PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Investigational drug may offer another option to treat Marfan syndrome

Saint Louis University author of New England Journal of Medicine srticle says medication choice depends on patient

2014-11-19
(Press-News.org) A new treatment for Marfan syndrome, a rare genetic disease that can lead to heart problems, works as well as the currently recommended medical therapy, beta blockers, according to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Angela Sharkey, M.D., professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University, and a study author, said researchers found losartan, which had been more effective in an animal model of Marfan syndrome, was equally effective to a high dose of the beta blocker atenolol.

"While there may be certain patients who respond better to one drug or another, we found no evidence that losartan is superior to atenolol, a beta blocker currently prescribed for Marfan syndrome," said Sharkey, who was honored earlier this year as the Marfan Foundation's Hero with a Heart. "Losartan appears to be a reasonable alternative treatment for patients who can't take beta blockers, which could give physicians another option to treat a rare and debilitating genetic disease."

Both medications are designed to relax the blood vessels so the heart doesn't have to work as hard to pump blood through the body. Atenolol slows the heart rate, which decreases blood pressure and losartan prevents certain natural substances in the body from tightening the blood vessel walls.

The multi-site, NIH-funded trial followed 608 patients between ages 6 months and 25 years who had enlarged aortas (the main artery carrying blood to the body) for three years. All received either losartan, the investigational medication, or a higher dose of atenolol than is typically prescribed.

Patients in both treatment groups showed no difference in the rate of growth of their aortas.

Additionally, the incidence of aortic-root surgery, aortic dissection, or death did not differ between treatment groups.

Affecting 1 in 5,000 people, Marfan syndrome is a disease that affects the body's connective tissues. Those who have Marfan syndrome typically are tall and thin, with long limbs. Marfan syndrome can take a toll on many different parts of the body including the heart, blood vessels, bones and eyes.

The most serious cardiac issue, enlargement of the aorta, can be life-threatening as it can lead to dissection or tearing of the aorta. While there is no cure for Marfan syndrome, the cardiac aspects of the disease are managed with medication and prophylactic surgical therapy.

INFORMATION:

The lead author of the research paper is Ronald Lacro, M.D., Boston Children's Hospital. Other members of the research team include Harry Dietz, M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and McCusick-Nathans Institute for Genetic Medicine; Lynn Sleeper, Sc.D. and Shan Chen, New England Research Institutes; Anji Yetman, M.D., Primary Children's Medical Center and the University of Utah; Timothy Bradley, M.B., Ch.B., and Elizabeth Radojewski, The Hospital of Sick Children; Steven Colan, M.D., Children's Hospital Boston; Gail Pearson, M.D., Sc.D., Victoria Pemberton and Mario Stylianou, Ph.D., National Institutes of Health; Tierney Selamet, M.D., Elif Seda, Lucile Salter Packard Children's Hospital; Jami Levine, M.D., and Gloria Klein, Boston Children's Hospital; Andrew Atz, M.D., Medical University of South Carolina; D. Benson, M.D., Children's Hospital of Wisconsin; Alan Braverman, M.D., Washington University School of Medicine; Julie De Backer, M.D., Ph.D., Ghent University Hospital, Centre for Medical Genetics; Bruce Gelb, M.D., Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Child Health and Development Institute; Paul Grossfeld, M.D., Rady Children's Hospital; Wyman Lai, M.D., Children's Hospital of New York; Aimee Liou, M.D., Texas Children's Hospital; Bart Loeys, M.D., Antwerp University Hospital and the University of Antwerp; Larry Markham, M.D., Vanderbilt School of Medicine; Aaron Olson, M.D., Seattle Children's Research Institute; Stephen Paridon, M.D., Children's Hospital of Philadelphia,; Mary Pierpont, M.D., Children's Hospital and Clinics of Minnesota; Reed Pyertiz, M.D., Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; Mary Roman, M.D., Weill Cornell Medical College; Stephanie Wechsler, M.D., Duke University Medical Center; Luciana Young, M.D., Anne & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago; and Lynn Mahony, M.D., University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

The paper was presented at the American Heart Association meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 18 and is slated to appear in the print edition of the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday, Nov. 27.

