Author Interviews, Dermatology, Technology / 03.04.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jung-Im Na, MD PhD Associate Professor, Department of Dermatology Seoul National University Bundang Hospital Korea  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly explain what is meant by a convolutional neural network? Response: When a very young child looks at a picture, she can easily identify cats and dogs, however, even the most advanced computers had struggled at this task until recently. Computers began to “see” with the recent advancement of Deep Learning techniques. Deep Learning is a machine learning technique that teaches computers to learn from raw data. Most deep learning methods use artificial neural network architectures, imitating human brain, and convolutional neural networks (CNN) is a particular type of deep learning architecture, imitating the visual cortex. CNN is especially powerful for recognizing images. CNN exploit the information contained in image datasets to automatically learn features and patterns. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Pharmaceutical Companies / 02.04.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Larry Schlesinger MD Professor, President and CEO Texas Biomed MedicalResearch.com: What is the background and mission of Texas Biomed? Response: Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) is a not-for-profit, independent research institute with a strong history of pioneering, biomedical breakthroughs that have contributed to the world of science and human health for nearly 80 years. The Texas Biomed mission is to pioneer and share scientific breakthroughs that protect you, your families and our global community from the threat of infectious diseases. Texas Biomed is capitalizing on its strengths – outstanding collaborative scientists and unique assets and resources. Texas Biomed is home to the nation’s only privately-owned BSL4 facility, five fully outfitted BSL3 facilities with the latest technologies and the Southwest National Primate Research Center (SNPRC). The Institute focuses on a core understanding of the basic biology of infectious diseases, animal model development, and studies to move therapies and vaccines to human clinical trials. The Institute’s independent, nonprofit business model moves science from the bench to clinical trials faster and with less bureaucracy. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus / 02.04.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Hongcui Cao, M.D. State Key Laboratory for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Infectious Diseases National Clinical Research Center for Infectious Diseases The First Affiliated Hospital College of Medicine, Zhejiang University Hangzhou, China MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The proportion of severe novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) cases has dropped significantly. Specifically, this number has decreased from 32.4% on January 28 to 21.6% in Wuhan and to 7.2% in other provinces of China on February. Measures such as strengthened medical support and centralized isolation greatly contributed to the improved circumstances, and laid a solid foundation for further enhancing the cure rate and reducing the mortality rate. However, there are still hundreds of severe patients dying every day. It is extremely important to make timely and efficient diagnosis and initiate treatment for severe patients. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus / 02.04.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Zhugen Yang Lecturer in Sensor Technology NERC Fellow School of Water, Energy and Environment Cranfield University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: A recent outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection has spread rapidly around the globe. Some clinical cases have found that some carriers of the virus may be asymptomatic, with no fever, and no, or only slight symptoms of infection. Currently we have a constrained diagnostic testing capacity, Therefore wastewater analysis, also namely wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE), may offer another way to track the spread of the virus that causes the disease and identify the potential infections at the community. Wastewater-based epidemiology approach could provide an effective and rapid way to predict the potential spread of novel coronavirus pneumonia (COVID-19) by picking up on biomarkers in faeces and urine from disease carriers that enter the sewer system. WBE is already recognised as an effective way to trace illicit drugs and obtain information on health, disease, and pathogens  (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus / 31.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Carl Coleman, JD Professor of Law Seton Hall Law School MedicalResearch.com: Do health care workers have an ethical and/or legal obligation to provide treatment during an infectious disease outbreak? Are there exceptions such as pregnancy, if the health care worker is her/himself immunocompromised or have young children at home?   Response: As a legal matter, health care workers can generally be required to fulfill pre-existing employment or contractual obligations during an infectious disease outbreak.  For example, an emergency room nurse who refuses to come to work during a pandemic can be disciplined or fired; a physician who breaches a contractual obligation to provide on-call services during an outbreak can be held liable for damages.  In addition to loss of employment and contractual damages, other potential consequences for failing to honor pre-existing commitments during a pandemic could include professional discipline for patient abandonment and, for physicians with on-call responsibilities in hospital emergency departments, civil fines under the federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. This does not mean that health care workers are obligated to show up for work during a pandemic regardless of the circumstances.  