hemoglobin fell below 7.0 g/dL, 1 patient avoided an infection of every 20 patients treated.  The results were most consistent in elderly patients receiving hip and knee replacement surgeries.  Their risk of infection decreased by 30% when lower hemoglobin thresholds were used. (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Diabetes, Mental Health Research, NIH, University of Pittsburgh / 01.04.2014

Rosebud O Roberts, M.B., Ch.B. Professor of Epidemiology Professor of Neurology Mayo ClinicMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Rosebud O Roberts, M.B., Ch.B. Professor of Epidemiology Professor of Neurology Mayo Clinic MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Roberts: We found that among persons 70 years and older, people with type 2 diabetes had a reduced glucose uptake (hypometabolism) in  brain cells.  We also found a similar association for people without type 2 diabetes but who had elevated hemoglobin A1c levels levels at the time of enrollment (HBA1c is a measure of glucose control, and represents the average blood glucose levels over a 3 month period). However, we did not find an association of diabetes with increased brain amyloid accumulation.  Our findings were based on an investigation of the association of type 2 diabetes with markers of brain pathology: brain hypometabolism was assessed by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography [PET] and amyloid accumulation was assessed by 11-C Pittsburgh Compound B PET imaging. (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, JAMA, University of Pittsburgh, Wake Forest / 31.03.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview Invitation with: Timothy Hughes, PhD, MPH Roena B. Kulynych Center for Memory & Cognition Research Department of Internal Medicine Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine Wake Forest School of Medicine Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC 27157-1207Timothy Hughes, PhD, MPH Roena B. Kulynych Center for Memory & Cognition Research Department of Internal Medicine Division of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine Wake Forest School of Medicine Medical Center Boulevard, Winston-Salem, NC  27157-1207 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Hughes: This study is a follow-up to our recent paper that showed a novel relationship between arterial stiffness (commonly measured by pulse wave velocity) and the presence and extent of amyloid deposition in the brain, a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. For this study, we repeated brain amyloid imaging (using the Pittsburgh Compound B during PET imaging) in order to look for predictors of change in amyloid over two years in n=81 elderly adults aged 80+ and free from dementia. We observed that measures of systemic arterial stiffness (e.g. brachial ankle pulse wave velocity) was strongly associated with the extent of amyloid deposition in the brain at both baseline and follow-up. The change in brain amyloid accumulation over two years resulted in an increase in in the number of participants with Alzheimer’s-like (amyloid-positive) from 45% at baseline to a surprising 75% after just two years. This change in brain amyloid accumulation over two years was strongly related to having greater central stiffness (as measured by carotid femoral pulse wave velocity). These relationships between arterial stiffness and brain amyloid deposition were independent of the effects of age, gender, body mass index, antihypertensive medication use and even current blood pressure. (more…)
Dartmouth, General Medicine / 31.03.2014

dr_james_d_sargentMedicalResearch.com Interview with James D. Sargent, MD, Professor of Pediatrics Professor of Community and Family Medicine Professor of The Dartmouth Institute Co-Director, Cancer Control Research Program Norris Cotton Cancer Center Norris Cotton Cancer Center, Department of Pediatrics Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth Lebanon, New Hampshire MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Sargent: We showed children aged 3-7 years depictions of healthy foods in McDonald’s and Burger King television advertisements that aired in 2010-11.  Children were asked what they saw in the images and not prompted to respond specifically to any aspect of the images.  All images contained the two healthy foods—apples and milk—the companies purported to be advertising through the Children’s Food and Beverage Advertising Initiative.  Only 52% and 70% of children correctly identified McDonald’s and Burger King images of milk.  Whereas 80% correctly identified McDonald’s image of apples, only 10% identified the Burger King apples as apples.  Instead, 81% mistook them as french fries. Please see the video of children responding to the BK apples depiction at http://cancer.dartmouth.edu/about_us/newsdetail/66129/ (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, NIH, Rheumatology / 31.03.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Eleftherios Mylonakis, M.D., Ph.D., FIDSA Dean's Professor of Medical Science Chief, Infectious Diseases Division Alpert Medical School and Brown University and Dr. Irene Kourbeti MD Research Associate Infectious Disease Division Rhode Island Hospital, Providence, RI MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer : There was high quality of evidence that biologic agents are associated with increased risk of all opportunistic infections, but there was no difference in mortality attributed to the opportunistic infections. Patients receiving biologics were twice more likely to develop opportunistic infections (OIs) compared to controls (OR 1.79; 95% CI, 1.17-2.74) with a number needed to harm (NNH) of 582 patients. That means that 1 opportunistic infection  would occur in every 582 patients receiving biologics. The opportunistic infections usually occurred at the commencement of the use of the biological agent and they were not statistically more in patients with a previous exposure to anti-TNF agents as compared to the patients that had never received an anti-TNF agent.. (more…)
Author Interviews, PLoS, Toxin Research, UCSD / 30.03.2014

