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Medicine17 Nov 2024

Finerenone in women and men with heart failure with mildly reduced or preserved ejection fraction

About The Study: In the Finerenone Trial to Investigate Efficacy and Safety Superior to Placebo in Patients with Heart Failure (FINEARTS-HF), finerenone reduced the risk of the primary end point similarly in women and men with heart failure with mildly reduced or preserved ejection fraction. Finerenone, a nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, had similar tolerability in women and men. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, John J. V. McMurray, MD, email john.mcmurray@glasgow.ac.uk. To ...

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Medicine17 Nov 2024

Finerenone, serum potassium, and clinical outcomes in heart failure with mildly reduced or preserved ejection fraction

About The Study: In patients with heart failure with mildly reduced or preserved ejection fraction, finerenone, a nonsteroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist, resulted in more frequent hyperkalemia and less frequent hypokalemia. However, with protocol-directed surveillance and dose adjustment, clinical benefit associated with finerenone relative to placebo was maintained even in those whose potassium level increased to greater than 5.5 mmol/L. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Scott D. Solomon, MD, email ssolomon@rics.bwh.harvard.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our ...

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Medicine17 Nov 2024

Hormone therapy reshapes the skeleton in transgender individuals who previously blocked puberty

Skeletal size may be altered by gender-affirming hormone therapy only if puberty has also been suppressed during adolescence, according to research presented at the 62nd Annual European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology Meeting in Liverpool. The findings from this research, carried out by Amsterdam UMC, not only help researchers further understand the roles sex hormones play on the skeleton but may also improve counselling on gender-affirming treatment in transgender individuals. Skeletons of men and women vary in size and proportion. For instance, men typically have broader shoulders while women have a wider pelvis. Gender-affirming hormones ...

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Medicine16 Nov 2024

Evaluating performance and agreement of coronary heart disease polygenic risk scores

About The Study: Coronary heart disease polygenic risk scores that performed similarly at the population level demonstrated highly variable individual-level estimates of risk. Recognizing that coronary heart disease polygenic risk scores may generate incongruent individual-level risk estimates, effective clinical implementation will require refined statistical methods to quantify uncertainty and new strategies to communicate this uncertainty to patients and clinicians. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Scott M. Damrauer, MD, email Scott.Damrauer@pennmedicine.upenn.edu. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link ...

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Medicine16 Nov 2024

Heart failure in zero gravity— external constraint and cardiac hemodynamics

About The Study: In this case series study, pulmonary artery systolic, diastolic, and mean pressures of 2 participants with obesity and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction were measured at zero gravity during parabolic flight to assess the effect of external constraint on left ventricular filling pressures. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Benjamin D. Levine, MD, email benjaminlevine@texashealth.org. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamacardio.2024.4596) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including ...

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Medicine16 Nov 2024

Amid record year for dengue infections, new study finds climate change responsible for 19% of today’s rising dengue burden

NEW ORLEANS (November 16, 2024) — Climate change is having a massive global impact on dengue transmission, accounting for 19% of the current dengue burden, with a potential to spark an additional 40%-60% spike by 2050 — and by as much as 150%-200% in some areas — according to a new study presented today at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH). The findings from researchers at Stanford and Harvard Universities offer the most definitive evidence to date that climate change is ...

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Medicine16 Nov 2024

New study finds air pollution increases inflammation primarily in patients with heart disease

A new study by heart researchers at Intermountain Health in Salt Lake City finds that patients with heart disease, specifically those with heart failure, are especially vulnerable to the impacts of air pollution and poor air quality and can take steps to protect themselves. Results from the Intermountain Health study, presented on Saturday at the American Heart Association’s 2024 Scientific Sessions international conference in Chicago, found that two inflammatory markers — CCL27 (C-C motif chemokine ligand 27) ...

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Medicine16 Nov 2024

AI finds undiagnosed liver disease in early stages

SAN DIEGO, California (Nov. 16, 2024) — Liver disease, which is treatable when discovered early, often goes undetected until late stages, but a new study revealed that an algorithm fueled by artificial intelligence can accurately detect early-stage metabolic-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) by using electronic health records. The study was scheduled for presentation today at The Liver Meeting, hosted by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases. “A significant proportion of patients who meet criteria for MASLD go undiagnosed,” said Ariana Stuart MD, a resident at University of Washington Internal Medicine ...

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Medicine16 Nov 2024

The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announce new research fellowship in malaria genomics in honor of professor Dominic Kwiatkowski

The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Announce New Research Fellowship in Malaria Genomics in Honor of Professor Dominic Kwiatkowski New Orleans, Louisiana, November 15, 2024 — The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) is proud to announce the establishment of the annual Kwiatkowski Fellowship, a new research initiative in partnership with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF). This fellowship honors the life and scientific contributions of the late Professor Dominic Kwiatkowski, a pioneer in the field of malaria genomics. The ...