For example, under the Americans with Disabilities Act, health care workers who are immunocompromised can ask for a "reasonable accommodation," such as the right to work remotely (if possible) or to take leave.  Under the Family and Medical Leave Act, employers with more than 50 employees must give workers up to 12 weeks of unpaid time off to care for a seriously ill immediate family member.  In addition, federal labor laws allow employees to refuse to work under "abnormally dangerous conditions," which might apply in situations where an employer fails to provide necessary protective equipment.  However, assuming protective equipment is available, it is not clear that an outbreak itself would be considered "abnormally dangerous," particularly in fields like emergency medicine, where exposure to contagious disease is always a foreseeable risk. In most states, health care workers without pre-existing employment or contractual obligations cannot be compelled to treat patients during a pandemic.  However, a few states have laws that authorize public health authorities to require health care professionals to work during public health emergencies.  I am not aware of any state that has invoked this authority so far. As for ethical obligations, in 2004, the American Medical Association (AMA) declared that "individual physicians have an obligation to provide urgent medical care during disasters," and that "this ethical obligation holds even in the face of greater than usual risks to their own safety, health or life."  Some academic ethicists have expressed similar views.  Common justifications for this position are that physicians "assumed the risk" of exposure to infectious diseases when they voluntarily committed themselves to the healing professions; that a "social contract" requires physicians to assume risks in exchange for their social status and privileges; and that individuals who are uniquely capable of providing life-saving care have an obligation to do so. However, I am not persuaded that all physicians -- let alone health care workers more generally -- have an ethical obligation to provide treatment when doing so involves significant risk.  A willingness to accept risk is not a condition of obtaining a medical license, nor is it part of the oaths that students commonly take at medical school graduation.  While I agree that physicians have ethical obligations to contribute to society, there are many ways they can fulfill these obligations without assuming personal health risks.  And even assuming that individuals who are in a unique position to provide life-saving care should normally do so, we generally do not expect people to rescue others from danger at significant risk to themselves.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, NEJM, Stanford / 31.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David J. Maron, MD, FACC, FAHA Clinical Professor of Medicine Chief, Stanford Prevention Research Center Director, Preventive Cardiology Stanford University School of Medicine  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Among patients with stable coronary disease and moderate or severe ischemia, whether clinical outcomes are better in those who receive an invasive intervention plus medical therapy than in those who receive medical therapy alone is uncertain. The goals of treating patients with stable coronary disease are to reduce their risk of death and ischemic events and to improve their quality of life. All patients with coronary disease should be treated with guideline-based medical therapy (GBMT) to achieve these objectives. Before the widespread availability of drug-eluting stents, strategy trials that tested the incremental effect of revascularization added to medical therapy did not show a reduction in the incidence of death or myocardial infarction. In one trial, fractional flow reserve–guided percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with drug-eluting stents, added to medical therapy, decreased the incidence of urgent revascularization but not the incidence of death from any cause or myocardial infarction at a mean of 7 months, whereas the 5-year follow-up showed marginal evidence of a decrease in the incidence of myocardial infarction. (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues / 28.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Joanne Ryan, PhD Senior Research Fellow, ASPREE From the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine Monash University Melbourne, Australia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Aspirin is a commonly used drug known to reduce inflammation, and prevent blood clotting (antiplatelet) - which is why it is commonly used in secondary prevention in individuals with established cardiovascular disease. Inflammation is thought to be a central mechanism in Alzheimer's disease, implicated in the neuropathological cascade leading to the development of dementia and other forms of dementia. Cardiovascular risk factors and stroke are both associated with cognitive decline and an increased risk of dementia. This formed the basis of the hypothesis that aspirin could be beneficial in helping to reduce cognitive decline and the occurrence of Alzheimer's Disease. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Gastrointestinal Disease / 28.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jean-Frederic Colombel MD The Henry D Janowitz Division of Gastroenterology Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sina New York, NY 10029, USA MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The goals of therapy in Crohn’s disease have shifted from mere control of symptoms also called clinical remission towards combination of clinical and endoscopic remission also called deep remission which is now considered as the new therapeutic “target”. However it has yet to be proven that targeting deep remission instead of clinical remission is able to stop the progression of Crohn’s disease towards bowel damage, complications and hospitalizations. This study is a post-hoc analysis of the CALM trial that was published in The Lancet in 2018 where newly diagnosed patients were randomized to escalate therapy based on symptoms only (control arm) or based on a combination of symptoms and two biomarkers namely C-reactive protein in blood and calprotectin in stools (tight control arm). (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, NEJM / 28.