For many patients with hypertension—an elevated blood pressure that can lead to stroke or heart attack—medication keeps the condition at bay. But what happens when medication that physicians usually prescribe doesn’t work? Known as apparent resistant hypertension (aRH), this form of high blood pressure requires more medication and medical management. Novel research from investigators in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Hypertension, found that aRH prevalence was lower in ...

New controlled trial research documents that Progesterone (micronized, oral) is effective at decreasing night sweats and improving sleep in perimenopausal women who have menstruated in the last 1-year. Perimenopausal women most want treatment for these two symptoms. Current guidelines prescribe Menopausal Hormone Therapy (MHT) for disturbing hot flushes/flashes or night sweats (vasomotor symptoms, VMS) in all women younger than 60 years. “This guideline assumes that hormone levels and symptoms are the same in the early years of ...

Study reveals some distinctions between Black women in the US and the French Caribbean but increasing trends for aggressive forms in both regions. Compared with white women, Black women have elevated risks of being diagnosed with advanced uterine cancer—also known as endometrial cancer—and of developing aggressive tumors. Researchers recently compared the incidence and trends for endometrial cancer, both overall and by subtype, between African descent women in Florida and women in the French Caribbean—specifically, the islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe. The findings are published by Wiley online ...

MIAMI, FLORIDA (EMBARGOED UNTIL 3:01 AM ET Monday, June 26, 2023) – Current evidence indicates Black women in the U.S. are at greater risk of developing advanced uterine cancer, also known as endometrial cancer, and of developing its more aggressive form – non-endometroid cancer – than white women. But research to date has mostly studied Black women as a homogenous group, and there is limited data about specific African-descent subpopulations worldwide. That is until now. A new study by researchers with Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine compared both the overall incidence and trends for endometrial ...

Orlando, Fla., June 26, 2023 – Facing persistent cases of hospital-onset Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) during the pandemic, the infection prevention and control (IPC) team at Children’s Hospital New Orleans developed an inexpensive nasal decolonization regimen previously used only in their adult patients that decreased rates of MRSA by 50 percent. Their results are being presented at the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology’s (APIC’s) Annual Conference in Orlando Florida, June 26-28. Without a lot of scientific literature on nasal decolonization in the pediatric population to guide them, Infection Preventionist ...

Neurosurgical Infections Drop More Than 80% in Two Years at Pittsburgh Hospital Readmissions, patient satisfaction scores improve through infection preventionist-led, multidisciplinary collaboration Orlando, Fla. June 26, 2023 – When excess surgical site infections (SSIs) were detected among neurosurgery patients at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Mercy in 2019, infection preventionist Katie Palladino, MPH, CPH, CIC, partnered with a hospital neurosurgeon on a multidisciplinary quality and process improvement initiative that ...

To address health inequities that Indigenous and racialized patients can experience, collect data on racial and Indigenous identity at health card application and renewal, suggests a group of authors in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) https://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.221587. "Although race is a social construct that uses perceived physical differences to create and maintain power differentials and the existence of discrete racial groups has not been shown to have any biological basis, perceived race influences how people are treated by individuals and institutions," ...

Every €1 invested in the Global Biodiversity Information Facility provides €3 in direct benefits to users and up to €12 in societal benefits, according to the the first economic valuation of GBIF's network, infrastructure and services. This finding is one of several insights outlined in the report, Economic valuation and assessment of the impact of the GBIF network, prepared and published by Deloitte Access Economics. The Deloitte team of economists applied multiple analytical methods to produce this estimate, comparing and combining the results to quantify the total ...

About The Study: Exposure to posthospitalization home-delivered meals was associated with lower 30-day rehospitalization and mortality; randomized clinical trials are needed to confirm these findings.  Authors: Huong Q. Nguyen, Ph.D., R.N., of the Southern California Permanente Medical Group in Pasadena, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2023.1678) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions ...

Australian and international experts have released 11 recommendations on when, how, and in what situation it may be appropriate for clinicians to reduce opioid use, by placing the patient at the centre of the equation. The University of Sydney led guidelines recommend that clinicians develop personalised deprescribing plans from the beginning for any patient being prescribed opioids. The guidelines also advise clinicians against abruptly stopping opioid treatment without gradually reducing the dose or transitioning to different treatments, saying it could increase risk of withdrawal ...

About The Study: Among people with insulin-naive type 2 diabetes, once-weekly icodec demonstrated superior HbA1c reduction to once-daily degludec after 26 weeks of treatment, with no difference in weight change and a higher rate of combined level two or three hypoglycemic events in the context of less than one event per patient-year exposure in both groups.  Authors: Ildiko Lingvay, M.D., of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and Yiming Mu, M.D., of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital in Beijing, are the corresponding authors. To ...

About The Study: The findings of this study suggest that treatment with bempedoic acid in high-risk primary prevention patients unable to tolerate recommended doses of statins has the potential to reduce major adverse cardiovascular events.  Authors: Steven E. Nissen, M.D., of the Cleveland Clinic, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2023.9696) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and ...

The policy, which expired at the end of 2021, has not been renewed due to concerns among legislators over the credit being overly generous, particularly to lower-income families with limited tax liability, and the lack of an associated work requirement. The findings, to be published June 24 in JAMA Health Forum, could inform the debate over the policy’s future, said Dr. Jordan Rook, a fellow in the National Clinician Scholars Program at UCLA and the study’s lead author. “Cash transfer programs like the 2021 Child Tax Credit expansion may be powerful tools in improving ...