Beatrice A. Golomb MD, PhD Professor of Medicine Family and Preventive Medicine University of California, San DiegoMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Beatrice A. Golomb MD, PhD Professor of Medicine Family and Preventive Medicine University of California, San Diego MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Golomb: The main finding is that veterans with Gulf War illness have bioenergetic defects -- dysfunction of mitochondria, the energy producing elements of cells -- that is evident in comparing affected veterans to matched healthy controls. An estimated 1/4 to 1/3 of the ~700,000 US veterans from the 1990-1 Gulf War developed chronic multisymptom health problems that entail fatigue, cognitive and other CNS problems, muscle pain, weakness and exercise intolerance, with high rates of gastrointestinal (especially diarrhea) and neurological problems, and other symptoms - as well as autonomic dysfunction. Evidence suggests these problems have not abated with time. Veterans from other nations that have conducted epidemiological studies, including the UK, Canada, and Australia, also show elevated rates of problems. (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Duke, JAMA / 29.03.2014

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ann Marie Navar-Boggan, MD, PhD Division of Cardiology, Duke University Medical Center Durham, North Carolina MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Navar-Boggan: Two groups of adults are really affected by the updated guidelines. First, 13.5 million adults, including one in five adults over the age of 60, were previously considered to have uncontrolled blood pressure but now meet new guideline goals. Next, 14 million adults over the age of 60 (one in four adults in this age group) are currently on blood pressure lowering therapy and meeting the older, more stringent targets. The guidelines state that no changes are necessary in this group, but they may be eligible for reduced therapy, particularly if they have had side effects or difficulty with the therapies they are taking. (more…)
Author Interviews, Duke, Lipids, NEJM, Statins / 28.03.2014

Michael J. Pencina, PhD Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Director of Biostatistics Duke Clinical Research Institute Durham, NC 27710 MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael J. Pencina, PhD Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Director of Biostatistics Duke Clinical Research Institute Durham, NC 27710 MedicalResearch.com: What motivated your research? Dr. Pencina: After the new guidelines were issued last November, we were intrigued by the change in treatment philosophy from that based on cholesterol levels (used by the “old guidelines” known as NCEP ATPIII) to one based on 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease (used by the new AHA-ACC guidelines).  We were curious what the practical consequences of this shift would be. Furthermore, the media quoted a lot of experts making educated guesses on the impact.  We realized that this question can be answered much more precisely based on the NHANES data. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Diabetes Care, NIH / 28.03.2014

Michael Laxy Helmholtz Zentrum München German Research Center for Environmental Health Institute of Health Economics and Health Care Management Neuherberg, GermanyMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael Laxy Helmholtz Zentrum München German Research Center for Environmental Health Institute of Health Economics and Health Care Management Neuherberg, Germany MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: In patients with type 2 diabetes a high level of self-management behavior was associated with a better glycemic control, i.e. a lower HbA1c level, in the cross-sectional perspective and a reduced mortality over a 12-year period. This effect remained robust after controlling for socio-demographic and disease related factors, including medication. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Kidney Disease, McGill / 27.03.2014

Louise Pilote, MD, MPH, PhD Department of Medicine, McGill University Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill UniversityMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Louise Pilote, MD, MPH, PhD Department of Medicine, McGill University Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McGill University MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Pilote: Our study found that in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) undergoing dialysis, warfarin use, compared to no-warfarin use, did not reduce the risk for stroke (adjusted hazard ratio (HR): 1.14, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.78 to 1.67) but it was associated with a 44% higher risk for bleeding event (adjusted HR: 1.44, 95% CI: 1.13 to 1.85). However, warfarin use in non-dialysis patients with AF was associated with a 13% lower risk for stroke (adjusted HR: 0.87, 95% CI: 0.85 to 0.90) and only a 19% higher risk for bleeding event (adjusted HR: 1.19, 95% CI: 1.16 to 1.22). (more…)
Author Interviews, NIH, Nutrition, Sugar / 27.03.2014

Laureen Smith, PhD Associate Professor College of Nursing, The Ohio State University Columbus, OH 43210MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Laureen Smith, PhD Associate Professor College of Nursing, The Ohio State University Columbus, OH 43210 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Smith: Daily sugar-sweetened beverage decreased significantly by about 1 serving per day. Also weekly consumption decreased from an average of over 4 days per week to about 2 ½ days per week. Generally, the teens were drinking the beverages fewer days per week and less servings on the days they did consume them. These changes were maintained on their own for a month after the intervention ended. Water consumption increased nearly 20 percent immediately post intervention and continued to increase at 30 days post-intervention. (more…)