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bin Cao, Yeming Wang, Guohui Fan, Lianghan Shang, Jiuyang Xu, DingyuZhang, Chen Wang on behalf of LOTUS-China Study Group China-Japan Friendship Hospital; Wuhan Jintinyan Hospital; Institute of Respiratory Medicine, Chinese Academy of Medical Science  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: In the past two months, the outbreak of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has been spreading rapidly across the world. Science and technology is the most powerful weapon for human to fight against diseases, especially in such a pandemic setting. Seeking for effective antiviral medication is the most critical and urgent among the many scientific tasks in the pandemic. At the most critical moment in the fight against COVID-19, Chinese clinical scientists have stepped forward under extremely difficult research conditions to carry out clinical trials in antiviral treatment including lopinavir–ritonavir and remdesivir, in a swift, decisive and effective manner. These trials have attracted worldwide attention. Recently, the Lopinavir–ritonavir Trial for suppression of SARS-CoV-2 in China (LOTUS-China) has been completed, which, with great clinical significance, can provide strong evidence for the treatment of COVID-19 both in China and around the world. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Lung Cancer / 27.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Amy C. Moore PhD Director of Science and Research GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer MedicalResearch.com: What is the mission of the GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer? Response: GO2 Foundation for Lung Cancer’s mission is to transform survivorship by  saving, extending, and improving the lives of those vulnerable, at risk, and diagnosed with lung cancer. (more…)
Author Interviews, Mental Health Research, Pediatrics / 26.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jillian Hardin, Ph.D. Developmental Psychophysiology Lab Florida Atlantic University MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Most Kangaroo Care (KC) research examines the procedure’s positive physiological and psychological developmental effects on preterm infants as these infants are separated from their mothers before the end of gestation. However, the aim of our study was to determine whether kangaroo care parent-training and implementation with non-vulnerable, full-term infants provided developmental neurophysiological benefits.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Diabetes, Diabetes Care, Johns Hopkins / 26.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Olive Tang, MD/PhD Student Johns Hopkins School of Medicine   Elizabeth Selvin, PhD, MPH Professor of Epidemiology & Medicine Director, Cardiovascular and Clinical Epidemiology Department of Epidemiology Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The best approach to diabetes management in older adults is unclear. A new blood test called high-sensitivity troponin can detect damage to the heart, even in people without any signs or symptoms of heart disease. (more…)
Author Interviews, Melanoma, NYU / 25.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David Polsky, MD, PhD Professor of Dermatology and Pathology Alfred W. Kopf MD, Professor of Dermatologic Oncology Director, Pigmented Lesion Section The Ronald O. Perelman Department of Dermatology New York University Grossman School of Medicine Perlmutter Cancer Center Joan and Joel Smilow Research Center New York, NY 10016 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The background for the study was to determine the extent to which new treatments for metastatic melanoma were impacting melanoma mortality rates for the United States population. Multiple clinical trials have demonstrated that several new agents were highly effective at prolonging survival. These treatments belong to two different groups of medications: those targeting the biological pathway activated by mutation in the BRAF oncogene, which occurs in just under 50% of metastatic melanomas; and those targeting the immune system, called checkpoint inhibitors. These drugs prevent melanomas from suppressing the immune response to the tumors. Ten treatments were approved beginning in 2011, including six treatments between 2011 and 2014. We examined mortality rates between 1986 and 2016, prior to and after FDA approval of these agents. (more…)
Addiction, Author Interviews, Cannabis / 25.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ryan J. McLaughlin, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Integrative Physiology & Neuroscience College of Veterinary Medicine Washington State University, Pullman, WA Ryan J. McLaughlin, PhD Assistant Professor Department of Integrative Physiology & Neuroscience College of Veterinary Medicine Washington State University, Pullman, WA MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The evolving legal landscape concerning the use of cannabis has increased urgency to better understand its effects on the brain and behavior. Animal models are advantageous in this respect; however, researchers traditionally use forced injections of synthetic cannabinoids which fails to capture the complex effects of volitional cannabis consumption. In our study, we developed a novel model of cannabis self-administration using response-contingent delivery of vaporized cannabis extracts containing high concentrations of Δ9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) or cannabidiol (CBD). (more…)
Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Nature, Prostate Cancer, Vanderbilt / 24.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jeffrey R. Smith, MD PhD Department of Medicine, Division of Genetic Medicine Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, and Vanderbilt Genetics Institute Vanderbilt University Medical Center Medical Research Service Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Veterans Administration Nashville, TN MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?   Response: Roughly 20% of men with prostate cancer have a family history of the disease, and 5% meet criteria for hereditary prostate cancer. Although prostate cancer has the greatest heritability of all common cancers (twice that of breast cancer), extensive heterogeneity of its inherited causes has presented a considerable obstacle for traditional pedigree-based genetic investigative approaches. Inherited causes across, as well as within families are diverse. This study introduced a new familial case-control study design that uses extent of family history as a proxy for genetic burden. It compared a large number of men with prostate cancer, each from a separate family with a strong history of the disease, to screened men with no personal or family history. The study comprehensively deconstructs how the 8q24 chromosomal region impacts risk of hereditary prostate cancer, introducing several new analytical approaches. The locus had been known to alter risk of prostate, breast, colon, ovarian, and numerous additional cancers. (more…)
Author Interviews, Erectile Dysfunction, JAMA, Karolinski Institute / 23.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alexander Stridh, MSc Department of Clinical Neuroscience Karolinska Institute Solna, Sweden MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: ​We wanted to investigate how large the effect size is in the placebo arm of clinical trials with PDE5Is for erectile dysfunction. The major findings in this study is that there is a placebo response in general in ED, though it is hard to tell if this is a genuine placebo effect rather than normal fluctuations in symptom severity among patients. Another interesting finding was that the placebo response seems largely more important when the cause of ED is mainly due to psychogenic factors, as in post traumatic stress disorder. Lastly there was an important finding that there was no difference between placebo and active drug with daily treatment of PDE5Is  for long term recovery of erectile function after prostate cancer treatment, a practice which is common in some places and seems to be questionable.  (more…)
Allergies, Asthma, Author Interviews, ENT / 23.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Joseph Han, MD FARS, FAAOA FAAAAI Medical Director for the Division of Allergy Eastern Virginia Medical School  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP) is a type 2 inflammatory disease of the nasal passages and sinuses associated with a high symptom burden due to the chronic, relapsing nature of the disease. If you ask CRSwNP patients about the most important disease symptoms, they would say nasal congestion and decrease in smell. However, many CRSwNP patients would say that losing their sense of smell is particularly troublesome. This study was conducted to better understand the effect of dupilumab, which is approved in the U.S. for adults with uncontrolled CRSwNP, on sense of smell.   (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Opiods, Pediatrics / 23.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Leah Nelson, MD MS Addiction Medicine Fellow University of New Mexico MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: With the progression of the opioid epidemic over the past decade, more women of reproductive age are seeking treatment for addiction. Many more pregnant women are prescribed methadone and buprenorphine, two opioid medications that prevent relapse and overdose. Maternal use of mediations for opioid use disorder is recommended because it lowers the risk to the fetus from uncontrolled drug use and also allows the mother to engage with prenatal care and social work. Subsequently, the number of infants born after prenatal exposure to opioids is increasing. Several previous studies have shown measurable differences in the cognitive scores of children after prenatal opioid exposure. However, much of the previous work was done on convenience samples (easy to recruit rather than rigorously matched for comparability) and the demographic characteristics of both mothers and children in the exposed and unexposed groups varied widely on important factors such as maternal education, socioeconomics, employment, tobacco use, and infant gender. Each of these factors has been demonstrated to impact early childhood development in the absence of opioid exposure. (more…)
Author Interviews, HIV, NEJM / 20.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Susan Swindells MBBS Professor, Infectious Diseases Department of Internal Medicine University of Nebraska Medical Center Omaha, NE MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The background for this study is the development of long-acting injectable formulations of two antiretroviral agents: cabotegravir and rilpivirine.  These were previously tested in a Phase 2 study, and the current study (called ATLAS) reports findings from Phase 3 in which HIV-infected patients on antiretroviral therapy were switched to monthly injections. The partner study, (FLAIR), is published in the same addition of the journal, and reports results from patients that were new to antiretroviral therapy, and took oral medications as a lead-in to achieve viral suppression before switching to similar monthly injections.  Both studies included randomization to continuing oral antiretroviral therapy. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, Electronic Records / 20.