Established in 1836, Saint Louis University School of Medicine has the distinction of awarding the first medical degree west of the Mississippi River. The school educates physicians and biomedical scientists, conducts medical research, and provides health care on a local, national and international level. Research at the school seeks new cures and treatments in five key areas: infectious disease, liver disease, cancer, heart/lung disease, and aging and brain disorders.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New laser therapy helps slow macular degeneration

2014-11-19
Researchers from the University of Melbourne found unlike other laser treatments, this new faster laser did not result in damage to the retina, the sensitive light detecting tissue at the back of the eye. Associate Professor Erica Fletcher from the Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience said this was the first report detailing how this new laser treatment may improve eye health in those with AMD. In the early stages, the disease is characterised by the presence of small fatty deposits called drusen and thickening in a membrane at the back of the eye. Published this ...

Trial shows treatment-resistant advanced non-small cell lung cancer responds to rociletinib

2014-11-19
Barcelona, Spain: A new drug that targets not only common cancer-causing genetic mutations in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), but also a form of the mutation that causes resistance to treatment, has shown promising results in patients in a phase I/II clinical trial. The research will be presented today (Friday) at the 26th EORTC-NCI-AACR Symposium on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics in Barcelona, Spain. Approximately 10-15% of Caucasian and 30-35% of Asian patients with NSCLC have a mutation in the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), which ...

High heels may enhance a man's instinct to be helpful

2014-11-19
If it's help a woman needs, maybe she should wear high heels. That's the message from Nicolas Guéguen of the Université de Bretagne-Sud in France, after he observed how helpful men are towards women in high heels versus those wearing flat, sensible shoes. The study, published in Springer's journal Archives of Sexual Behavior, is the first ever to investigate how the height of a woman's shoe heel influences how men behave towards her. Research across various cultures has shown at length how important physical features, such as body size and the style and color ...

Climate change in drylands

2014-11-19
Approximately 40 percent of the earth's surface is covered by drylands in which average annual precipitation is lower than evaporation. The changes projected to unfold in these areas in the course of climate change are alarming. Greater variations in annual and seasonal precipitation will lead to more frequent droughts and, presumably, longer drought periods. This means that drylands are among those areas most severely affected by climate change. Research has thus far not adequately addressed the question of how strongly annual plant growth in pasture landscapes - hence ...

Fountain of youth underlies Antarctic Mountains

Fountain of youth underlies Antarctic Mountains
2014-11-19
Time ravages mountains, as it does people. Sharp features soften, and bodies grow shorter and rounder. But under the right conditions, some mountains refuse to age. In a new study, scientists explain why the ice-covered Gamburtsev Mountains in the middle of Antarctica looks as young as they do. The Gamburtsevs were discovered in the 1950s, but remained unexplored until scientists flew ice-penetrating instruments over the mountains 60 years later. As this ancient hidden landscape came into focus, scientists were stunned to see the saw-toothed and towering crags of much ...

Cochrane Review of reminder systems to improve TB diagnoses and care

2014-11-19
Researchers from China, the Philippines and LSTM have today published a new systematic review of reminder systems to improve patient adherence to tuberculosis (TB) treatment. Reminder systems include prompts in advance of a forthcoming appointment to help ensure the patients attend, and also actions when people miss an appointment, such as phoning them or arranging a home visit. This review is the latest in a suite of reviews produced by authors from the Cochrane Infectious Diseases Group, hosted at LSTM, evaluating interventions to improve adherence to TB treatment. Effective ...

