Medical Research Journals
03 Oct Risk of Hypertension and Physical Activity
MedicalResearch.com Interview Ma, Wei Department of Epidemiology and Health Statistics School of Public Health Shandong University Jinan, Shandong Province, 250012 China MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The results of this meta-analysis suggested that there was an inverse dose-response association between levels of recreational physical activity and risk of hypertension. Individuals who participated in high levels of recreational physical activity had a 19% lower risk of hypertension than those who didn’t exercise much. In addition, those with moderate levels of recreational physical activity had an 11% lower risk of hypertension. However, there was no significant association between occupational physical activity and risk of hypertension.03 Oct Initiatives to Improve Cardiac Arrest Management
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Mads Wissenberg, MD
Department of Cardiology
Gentofte Hospital, University of Copenhagen
Niels Andersens Vej 65
2900 Hellerup, Denmark Post 635
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Our main findings from this nationwide study are that during a 10-year period where several national initiatives were taken to increase bystander CPR and improve advanced care, bystander CPR increased more than a two-fold from 21 % in 2001 to 45% in 2010. In the same period survival on arrival at the hospital increased more than a two-fold from 8% in 2001 to 22% in 2010, and 30-day survival more than a three-fold from 3.5% in 2001 to 11% in 2010.
02 Oct Early-Term Birth and Adverse Outcomes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Shaon Sengupta, MD MBBS MPH
Division of Neonatology, Department of Pediatrics
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Sengupta: In this study we looked at all full-term neonates, which are defined as those born between 37 weeks 0 days to 41 weeks 6 days.
Early term deliveries (37–38 weeks) are a significant part of all full-term deliveries, but are not the norm.
In our study, 27% of neonates were born early term (37-38 weeks) while almost 62% were born at or after 39 weeks (term neonates). Similar data has been reported by other established sources of vital statistics.
While traditionally, full term neonates are perceived to be a homogenous low-risk group, the findings from our study urge the pediatrics/neonatal provider to recognize early term (37-38 weeks) neonates as a higher risk group. They have significantly higher risk of NICU admission, respiratory morbidity, hypoglycemia, need for IV fluids and antibiotics.
02 Oct Opiod Use after Bariatric Surgery
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Marsha A. Raebel, PharmD, BCPS, FCCP
Investigator in Pharmacotherapy
Institute for Health Research
10065 E. Harvard Ave Suite 300
Denver, CO 80231.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: We found that in a group of patients who took chronic opioids for non-cancer pain and who underwent bariatric surgery there was greater chronic use of opioids after surgery compared with before surgery, findings that suggest the need for proactive management of chronic pain in these patients after surgery.
02 Oct Cognitive Function and Decision Making: Age-Related Changes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Agnieszka Anna Tymula
Lecturer (Assistant Professor)
School of Economics
The University of Sydney
NSW 2006, Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: We found that individual risk preferences as well as consistency and rationality in choice change with age. Just like cognitive abilities, the ability to make consistent and rational decisions considerably declines in older adulthood. Tolerance to risk in the domain of gains follows an inverted U-shaped pattern along the life span, with older adults (65+ y. o.) and adolescents being more risk averse than young or midlife adults. Interestingly, in the domain of losses, older adults are willing to accept significantly more risks than adolescents, young and midlife adults.
02 Oct Statins and Cognitive Function
Neil V. Marrion, PhD
Professor of Neuroscience
Programme Director for BSc and MSci Pharmacology degrees
School of Physiology & Pharmacology
Medical and Veterinary Sciences University Walk
University of Bristol Bristol, BS8 1TD.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Marrion: We tested pravastatin and atorvostatin (two commonly prescribed statins) in rat learning and memory models. Rats were treated daily with pravastatin (brand name - Pravachol) or atorvostatin (brand name - Lipitor) for 18 days. The rodents were tested in a simple learning task before, during and after treatment, where they had to learn where to find a food reward. On the last day of treatment and following one week withdrawal, the rats were also tested in a task which measures their ability to recognise a previously encountered object (recognition memory).