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Rohit Bishnoi, M.D. Division of Hematology and Oncology Department of Medicine University of Florida Gainesville, FL MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: National Healthcare expenditure was $3.6 trillion in 2018 and 17.7% of Gross Domestic Product. Redundant laboratory testing is one part of this problem that is more pronounced in hospitalized patients as they are often seen by multiple physicians from the time of admission till discharge. This added burden on the US health care system leads to increased costs, decreased patient satisfaction, and unnecessary phlebotomy. It also leads to iatrogenic anemia over time and unnecessary transfusions. The Choosing Wisely initiative recommendation from the Society of Hospital Medicine, Society for the Advancement of Blood Management, and the Critical Care Societies Collaborative have recommended avoiding repetitive labs. As one of the physicians in the division of hospital medicine at the University of Florida (UF) Health Shands hospital, we encountered this problem frequently where a patient will get multiple HbA1c or lipid profiles or iron studies during the same hospital stay without any clear clinical indication. Most often these tests were ordered by different physicians seeing the same patient and not realizing that either the test has already been ordered or sometimes it is related to practice pattern of physicians. We often heard complaints about this from our nursing and laboratory staff and, most importantly by patients themselves. (more…)
Addiction, Author Interviews, JAMA, Mental Health Research / 20.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jiajin Yuan, Ph.D Professor of Psychology Director, The Laboratory for Affect Cognition and Regulation, Faculty of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Impulsivity is a critical symptom of methamphetamine addiction, and this symptom plays an important role in compulsive, unresistable drug-seeking behavioral and is thus detrimental to the rehabilitation. Impulsivity in drug addiction also contributes to disruption of people's goal pursuit/goal maintenance, and aggressive/violent behaviors after drug use. Also, lack of suitable intervention for addiction-related impulsivity is known to be a risky factor for the drug reuse after successful rehabilitation. Thus, rehabilitaton targeted at impulsivity in methamphetamine addicts is important to comprehensive rehabilitation of the drug addiction and also to successful return to social life after rehabilitation (more…)
Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, Cannabis, Yale / 19.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Joshua D. Wallach, MS, PhD Assistant Professor of Epidemiology (Environmental Health Sciences) Yale School of Public Health New Haven, CT MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Over the past few years, there has been growing interest in the potential health benefits of cannabidiol (CBD), a chemical compound in cannabis. Although only one CBD-derived prescription drug has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of epilepsy, I recently started seeing products containing CBD advertised and sold across the US (e.g. CBD in foods, beverages, dietary supplements, and cosmetics). I noticed that many of these products were being marketed with unproven claims to prevent, cure, and treat various conditions, and became interested in learning more about the research supporting the use of CBD, the potential for misleading claims, and impact that the CBD-industry may be having on research that is being generated and disseminated to the public. Research funding sources and other author conflicts of interests (e.g. consulting fees, honoraria, travel expenses) can influence the way that research is designed, conducted, and reported. Previous studies have consistently demonstrated associations between authors' conflicts of interest and proindustry conclusions in clinical research. Given the growing number of companies invested in CBD's commercial success, we decided to analyze the disclosed funding sources, conflicts of interest statements, author employment details, and CBD-related conclusions in a large sample of published articles on the characteristics, use, and therapeutic effects of cannabidiol. (more…)
Author Interviews, Dental Research, JAMA, Pain Research / 19.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Romesh P. Nalliah BDS, MHCM Associate Dean for Patient Services Clinical Professor Institute for Healthcare Policy & Innovation Michigan Institute for Data Science Director, Synergy Program MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: We designed and conducted this study because there is a paucity of knowledge related to opioid prescribing for acute dental pain. (more…)
Author Interviews, Gender Differences, Heart Disease, Karolinski Institute, Opiods, PNAS / 18.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mikko Myrskylä PhD Executive Director, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research Professorial Research Fellow, London School of Economics Professor of Social Statistics University of Helsinki MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Life expectancy in the U.S. increased at a phenomenal pace throughout the twentieth century, by nearly two years per decade. After 2010, however, U.S. life expectancy growth stalled and has most recently been declining. A critical question for American health policy is how to return U.S. life expectancy to its pre-2010 growth rate. Researchers and policy makers have focused on rising drug-related deaths in their search for the explanations for the stalling and declining life expectancy. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Environmental Risks, Lung Cancer, Occupational Health / 18.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Theresa S. Emory MD Department of Pathology, Peninsula Pathology Associates Newport News, VA MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Cosmetic talc products can contain asbestos, which is the primary cause of malignant mesothelioma. We investigated 75 individuals with malignant mesothelioma, whose only known exposure to asbestos was repeated exposures to cosmetic talcum powder. 