About The Study: The results of this study suggest that the COVID 19–era policy of Expanded Child Tax Credit monthly payments was associated with improved adult overall health and food security. Cash transfer programs may be effective tools in improving adult health and household nutrition.  Authors: Jordan M. Rook, M.D., of the University of California, Los Angeles, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamahealthforum.2023.1672) Editor’s ...

Edinburgh, UK – 24 June 2023:  Patients who feel low when having a cardiac device implanted are more likely to stop taking their heart medications than those without depression, according to research presented today at ACNAP 2023, a scientific congress of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC).1 Study author Mr. Ole Skov, a psychologist and PhD student in cardiac psychology at the University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark said: “Medications help to control symptoms and prevent further heart problems so adherence is important. Patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) ...

Alexandria, VA, USA – A diagnostic study on the detection of occlusal caries from a clinical photograph using a deep learning algorithm will be presented at the 101st General Session of the IADR, which will be held in conjunction with the 9th Meeting of the Latin American Region and the 12th World Congress on Preventive Dentistry on June 21-24, 2023, in Bogotá, Colombia. The Interactive Talk presentation, “Automated Detection of Occlusal Caries Using Deep Learning Algorithm,” will take place on Saturday, June 24 at 4:25 p.m. Colombia Time (UTC-05:00) during the “Prevalence ...

RICHLAND, Wash.— From densely built urban cores to sprawling suburbia, cities are complex. This complexity can lead to temperature hot spots within cities, with some neighborhoods (and their residents) facing more heat than others. Understanding this environmental disparity forms the spirit of new research led by scientists at the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. In a new paper examining all major cities in the U.S., the authors find that the average Black resident is exposed to air that is warmer by 0.28 degrees ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- Warmer temperatures are known to make more turtle eggs become female hatchlings, but new research out of Duke University shows that those females also have a higher capacity for egg production, even before their sex is set. This finding may explain why many animals besides turtles have temperature-dependent sex determination and why the system persists, despite seeming like a risky strategy. It may also provide a troubling glimpse of what could lie ahead in a warming world. What the ...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Stress during adolescence can cause postpartum behavioral changes in women and other mammals, including depression and changes in social behavior after the birth of a child. However, the neural circuit mechanisms by which adolescent stress leads to later changes in postpartum social behavior are unclear. In a Nature Communications study, University of Alabama at Birmingham researcher Minae Niwa, Ph.D., used a mouse model and cutting-edge neurobiological techniques to show how psychological stress during adolescence alters neuronal functions in the brain, resulting in altered postpartum social behavior. This ...

Some firearm owners may not want researchers to know they own firearms, according to a study by the New Jersey Gun Violence Research Center at Rutgers. In a study published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, researchers found that based on their answers to a variety of other questions, a group of individuals appeared as though they might be falsely denying firearm ownership when directly asked by researchers. While some of these individuals resemble what previous research indicated to be a typical American firearm owner (e.g., white, male), others looked quite different (racial or ethnic minority, female, ...

NEW YORK, NY--The cause of a common kidney disease likely lies outside the kidney, according to a new study led by Columbia University researchers. The study, which uncovered 16 new locations in the genome linked to immunoglobulin A (IgA) nephropathy, confirms an earlier hypothesis that the immune system has an important role in driving the disease and points toward new strategies for detecting and treating it. No targeted treatments have been approved to treat IgA nephropathy, largely because the underlying cause of the disease has not been well understood. Identifying genes linked ...

Scientists at Stanford Medicine conducted a study describing a new category of depression — labeled the cognitive biotype — which accounts for 27% of depressed patients and is not effectively treated by commonly prescribed antidepressants. Cognitive tasks showed that these patients have difficulty with the ability to plan ahead, display self-control, sustain focus despite distractions and suppress inappropriate behavior; imaging showed decreased activity in two brain regions responsible for those tasks. Because depression has traditionally been defined as a mood disorder, ...

Stanford University’s Innovative Medicines Accelerator (IMA) and Intonation Research Laboratories (Intonation) have formed a collaboration to develop treatments that target cancerous neuroendocrine tumors, or tumors that form from hormone-releasing cells.  The goal of the collaboration is to reduce the time and resources it takes to translate a biomedical breakthrough into a clinically and commercially viable medicine.  “I’m excited about this collaboration with Intonation Research Laboratories, which has the potential to speed ...

The Bachman’s warbler, a songbird that was last seen in North America nearly 40 years ago, was a distinct species and not a hybrid of its two living sister species, according a new study in which the full genomes of seven museum specimens of the bird were sequenced. Genome comparisons of Bachman’s warbler with the golden-winged and blue-winged warblers also helped researchers identify a new candidate gene involved in feather pigmentation in the group. A paper describing the study, led by Penn State researchers, highlights the crucial role that museum collections can play in science and appears ...

WACO, Texas (June 23, 2023) – Women represent the fastest-growing population in U.S. institutional corrections facilities. In the past four decades, the number of women incarcerated has increased by more than 475%, rising from 26,326 in 1980 to 152,854 in 2020.Because the majority of imprisoned women are mothers, a conservative estimate indicates that at least one million American children have experienced maternal incarceration, and a substantial portion of them are adolescents. Evidence suggests that maternal incarceration is a risk factor for adolescents’ ...