The study’s findings showed that pravastatin tended to impair learning over the last few days of treatment although this effect was fully reversed once treatment ceased. However, in the novel object discrimination task, pravastatin impaired object recognition memory. While no effects were observed for atorvostatin in either task.
01 Oct Emergence of New Fat Cells and Response to Diet and Cold
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Philipp E. Scherer, PhD
Professor, Department of Internal Medicine
Director, Touchstone Diabetes Center
The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
Dallas, TX 75390-8549
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Scherer: This is the first study that tracks the emergence of new fat cells in response to various physiological stimuli, such as high fat diet and cold exposure.
01 Oct Hand Hygiene: Global WHO Strategy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with :
Prof Didier Pittet, MD, MS
Director of the Infection Control Programme and WHO Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety, University of Geneva Hospitals, Geneva, Switzerland
MedicalResearch.com : What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Pittet: The main finding is that the WHO hand hygiene promotion strategy is feasible and sustainable across healthcare settings worldwide. For the first time, we have evidence of its feasibility and successful effects to improve hand hygiene in a variety of different geographical and income settings, with an even greater impact in low-/middle-income countries than in high-income countries.
26 Sep Decline in C. Difficile may be due to Decreased Antibiotic Exposure
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David W. Eyre, B.M., B.Ch. Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine University of Oxford National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford Biomedical Research Centre John Radcliffe Hospital MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study? Dr. Eyre: All cases of Clostridium difficile in Oxfordshire were studied over 3 years. Isolates were characterized by whole genome sequencing and the data was linked to hospital databases allowing epidemiological relationships between patients at the level of the hospital ward, hospital specialty, and post code to be identified. For comparison, similar information was also available for all other patients with and without diarrhea. Preliminary work on the genetic diversity of Clostridium difficile within individuals and between individuals within discrete outbreaks allowed reliable interpretation of transmission events using genomic data. This allowed a complete reconstruction of the pattern of transmission between affected cases in Oxfordshire to be made. The findings were: 1. Unexpectedly few cases (13%) appear to be acquired from direct ward based contact with other symptomatic cases (these have previously been thought to be the main source of infections, and the focus of prevention efforts). Another 6% were associated with other hospital contact and 3% had plausible community contacts. 2. In 13% of cases potential donors were identified gnomically but no contact, within hospitals or the community, were identified. This suggests that the existence of other modes of transmission of Clostridium difficile. 3. The sources of Clostridium difficile infections were highly genetically diverse, with 45% of cases having a genetically distinct origin - suggesting a diverse reservoir of disease, not previously appreciated 4. During the 3 years of the study the rate of Clostridium difficile in Oxfordshire fell. Any improvement in infection control techniques would be expected to reduce the incidence of cases caused by within hospital transmission. Surprisingly, similar rates of fall occurred in both in secondary cases (considered to be acquired from hospital associated symptomatic cases) and for primary cases (cases not associated with transmission from symptomatic cases).26 Sep Advanced Prostate Cancer: Abiraterone (Zytiga) Improved Quality of Life
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Dr. Ethan Basch MD
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Basch: The primary clinical finding of this study is that treatment with abiraterone acetate delays the time until pain develops or worsens in men with advanced prostate cancer. Furthermore, abiraterone delays the time until quality of life and functioning deteriorate, compared to placebo. There is also a broader research finding of this study, which is that it is feasible to rigorously study the time until symptom progression in cancer clinical trials, which paves the way for future studies to use a similar approach.
25 Sep Bone Mineral Density: Does Repeat Testing Improve Fracture Risk Prediction?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Sarah D. Berry MD MPH
Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew Senior Life
Boston, Massachusetts
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Berry: Repeating a bone mineral density (BMD) screening test in 4 years provided little additional value beyond baseline BMD when assessing fracture risk. Also, the second BMD measure resulted in little change in risk classification that is commonly used in clinical management of osteoporosis.