83% of the individuals were female and several occurred in barbers/cosmetologists. 16% occurred in individuals younger than 45 years old, and on average the subjects were 11 years younger than predicted, based on SEER data. The asbestos fibers in tissue samples that were examined in 11 cases were identical (anthophyllite and tremolite) to those identified in cosmetic talc. (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 16.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ashlesha Datar, PhD Senior Economist Director of Program on Children & Families USC Dornsife Center for Economic and Social Research (CESR) University of Southern California  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Prior research, including our own work, has suggested that there might be some kind of social contagion or social transmission in obesity. So we wanted to explore that avenue further. In the present study, we showed teens in military families a set of human body figures with varying body sizes and asked them to choose the figure that best captured their ideal body size. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Vaccine Studies / 13.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Cynthia Liu,  Ph.D. Manager, Scientific Information CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society Columbus, OH 43210 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The outbreak of COVID-19 caused by the new virus SARS-CoV-2 has overwhelmed the health systems in many countries and been declared by WHO as a pandemic which will continue to affect global public health and world economy. This threat calls for an intensified effort in the development of therapeutic agents and vaccines. CAS is a not-for-profit division of the American Chemical Society that specializes in scientific information solutions. Our team includes hundreds of scientists that build a global data collection of curated scientific content from both journal articles and patent applications as well as chemical and biological substance collections. With this report, our team hopes to support the efforts of R&D organizations seeking to address this crisis by providing an up-to-date overview of recent relevant publications and insight into potential therapeutic agents, including both small molecules and biologics. (more…)
Author Interviews, Columbia, Heart Disease, Mediterranean Diet, Women's Heart Health / 13.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Riddhi Shah, PhD AHA SFRN Postdoctoral Research Fellow Division of Cardiology Columbia University Medical Center New York, New York MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The Mediterranean Diet, characterized by higher intakes of plant foods including plant proteins, monounsaturated fat, fish, and lower consumption of animal products and saturated fat, has long been associated with reduced cardiovascular risk and greater longevity, but the molecular mechanisms underlying these associations have not been fully elucidated. We evaluated associations of an Alternate Mediterranean Diet Score, reflective of adherence to this diet pattern and adapted for US populations, and its components with markers of endothelial inflammation directly measured in endothelial cells harvested from women, including oxidative stress, nuclear factor kappa B (NFκB), and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) gene expression. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, CT Scanning, Global Health, Medical Imaging / 13.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Soheil Kooraki  MSR MS, MD on behalf of Dr. Ali Gholamrezanezhad MD and co-authors Department of Radiological Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California at Los Angeles Los Angeles, California MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: COVID19 is a novel strain of the coronavirus family causing pneumonia. Two similar strains were discovered in 2003 and 2012 to cause the so-called SARS and MERS outbreaks, respectively. Radiologists need to be prepared for the escalating incidence of COVID-19. We reviewed the literature to extract the epidemiologic and imaging features of SARS and MERS in comparison with known imaging features of COVID-19 pneumonia to have a better understanding of the imaging features of the COVID19 pneumonia in acute and post-recovery stages. (more…)
Author Interviews, Lyme / 13.03.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Donal Bisanzio PhD DVM Senior Epidemiologist RTI International MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The number of reported cases of Lyme disease has steadily increased since the year 2000. The Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) estimates that nearly 30,000 cases are reported each year with close to 270,000 unreported cases. The high fraction of unreported cases is linked with the absence of specific disease symptoms, which can deter physicians from an initial diagnosis. Another critical factor causing underreporting is the low accuracy of methods used to test Lyme disease. These factors show us that some counties that are currently considered Lyme disease-free may only have this status due to underreporting. RTI International, in collaboration with Columbia University, built a model to show factors affecting the diffusion of case reporting in the north-eastern U.S. from 2000 to 2017 and identify which counties may be experiencing underreporting. The model used publicly available data published each year by the CDC on cases reported at the county-level merged with information on vector distribution and data obtained by satellite surveys. The model included 855 counties located in 31 states in the West North Central, East North Central, New England, Mid-Atlantic, and Southern regions of the U.S. The final product was a map showing the probability of counties of the north-eastern U.S. to report Lyme disease cases.  (more…)