Lumosity study examines lifestyle effects on cognitive training at Neuroscience 2014

2014-11-19
Washington, D.C. - November 19, 2014 - Lumosity is presenting new research today at the 2014 Society for Neuroscience conference on how lifestyle factors such as sleep, mood and time of day impact cognitive gameplay performance. The study, titled "Estimating sleep, mood and time of day effects in a large database of human cognitive performance," analyzed over 60 million data points from 61,407 participants and found that memory, speed, and flexibility tasks peaked in the morning, while crystallized knowledge tasks such as arithmetic and verbal fluency peaked in the afternoon. ...

Seed dormancy, a property that prevents germination, already existed 360 million years ago

Seed dormancy, a property that prevents germination, already existed 360 million years ago
2014-11-19
An international team of scientists, coordinated by a researcher from the U. of Granada, has found that seed dormancy (a property that prevents germination under non-favourable conditions) was a feature already present in the first seeds, 360 million years ago. Seed dormancy is a phenomenon that has intrigued naturalists for decades, since it conditions the dynamics of natural vegetation and agricultural cycles. There are several types of dormancy, and some of them are modulated by environmental conditions in more subtle ways than others. In an article published in the ...

Spooky alignment of quasars across billions of light-years

Spooky alignment of quasars across billions of light-years
2014-11-19
Quasars are galaxies with very active supermassive black holes at their centres. These black holes are surrounded by spinning discs of extremely hot material that is often spewed out in long jets along their axes of rotation. Quasars can shine more brightly than all the stars in the rest of their host galaxies put together. A team led by Damien Hutsemékers from the University of Liège in Belgium used the FORS instrument on the VLT to study 93 quasars that were known to form huge groupings spread over billions of light-years, seen at a time when the Universe ...

Many older brains have plasticity, but in a different place

2014-11-19
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- A widely presumed problem of aging is that the brain becomes less flexible -- less plastic -- and that learning may therefore become more difficult. A new study led by Brown University researchers contradicts that notion with a finding that plasticity did occur in seniors who learned a task well, but it occurred in a different part of the brain than in younger people. When many older subjects learned a new visual task, the researchers found, they unexpectedly showed a significantly associated change in the white matter of the brain. ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

McGill discovery sheds new light on autism, intellectual disabilities

Cellular changes occur even below the hexavalent chromium limit

Study suggests a new way to curb social media’s body image toll

Plant doctor: An AI system that watches over urban trees without touching a leaf

Study tracks chromium chemistry in irradiated molten salts

Scientists: the beautiful game is a silver bullet for global health

Being physically active, even just a couple of days a week, may be key to better health

High-fat diet promote breast cancer metastasis in animal models

A router for photons

Nurses and AI collaborate to save lives, reduce hospital stays

Multi-resistance in bacteria predicted by AI model

Tinker Tots: A citizen science project to explore ethical dilemmas in embryo selection

Sensing sickness

Cost to build multifamily housing in California more than twice as high as in Texas

Program takes aim at drinking, unsafe sex, and sexual assault on college campuses

Inability to pay for healthcare reaches record high in U.S.

Science ‘storytelling’ urgently needed amid climate and biodiversity crisis

KAIST Develops Retinal Therapy to Restore Lost Vision​

Adipocyte-hepatocyte signaling mechanism uncovered in endoplasmic reticulum stress response

Mammals were adapting from life in the trees to living on the ground before dinosaur-killing asteroid

Low LDL cholesterol levels linked to reduced risk of dementia

Thickening of the eye’s retina associated with greater risk and severity of postoperative delirium in older patients

Almost one in ten people surveyed report having been harmed by the NHS in the last three years

Enhancing light control with complex frequency excitations

New research finds novel drug target for acute myeloid leukemia, bringing hope for cancer patients

New insight into factors associated with a common disease among dogs and humans

Illuminating single atoms for sustainable propylene production

New study finds Rocky Mountain snow contamination

Study examines lactation in critically ill patients

UVA Engineering Dean Jennifer West earns AIMBE’s 2025 Pierre Galletti Award

[Press-News.org] Investigational drug may offer another option to treat Marfan syndrome
Saint Louis University author of New England Journal of Medicine srticle says medication choice depends on patient