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Science16 Nov 2024

Excessive screen time linked to early puberty and accelerated bone growth

Exposure to blue light, like that from smartphones or tablets, may accelerate bone growth and bone age, leading to early puberty in rats. This research, presented at the 62nd Annual European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology Meeting in Liverpool, sheds light on how the use of blue light-emitting devices could impact growth and development and raises important questions about the long-term health effects in children, who are increasingly exposed to screens from a young age. As children grow and develop, long bones such ...

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Medicine16 Nov 2024

First nationwide study discovers link between delayed puberty in boys and increased hospital visits

Swedish young men who went through late puberty during adolescence are more likely to use healthcare services later in life, according to research presented at the 62nd Annual European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology Meeting in Liverpool. The findings of this long-term study suggest that delayed puberty in boys may have harmful effects on their health in adulthood and could potentially lead to new follow-up healthcare routines in the future. Puberty in boys typically starts between the ages of 9 and 14. However, about 2% of boys have delayed puberty, in which puberty does not begin by age 14. In most cases, delayed puberty is constitutional – a pattern of growth and development ...

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Science16 Nov 2024

Traditional Mayan practices have long promoted unique levels of family harmony. But what effect is globalization having?

A new paper in the journal Child Development shows how some aspects of family interaction among Indigenous people in Guatemala have fundamentally shifted with rapid globalization, yet families have still maintained a unique level of harmony in their interactions. UC Santa Cruz psychologist Barbara Rogoff has been working with Mayan communities in San Pedro la Laguna, Guatemala for five decades and noticed a sophisticated type of fluid, inclusive collaboration among children from these communities. During a research study 30 years ago, mothers and their two small children interacted in a very distinct way, ...

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Medicine15 Nov 2024

New microfluidic device reveals how the shape of a tumour can predict a cancer’s aggressiveness

Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering have designed a new microfluidic platform that allows forunprecedented control and manipulation of tumor shapes — a largely unexplored area with great potential to advance cancer research. The work, led by Professor Edmond Young, offers new insights into how the shape of tumours can predict cancer cell behaviour and aggressiveness, which opens new pathways for more personalized and targeted cancer care. “While there are several platforms for in vitro modelling of spheroids — ...

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Science15 Nov 2024

Speech Accessibility Project partners with The Matthew Foundation, Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress

The Speech Accessibility Project has two new partners — The Matthew Foundation and the Massachusetts Down Syndrome Congress — as it continues to recruit adults with Down syndrome who live in the United States and Canada. The project also allows residents of Puerto Rico to participate. The project is also recruiting those with ALS, cerebral palsy and Parkinson’s disease, as well as individuals who have had a stroke. “The research team has learned that connecting with trusted partners is key to showing the credibility of our work and how much it could improve the lives of people with disabilities,” said Mark ...

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Medicine15 Nov 2024

Mass General Brigham researchers find too much sitting hurts the heart

Fitting in a workout after a long day of sitting at a desk might not be enough to compensate for the impacts of sedentary behavior on the heart. Investigators from Mass General Brigham, found that excessive sedentary behavior (waking activity with low energy expenditure while sitting, reclining, or lying down and not including hours spent sleeping at night) was linked to increased risk of heart disease, especially heart failure and cardiovascular death, and that these risks could be significantly reduced by substituting sedentary time for other activities. They also found that meeting guideline levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity may be insufficient on its own to reduce cardiovascular ...

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Medicine15 Nov 2024

New study shows how salmonella tricks gut defenses to cause infection

A new UC Davis Health study has uncovered how Salmonella bacteria, a major cause of food poisoning, can invade the gut even when protective bacteria are present. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, explains how the pathogen tricks the gut environment to escape the body's natural defenses. The digestive system is home to trillions of bacteria, many of which produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that help fight harmful pathogens. But Salmonella manages to grow and spread in the gut, even though ...

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Medicine15 Nov 2024

Study challenges assumptions about how tuberculosis bacteria grow

The rod-shaped tuberculosis (TB) bacterium, which the World Health Organization has once again ranked as the top infectious disease killer globally, is the first single-celled organism ever observed to maintain a consistent growth rate throughout its life cycle. These findings, reported by Tufts University School of Medicine researchers on November 15 in the journal Nature Microbiology, overturn core beliefs of bacterial cell biology and hint at why the deadly pathogen so readily outmaneuvers our immune system and antibiotics. "The ...