25 Sep Bariatric Surgery: Centers of Excellence Programs and Minority Access
Posted at 11:57h
in Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, JAMA, Medicare, Race/Ethnic Diversity, University of Michigan, Weight Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview Invitation
Dr. Lauren Hersch Nicholas Ph.D
Research Affiliate, Population Studies Center.
Faculty Research Fellow, Survey Research Center
University of Michigan
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Nicholas: We found that a Medicare policy designed to improve the safety of bariatric surgery was associated with 17% decline in the share of Medicare patients from minority groups receiving bariatric surgery.
25 Sep Breastfeeding Duration and Bedsharing Activity Influence
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Fern R. Hauck, MD, MS
Spencer P. Bass, MD Twenty-First Century Professor of Family Medicine
Director, International Family Medicine Clinic
Department of Family Medicine
University of Virginia, PO Box 800729
Charlottesville, VA 22908-072
Co-author of "14 Ways to Protect Your Baby from SIDS"
(www.parentingpress.com/sids.html)
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Hauck: We looked at data from the Infant Feeding Practices Study II, which followed mother from pregnancy through the first year of infant life. Mothers received several surveys that asked about infant feeding and bedsharing (sleeping with their infant in the same bed or other sleep surface). We found that mothers who bedshared for the longest time had the longest duration of breastfeeding compared with mothers who did not bedshare or bedshared for shorter times. Breastfeeding duration was also longer among mothers who were better educated, were white, had previously breastfed another child, had planned to breastfeed this baby, and had not returned to work in the first year after the baby was born.
20 Sep Smoking Cessation and Electronic Cigarettes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Chris Bullen MBChB MPH PhD FAFPM FNZCPHM
Director
School of Population Health, The University of Auckland
Private Bag 92019 Auckland 1142, New Zealand
Co-Director of the NZ Tobacco Control Research Turanga: A national programme of research to inform rapid smoking prevalence reduction.
Web: http://www.turanga.org.nz/
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Bullen:
- E-cigarettes, with or without nicotine, were modestly effective at helping smokers to quit, with similar levels of abstinence as with nicotine patches, and few adverse events.
- ?At 6 months, verified abstinence was 7·3% with nicotine e-cigarettes, 5·8% with patches, and 4·1% with placebo e-cigarettes. However, there was insufficient statistical power to conclude superiority of nicotine e-cigarettes to patches or to placebo e-cigarettes.
- No significant differences in rates of adverse events occurrence were found between the groups.
- E-cigarettes, like the vapes found at MagicVaporizers, were very popular throughout the trial, with almost 90% of users stating they would recommend them to a friend trying to quit smoking.
20 Sep Breast Cancer: Two Years vs One of Adjuvant Rastuzumab
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof Aron Goldhirsch
Department of Medicine
European Institute of Oncology
Via Ripamonti 435, 20141 Milan, Italy
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Goldhirsch: Two years of adjuvant trastuzumab after standard chemotherapy is not more effective than is 1 year of treatment with the drug for patients with HER2-positive early breast cancer.
20 Sep Breast Cancer: Three vs Five Week Post-Operative Radiotherapy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof John R Yarnold
Division of Radiotherapy and Imaging
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Sutton, Surrey SM2 5PT, UK
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Yarnold: A 3-week schedule of curative post-operative radiotherapy for women with breast cancer involving 15 treatments (fractions) delivered Monday to Friday each week, is at least as safe and effective as historical schedules given over 5 or 6 weeks. In fact the 3-week schedule is gentler on the healthy tissues than earlier standard regimens.
20 Sep Pregnancy: Midwife vs Standard Maternity Care Study
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof Sally K Tracy DMid
Midwifery and Women's Health Research Unit
University of Sydney, Royal Hospital for Women
Randwick, NSW, Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Tracy: We recruited 1748 pregnant women, of all risk types, from two tertiary teaching hospitals in different states in Australia and allocated them to receive either caseload midwifery care (871) or standard maternity care (877).
