Author Interviews, Hip Fractures, Lipids / 20.01.2023

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Monira Hussain Senior Research Fellow & ECF Clinical Research Australian Fellow Public Health and Preventive Medicine Monash University Melbourne VIC MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response:  25% of males and 44% of females aged 60 years or over experience minimal trauma fractures. Minimal trauma fractures are a clinical outcome of osteoporosis and may occur following little or no trauma i.e. fractures following a fall from standing height or less. Minimal trauma fractures are silent, people may not notice that they are at high risk of the disease until a bone is broken. I was aware of previous studies reporting that high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) was elevated in patients with osteoporosis. Two animal studies showing that HDL-C reduces bone mineral density by reducing osteoblast number and function provide a plausible explanation for why high HDL-C may increase the risk of fractures. Our study, the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE), and the ASPREE fracture substudy provide unique data that could determine whether these findings might apply to fracture risk in healthy older adults. The study collected data including HDL-C levels and fractures from more than 16,000 community-dwelling older adults. These participants were followed-up for a median of 4 years. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus / 27.04.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mark Czeisler MPhil -2020 Fulbright Future Scholar Australian-American Fulbright Commission Funded by the Kinghorn Family Foundation -Honorary Research Fellow, Institute for Breathing and Sleep Austin Health -Master’s candidate School of Psychological Sciences and Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health Monash University   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response:  Recognizing the difficult decisions of when and how to manage stringent COVID-19 mitigation strategies faced by health officials and policymakers, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Monash University sought to assess public compliance with and support for the current mitigation strategies (e.g., quarantine, stay-at-home orders). We also assessed the life impact of such stringent tactics. We acquired nationally demographically representative samples from one nation and city with large numbers of COVID-19 infections and deaths (US and New York City) and one nation and city with comparatively small numbers of COVID-19 infections and deaths (Australia and Los Angeles). (more…)
Abuse and Neglect, Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus / 14.04.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Naveen Vankadari PhD Research Fellow Monash University, Australia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The recent outbreak of pneumonia-causing COVID-19 pandemic is an urgent global public health issue. It is critical to understand and unravel the key difference of COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 with the previous coronavirus (SARS and MERS) infections. Specifically, structural and molecular dynamics which underline the mechanism of viral infection. The study first addresses the structure of COVID-19 spike glycoprotein in both closed (ligand-free) and open (ligand-bound) conformation, which open the arena in understating the viral attachment to the host cell. The study also provides the first and complete sequence alignment of spike glycol protein from COVID19 and SARA-1, showing novel insertions and deletions that highlights the uniqueness of COVID19 and underlies the differential interaction mode. The study also unravels how this new coronavirus camouflages in humans through its unique glycosylation of spike glycoprotein, which makes the most of neutralizing antibodies useless. Furthermore, In addition to known ACE2 receptor in human, the study discovers the human CD26 as another potential receptor of COVID-19 for host adhesion and hijacking.  (more…)
Author Interviews, HIV, JAMA, Sexual Health, STD / 11.12.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jason Ong, PhD, MMed, MBBS, FAChSHM, FRACGP Twitter: @DrJasonJOng Sexual Health Physician, Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, Alfred Health Associate Professor (Hon), London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK Central Clinical School, Monash University, Australia Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne, Australia Associate Editor, Sexually Transmitted Infections Special Issues Editor, Sexual Health Board Director, ASHM   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is being rolled out globally. This will protect many people from HIV, however PrEP does not protect against other sexually transmitted infections (STI). So we wanted to quantify how much STIs are in PrEP users as a means to advocate to strengthen sexual health services in these settings where PrEP is being offered. (more…)
Anesthesiology, Author Interviews, Geriatrics, NEJM / 23.06.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Yahya Shehabi  PhD, FANZCA, FCICM, EMBA, GAICD Director of Research, Critical Care and Peri-operative Medicine, Monash Health Professor, School of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University Professor Intensive Care Medicine, Clinical School of Medicine, University New South Wales Critical Care and Peri-Operative Medicine Lead – Monash Health Translational Precinct MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: SPICE III was the final phase of a series of SPICE studies. SPICE I showed 2 important findings, first, deep sedation in the first 48 hours is strongly associated with higher mortality, longer ventilation time and higher risk of delirium. Second; that Dexmedetomidine is mainly used as an adjunct secondary agent 3-4 days after commencing mechanical ventilation and not as a primary sedative agent. In addition, albeit with several limitations, previous RCTs comparing Dexmedetomidine with conventional sedatives showed reduced iatrogenic coma, shortened ventilation time and reduced delirium with Dexmedetomidine treatment. So based on the above we hypothesized that using Dexmedetomidine soon after commencing ventilation as a primary sedative agent, through reducing early iatrogenic coma, ventilation time and delirium, would impact 90 day-mortality. (more…)
Author Interviews, Coffee / 19.04.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Eugene Chan, PhD Senior Lecturer in Marketing Monash Business School Monash University Australia and  Sam Maglio PhD Associate Professor of Marketing Department of Management University of Toronto  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: The physiological effects of coffee and caffeine consumption have been well-studied, but we were interested in the psychological effects. Especially in Western societies, there is a mental association between coffee and arousal – that coffee is an arousing beverage. This led us to ask, might this association itself produce the psychological “lift” without actually drinking beverages? We found that it does. Merely seeing pictures of coffee or thinking about coffee can increase arousal, heart rates, and make people more focused. The effects are not as strong as actually drinking coffee of course, but they are still noticeable. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brain Injury, Critical Care - Intensive Care - ICUs, JAMA / 25.10.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jamie Cooper AO BMBS MD FRACP FCICM FAHMS Professor of Intensive Care Medicine Monash University Deputy Director & Head of Research, Intensive Care & Hyperbaric Medicine The Alfred, Melbourne MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: 50-60 million people each year suffer a traumatic brain injury (TBI) . When the injury is severe only one half are able to live independently afterwards. Cooling the brain (hypothermia) is often used in intensive care units for decades to  decrease inflammation and brain swelling and hopefully to improve outcomes, but clinical staff have had uncertainty whether benefits outweigh complications. We conducted the largest randomised trial of hypothermia in TBI, in 500 patients, in 6 countries, called POLAR. We started cooling by ambulance staff, to give hypothermia the best chance to benefit patients. We continued for 3-7 days in hospital ind ICU. We measured functional outcomes at 6 months. (more…)