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Space15 Nov 2024

NASA Goddard Lidar team receives Center Innovation Award for Advancements

NASA researchers Guan Yang, Jeff Chen, and their team received the 2024 Innovator of The Year Award at the agency’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for their exemplary work on a lidar system enhanced with artificial intelligence and other technologies. Like a laser-based version of sonar, lidar and its use in space exploration is not new. But the lidar system Yang and Chen’s team have developed — formally the Concurrent Artificially-intelligent Spectrometry and Adaptive Lidar System (CASALS) — can produce higher resolution data within a smaller space, significantly increasing efficiency compared to current models. The ...

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Technology15 Nov 2024

Can AI improve plant-based meats?

Cutting back on animal protein in our diets can save on resources and greenhouse gas emissions. But convincing meat-loving consumers to switch up their menu is a challenge. Looking at this problem from a mechanical engineering angle, Stanford engineers are pioneering a new approach to food texture testing that could pave the way for faux filets that fool even committed carnivores. In a new paper in Science of Food, the team demonstrated that a combination of mechanical testing and machine learning can describe food texture with striking similarity to human taste testers. Such a method could speed up the development of new and better plant-based meats. The team also found that ...

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Science15 Nov 2024

How microbes create the most toxic form of mercury

Mercury is extraordinarily toxic, but it becomes especially dangerous when transformed into methylmercury – a form so harmful that just a few billionths of a gram can cause severe and lasting neurological damage to a developing fetus. Unfortunately, methylmercury often makes its way into our bodies through seafood – but once it’s in our food and the environment, there’s no easy way to get rid of it. Now, leveraging high-energy X-rays at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) at the U.S. Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, ...

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Science15 Nov 2024

‘Walk this Way’: FSU researchers’ model explains how ants create trails to multiple food sources

It’s a common sight — ants marching in an orderly line over and around obstacles from their nest to a food source, guided by scent trails left by scouts marking the find. But what happens when those scouts find a comestible motherlode? A team of Florida State University researchers led by Assistant Professor of Mathematics Bhargav Karamched has discovered that in a foraging ant’s search for food, it will leave pheromone trails connecting its colony to multiple food sources when they’re available, ...

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Medicine15 Nov 2024

A new CNIC study describes a mechanism whereby cells respond to mechanical signals from their surroundings

To the casual eye, a memory foam mattress would appear to have no relationship to the behavior of cells and tissues. But an innovative study carried out at the Centro de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares (CNIC) in Madrid shows that viscoelasticity—the capacity of a material to be compressed and then recover its original form, like memory foam—is a little-explored property of biological tissues that is essential for correct cell function. Study leader Dr. Jorge Alegre-Cebollada, who heads the Molecular Mechanics of the Cardiovascular System laboratory at the CNIC, explained that proper cell function requires ...

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Science15 Nov 2024

Study uncovers earliest evidence of humans using fire to shape the landscape of Tasmania

Some of the first human beings to arrive in Tasmania, over 41,000 years ago, used fire to shape and manage the landscape, about 2,000 years earlier than previously thought. A team of researchers from the UK and Australia analysed charcoal and pollen contained in ancient mud to determine how Aboriginal Tasmanians shaped their surroundings. This is the earliest record of humans using fire to shape the Tasmanian environment. Early human migrations from Africa to the southern part of the globe were well underway during the early part of the last ice age – humans reached northern ...

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Medicine15 Nov 2024

Researchers uncover Achilles heel of antibiotic-resistant bacteria

Recent estimates indicate that deadly antibiotic-resistant infections will rapidly escalate over the next quarter century. More than 1 million people died from drug-resistant infections each year from 1990 to 2021, a recent study reported, with new projections surging to nearly 2 million deaths each year by 2050. In an effort to counteract this public health crisis, scientists are looking for new solutions inside the intricate mechanics of bacterial infection. A study led by researchers at the University of California San Diego has discovered a vulnerability within strains of bacteria that are antibiotic resistant. Working with labs at Arizona State University and the Universitat ...

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Science15 Nov 2024

Scientists uncover earliest evidence of fire use to manage Tasmanian landscape

Some of the first humans to arrive in Tasmania, over 41,000 years ago, used fire to shape and manage the landscape, a new study from The Australian National University (ANU) and the University of Cambridge has found. It is thought to be the earliest and most detailed record of humans using fire in the Tasmanian environment. According to the researchers, early inhabitants of Tasmania were managing forests and grasslands by burning them to create open spaces, possibly for food procurement and cultural activities. The team analysed traces of charcoal and pollen contained in ancient mud that showed how Indigenous Tasmanians (Palawa) ...

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