The study found more women in caseload midwifery experienced an unassisted vaginal birth without pharmacological analgesia, and fewer women experienced an elective caesarean. While the trial findings did not show a statistically significant difference in the rate of caesarean sections between either group, the overall rate fell by more than 20 percent from pre-trial levels.
Newborn infants in both groups achieved similar physical assessment scores (Apgar scores). A slightly lower number of pre-term births and neonatal intensive care admissions among the midwifery caseload group was not statistically significant.
Important secondary findings of the study include:
- 30 percent more spontaneous onset of labour
- less induction of labour
- less severe blood loss, and
- stronger likelihood of breastfeeding at discharge from hospital.
19 Sep Parkinson’s Disease: Cognitive Impairment and Plasma Ceramides
MedicalResearch.com: Interview with:
Michelle M. Mielke, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Health Sciences Research
Division of Epidemiology
Mayo Clinic 200 First Street SW
Rochester, MN 55905
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Mielke: Among Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, plasma levels of ceramides and monohexylceramides were higher in patients with cognitive impairment or dementia compared to patients who were cognitively normal. Levels of these lipids were also higher in the combined group of PD patients compared to non-PD controls but the number of controls were small.
19 Sep Cognitive Impairment and Hospital Readmissions
Posted at 13:17h
in CMAJ, Cognitive Issues, General Medicine, Hospital Readmissions, Outcomes & Safety
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Mark W. Ketterer, PhD, ABPP
Senior Bioscientific Staff
Henry Ford Hospital/A2
Detroit, MI 48202
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Neurosciences
Department of Psychiatry Wayne State University
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study:
Dr. Ketterer: A survey of 84 patients admitted to Henry Ford Hospital found 54% to have Moderate-Severe Cognitive Impairment (CI).
19 Sep Cancer Screening Trials: Weighing the Harms
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bruno Heleno, PhD fellow Research Unit for General Practice and Section of General Practice, Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, PO Box 2099, 1014 Copenhagen K, Denmark MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: In a literature review of cancer screening trials of a wide range of screening interventions, we found that trials seldom report the information necessary to weigh benefits against harms.19 Sep Colon Cancer: Screening and Mortality
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Aasma Shaukat, M.D., M.P.H.
Dept. of Medicine
GI Division, MMC 36
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, MN 55455
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Shaukat: The study showed that screening for colon cancer using stool cards
consistently reduces risk of death from colon cancer by one-third through
thirty years. The benefit of screening in larger in men compared to women,
and for women the benefit seems to start at age 60. However, screening did
not make people live longer.
19 Sep OCD: Adding Cognitive Therapy to SSIs
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
H. Blair Simpson, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University
Director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic and the Center for OCD and Related Disorders at the New York State Psychiatric Institute
New York, NY 10032
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Simpson: This is the first RCT to compare two recommended SRI augmentation strategies for adults with OCD. Adding EX/RP to SRIs was superior to risperidone and to pill placebo in reducing OCD symptoms and improving insight, functioning, and quality of life. Risperidone was not superior to placebo on any outcome.
19 Sep Addiction: Does Chronic Care Management Improve Outcomes?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Richard Saitz, MD MPH
Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology
Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health
Clinical Addiction Research and Education Unit, Boston Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Saitz: Chronic care management in primary care did not improve health outcomes (abstinence from cocaine, opioids or heavy drinking; or any other clinical outcomes, like addiction consequences, emergency or hospital use, health-related quality of life, addiction severity) for people with alcohol or other drug dependence.
19 Sep Spine Pain Patients: Prevalence of Fibromyalgia in Tertiary Pain Clinic
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Chad M. Brummett, M.D.
