Tag Archives: WUSTLmed

Does EEG Brain Monitoring During Surgery Reduce Post-Op Delirium?

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Michael Avidan, MBBCh, FCA SA Dr. Seymour and Rose T. Brown Professor of Anesthesiology Chief of the Division of Clinical and Translational Research Director of the Infrastructure of Quality Improvement, Research and Informatics Washington University School of Medicine St Louis, MO

Dr. Avidan

Michael Avidan, MBBCh, FCA SA
Dr. Seymour and Rose T. Brown Professor of Anesthesiology
Chief of the Division of Clinical and Translational Research
Director of the Infrastructure of Quality Improvement, Research and Informatics
Washington University School of Medicine
St Louis, MO 

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Postoperative delirium, a temporary state of confusion and inattention, is common in older adults after major surgery. Delirium can be distressing to patients, family members and clinicians. It is associated with longer hospital stays, other medical complications, cognitive decline, and death.

Some previous studies have found that using electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring of the brain during general anesthesia decreases the occurrence of delirium following surgery.

Therefore we conducted a rigorous study to determine whether using information from the EEG to guide the safe reduction of inhaled anesthetic drugs would prevent postoperative delirium and improve other outcomes in older adults following major surgery.

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Loss of Deep Sleep Associated With Early Alzheimer’s Disease

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Brendan P. Lucey, MD, MSCI Assistant Professor of Neurology Director, Sleep Medicine Section Washington University School of Medicine Saint Louis, Missouri 63110

Dr. Lucey

Brendan P. Lucey, MD, MSCI
Assistant Professor of Neurology
Director, Sleep Medicine Section
Washington University School of Medicine
Saint Louis, Missouri 63110

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: Alzheimer’s disease and sleep are currently thought to have a two-way or bidirectional relationship.

First, sleep disturbances may increase the risk of developing AD.

Second, changes in sleep-wake activity may be due to Alzheimer’s disease pathology and our paper was primarily focused on this aspect of the relationship.    If sleep changes were a marker for AD changes in the brain, then this would be very helpful in future clinical trials and possibly screening in the clinic.

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Can New Heart Failure Patients Drink Alcohol?

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

David L. Brown, MD, FACC Professor of Medicine Cardiovascular Division Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis, MO 63110

Dr. Brown

David L. Brown, MD, FACC
Professor of Medicine
Cardiovascular Division
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis, MO 63110

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? 

Response: The genesis of this study was a patient asking me if he could continue to have a nightly cocktail or two after he was hospitalized with the new diagnosis of heart failure.

The main findings are that moderate drinking after the diagnosis of heart failure in older adults is probably safe and is associated with longer survival. These types of studies can not prove a causal relationship between alcohol consumption and survival. 

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Chronic Kidney Disease Rate Rising Faster Than Other Noncommunicable Diseases

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, MD Associate Chief of Staff for Research and Education Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System

Dr. Al-Aly

Dr. Ziyad Al-Aly, MD
Associate Chief of Staff for Research and Education
Veterans Affairs St. Louis Health Care System
Institute for Public Health
Washington University, St. Louis MO

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?

Response: A lot has changed in the US over the past 15 years including aging, population growth, and increased exposure to risk factors such as obesity, elevated blood pressure, etc. With all of these changes, we wondered, how did the burden of kidney disease change in the United States over the past 15 years.
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Newer MRIs May Predict Alzheimer’s Disease Before Any Symptoms

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MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Cyrus A. Raji, MD PhD Asst Prof of Radiology, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology Neuroradiology Faculty and the Neuoimaging Laboratories  Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis

Dr. Raji

Cyrus A. Raji, MD PhD
Asst Prof of Radiology, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology
Neuroradiology Faculty and the Neuoimaging Laboratories
Washington University School of Medicine
St. Louis

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? 

Response: Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia and every patient suspected of having this disorder receives an MRI scan of the brain.

MRI scans of the brain in dementia are currently limited to evaluating for structural lesions that could be leading to memory loss such as stroke or tumor. What this study sought to accomplish was to determine if a newer type of MRI scan called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can predict who will experience cognitive decline and dementia. We found that DTI can predict persons who will demented 2.6 years before the earliest onset of symptoms.

This study was done in 61 individuals, 30 converters and 31 non-converters, from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative and we found that DTI metrics could predict dementia 2.6 years later with 89-95% accuracy.

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