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Image source[/caption]
A fractured sternum, often called a broken breastbone, is a painful injury that can complicate your daily life. The sternum is a flat bone in the center of your chest that protects important organs like the heart and lungs, and your ribs connect to it.
When this bone is injured, it often leads to discomfort and complications that can greatly affect daily life. Engaging in normal activities becomes challenging. Since the sternum is vital for breathing and maintaining posture, a fracture can make routine tasks difficult.
You may find it hard to lift what used to feel like a trivial weight. Exercising can become nearly impossible. Being aware of the causes, potential legal options for compensation, and symptoms of a fractured sternum can assist you through your recovery.
Image source[/caption]
A fractured sternum, often called a broken breastbone, is a painful injury that can complicate your daily life. The sternum is a flat bone in the center of your chest that protects important organs like the heart and lungs, and your ribs connect to it.
When this bone is injured, it often leads to discomfort and complications that can greatly affect daily life. Engaging in normal activities becomes challenging. Since the sternum is vital for breathing and maintaining posture, a fracture can make routine tasks difficult.
You may find it hard to lift what used to feel like a trivial weight. Exercising can become nearly impossible. Being aware of the causes, potential legal options for compensation, and symptoms of a fractured sternum can assist you through your recovery.
Ridge Maxson[/caption]
Ridge Maxson
M.D. Candidate, Class of 2024
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Dog walking is an increasingly popular mode of physical activity for adults in the US, but its injury burden and associated risk factors are not fully understood. This study found that the 3 most common injuries sustained by adult dog walkers in the US were finger fracture, TBI, and shoulder sprain or strain. Dog walking-related injuries sent approximately 423,000 adults to US EDs between 2001 and 2020, with an annual average of more than 21,000 visits. During that 20-year period, the estimated annual injury incidence increased by more than 4-fold. Among injured dog walkers, older adults and women were particularly vulnerable to serious injury, such as fracture and TBI.
Christos V. Chalitsios[/caption]
Christos Chalitsios B.Sc, M.Sc PhD student
Funded by British Medical Association (BMA)
School of Medicine
Division of Respiratory Medicine
University of Nottingham
City Hospital,Nottingham
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Inhaled (ICS) and oral (OCS) corticosteroids play a crucial role in the control of airway inflammation in asthma. Given that the use of ICS in asthma is likely to increase with the recent change in GINA guidance recommending combined long-acting-β2-agonists with ICS at step 1 and the upward trend in prescribing of OCS, we sought to clarify the link between steroids, osteoporosis and FF in patients with asthma, stratifying the risk by dose, number of courses and type of steroids. The prevalence of patients receiving at least one bisphosphonate was also calculated.
Dr. Margaret Gourlay[/caption]
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Margaret L. Gourlay, MD, MPH
Assistant Professor
UNC Department of Family Medicine
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7595
Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Dr. Gourlay: While clinical practice guidelines universally recommend bone density screening for fracture prevention in women aged 65 years and older, minimal data exist to guide bone density screening in older men. We studied how often bone density screening tests should be ordered in men, using data from the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men (MrOS) Study. MrOS is the largest and longest-running (since 2000) US study of bone density and fracture in men aged 65 and older.
After peak bone mass is reached in young adulthood, both men and women lose bone density as they get older. Based on our earlier findings in older women, we expected that men aged 65 and older with higher bone density T-score measurements (T-score >-1.50) on a first (baseline) bone density test would have a substantially longer estimated time to develop the lowest level of bone density (osteoporosis) than men with better baseline measurements. Clinicians want to know the time to osteoporosis because they prescribe osteoporosis treatments to prevent future fractures in elderly patients.
As expected, we found that the men with higher baseline bone density had a much slower transition to osteoporosis compared to men with lower bone density. In fact, only nine out of 4203 (0.2%) of men with higher baseline bone density developed osteoporosis after an average of 8.7 years of bone density follow-up. That was much lower than we expected and is good news for men who have favorable scores on their first bone density test. Men who had lower baseline bone density measurements developed osteoporosis faster.
Unfortunately, maintaining bone density above the osteoporosis range did not guarantee that men remained fracture-free. Most of the major osteoporotic fractures (broken hip, spine, wrist or upper arm/shoulder) occurred in men who did not have osteoporosis. This might be because they had accidents or injuries that broke their bones despite their bone density being above the thinnest range.