Assistant Professor, University of Michigan Health System
Department of Anesthesiology
Division of Pain Medicine
1500 East Medical Center Drive, 1H247 UH, Box 5048
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Brummett: The study found that 42% of new patients presenting to a tertiary care pain clinic with a primary spine pain diagnosis met the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) survey criteria for fibromyalgia, which is a measure of widespread body pain and comorbid symptoms (e.g. trouble thinking, fatigue, mood symptoms, etc.). Patients categorized as fibromyalgia-positive using the survey measure were distinctly different from those not meeting criteria. In a multivariate regression model, independent predictors of being categorized as fibromyalgia-positive were female sex, higher neuropathic pain scores, anxiety, and lower physical function.
18 Sep Urinary Catheter Infections: Clinical Assessment vs National Safety Network Definition
Posted at 23:46h
in Author Interviews, CMAJ, Infections, Outcomes & Safety, Urinary Tract Infections
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Mohamad Fakih, MD, MPH
Medical Director, Infection Prevention and Control
St John Hospital and Medical Center
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Fakih: Urinary catheters are commonly used in the hospital. Although they help in the management of the sickest patients, they also present a risk for infection and other harms to the patient. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS) have made catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI) publicly reportable, and no longer reimburse hospitals for these infections if they occur in hospital setting. The definition of CAUTI is based on the surveillance definition of the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). We looked at clinician practice, including the Infectious Diseases specialist’s impression and compared them to the NHSN definition. We found a significant difference between what clinicians think is a urinary catheter infection and give antibiotics for it compared to the NHSN definition. The NHSN definition predicted clinical infection by the Infectious Diseases specialist in only about a third of the cases. We also found that Infectious Disease specialists considered patients to have true CAUTI in only half of what clinicians treated as CAUTI.
18 Sep Unhealthy Aging and Chronic Inflammation
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Tasnime Akbaraly PhD Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale Montpellier, France MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Akbaraly: The aim of this study was to examine the association between chronic inflammation and a range of aging phenotypes, assessed approximately 10 years later in a large British population of men and women -The Whitehall II Study-. As inflammation characterises a wide range of pathological processes, we considered several aging phenotypes, including cardiovascular disease (fatal and non-fatal), non-cardiovascular mortality and successful aging which encompasses optimal functioning across different physical, mental, and cognitive domains We found that chronic inflammation characterized by high levels of interleukin-6 (>2 pg/mL) twice over the 5-year exposure period nearly halved the odds of successful aging after 10–years of follow-up compared to maintaining low levels of interleukin-6 (<1pg/mL twice over the exposure period). Chronic inflammation was also associated with increased odds of future cardiovascular disease and non-cardiovascular mortality in a dose-response fashion. These associations were found to be independent of socio-economic factors, health behaviours (smoking, physical activity), and conditions such as obesity as well as the use of anti-inflammatory drugs and acute inflammation.18 Sep Diabetes: Increased Mortality Risk in Regardless of Race or Ethnicity
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Yunsheng Ma MD, PHD, MPH
Division of Preventive and Behavioral Medicine
Department of Medicine
University of Massachusetts Medical School
55 Lake Avenue North, Worcester, MA 01655
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Ma: Regardless of race/ethnicity, diabetes increases the risk of mortality the same compared to non-diabetes among different race/ethnicity. However, since there are higher prevalence of diabetes in Black and Hispanic, death rate due to diabetes is much higher in Black and Hispanic, this is because the diabetes prevalence rates are much higher in these population. Therefore, diabetes prevention is key to reduce diabetes related mortality disparities among racial/ethnic groups.
18 Sep Obesity: Low Childhood IQ Raises Risk of Midlife Obesity and Late-Life Dementia
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Daniel Belsky, PhD NIA Postdoctoral Fellow Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development Duke University Box 104410 Durham, NC 27708 Is Obesity Associated With a Decline in Intelligence Quotient During the First Half of the Life Course? MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Belsky: Midlife obesity is linked with...
18 Sep MRIs of the Knee: How big a role is doctor’s financial stake?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Matthew P. Lungren, MD
Duke University Medical Center
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Lungren: In the single center study, knee MRIs are more likely to be normal when the referring doctor has a financial stake in the imaging center or the equipment used; these data suggest that some of these examinations may be unnecessary.