Feature Channels: Story Ideas: Medicine

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In the United States over 80,000 people are on the kidney transplant waiting list, and thousands die each year waiting for transplants. For most dialysis patients, kidney transplantation increases their chances of survival. In a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, Maarten G. Snoeijs, MD (Maastricht University Medical Center, the Netherlands) and co-authors analyzed 2,575 Dutch transplant candidates to see how receiving a DCD kidney affected their overall chances of survival.

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Patients with chronic kidney disease who have been diagnosed with depression are twice as likely to be hospitalized, progress to long-term dialysis treatments or die within a year as those who are not depressed, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

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A new study reveals factors that improve the performance of synthetic fibrin “knobs”, which bind to “holes” on fibrinogen molecules to prevent blood clot formation. The study also identifies a novel synthetic knob that displays a 10-fold higher affinity for holes than current synthetic knobs.

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Research by a University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) professor shows an association between hearing loss and the use of the erectile dysfunction drug Viagra. Findings published May 18 in Archives of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery indicate a potential for long-term hearing loss following use of Viagra, and possibly following use of other phosphodiesterase type 5 inhibitors (PDE-5i) drugs such as Cialis and Levitra, although results on those drugs are inconclusive.

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A commonly used probe for Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanning and a new probe developed by researchers at UCLA reveal different functions in diverse cells of the immune system, providing a non-invasive and much clearer picture of an immune response in action.

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Despite the very high rate of problems with sexual function among people with chronic kidney disease (CKD), little is known about the best treatment approaches in this group of patients, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN).

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The immunosuppressive drug sirolimus considerably improves the kidney health of patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The results suggest that this agent may be a promising treatment option for patients with ADPKD—the most common genetic kidney disease and a major cause of kidney failure.

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Subcutaneous implantable defibrillator eliminates the need for lead placement in or on the heart and may avoid complications associated with transvenous ICDs.

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Compared with a group of healthy study participants, adults with sickle cell anemia showed poorer performance on neurocognitive tests, which was associated with anemia and age, according to a study in the May 12 issue of JAMA.

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Light chain amyloidosis, a deadly protein misfolding disease, is caused by multiple mutations in cells that are intended to protect the body. Instead, the mutations send misfolded bundles of proteins through the bloodstream, potentially destroying the heart, kidneys, liver or other organs. Mayo Clinic researchers have identified one of these mutations and have shown that the molecule’s shifting position is as important as its unique shape. The findings appear in the current issue of the journal Structure.

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Proton pump inhibitors, medications that suppress acid in the stomach, appear to be associated with fractures in postmenopausal women and bacterial infections in many patients, and higher doses do not appear any more beneficial for treating bleeding ulcers, according to a series of reports in the May 10 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. An additional report finds that introducing guidelines for proton pump inhibitor use into clinical settings may reduce rates of inappropriate prescriptions.

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A tiny gene mutation in human liver cells could one day influence how high or low a dose patients need of about half of the clinically used drugs on the market, new research suggests.

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A new study suggests that nearly a fourth of women consider themselves “OK either way” about getting pregnant – a wide swath of ambivalence that surprised researchers, and that could reshape how doctors approach many aspects of women’s health care.

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Using bar-code technology with an electronic medication administration record (eMAR) substantially reduces transcription and medication administration errors, as well as potential drug-related adverse events.

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A pathology test may help doctors distinguish between two separate but overlapping esophageal disorders that require different courses of treatment, according to a study by researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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Men 45 years or older who received pneumococcal vaccine were not less likely to have a heart attack or stroke compared to men who did not receive the vaccine, according to a study in the May 5 issue of JAMA.

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Hospitals that have a higher rate of following up within one week for patients who were discharged after treatment for heart failure have a lower rate of readmission at 30 days for these patients, according to a study in the May 5 issue of JAMA.

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People who rely on the print media for their health information tend to do better than Web-seekers at following a healthy lifestyle

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Most people associate serotonin with brain neurology, but over 95 percent of the body’s serotonin occurs in the gastrointestinal tract, which has a complex neuronal circuit that has been called “the second brain” of the body.

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A targeted antibiotic provides effective and long-lasting relief of Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms, according to the results of two multisite Phase III clinical trials designed by Cedars-Sinai researchers. Rifaximin is the first drug treatment for IBS that relieves symptoms while it’s being administered and continues to benefit patients after they stop taking the drug.

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Mayo Clinic researchers have found that the kidneys of healthy adults show signs of chronic mild injury that increase with age. This damage is present even though the adults showed no clinical signs of kidney disease.

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A multicenter team of investigators led by the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine has demonstrated, for the first time, the safety and efficacy of a targeted medication to shrink advanced kidney cancers prior to partial kidney removal and reconstruction.

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The study found that 18 percent of IBS patients surveyed reported they were currently using narcotics. These patients reported more abdominal pain, poorer health quality, more IBS-related limitations, more hospitalizations and surgeries, and that they were more likely to use antidepressants and antacid medications.

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A shorter daily shift schedule for endoscopists, the physicians who perform colonoscopies, avoids a decrease in the polyp detection rate as the day progresses, research from Mayo Clinic indicates.

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Pay-for-performance reimbursement of surgeons, intended to reward doctors and hospitals for good patient outcomes, may instead be creating financial incentives for discriminating against obese patients, who are much more likely to suffer expensive complications after even the most routine surgeries, according to new Johns Hopkins research.

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Vitamin E has been shown effective in treating nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), an obesity-associated chronic liver disease that can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer, and death. NASH also is related to or a part of type 2 diabetes, lipid disorders and cardiovascular disease.

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At a time when "donation after cardiac death" (DCD) has become an important approach to increasing the number of transplant organ donors, a provocative new study shows changes in brain activity occurring in response to withdrawal of life support, reports the May issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).

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Healthy people with high blood pressure who excrete a slight excess of protein in the urine raise their risk of developing kidney and heart complications. According to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Clinical Journal of the American Society Nephrology (CJASN), more attention should focus on the potential health effects of urinary protein excretion in individuals with high blood pressure (hypertension).

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A hormone mimic called Octreotide may be effective for treating polycystic liver disease (PLD) caused by ADPKD, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The study is the first clinical trial performed in the United States to test the effects of this agent in PLD.

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The University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago is the first academic medical center in the country to introduce a new "no stress" diagnostic system for assessing patients with heart failure and optimizing their treatment.

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With no currently approved treatments for NASH, the research results are welcome findings.

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Aided by a new experimental model, scientists are a step closer to understanding how cystic fibrosis (CF) causes lung disease in people with the condition. The findings could help improve treatments for lung disease, which causes most of the deaths and disability among people with CF.

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Changing the hue of hospital gowns and bed sheets to match a patient’s skin color could greatly enhance a physician’s ability to detect cyanosis and other health-related skin color changes, according to a new study from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

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Patients with diabetic nephropathy (kidney disease caused by diabetes) who received high dose B-vitamin therapy experienced a more rapid decline in kidney function and had a higher rate of heart attack and stroke than patients who received placebo, according to a study in the April 28 issue of JAMA.

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Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have found a potential new treatment for osteonecrosis, or the death of bone tissue, in people who are treated with steroids for several common medical conditions. There are currently no treatment options for people with this debilitating disease. The research is published in the April 27 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine researchers participated in a national multi-center trial comparing treatments for diabetic macular edema, a swelling of the retina associated with diabetes and the major cause of blindness among adult Americans.

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Black children with chronic kidney disease have more severe anemia than white children even when they receive the same treatment, according to a multicenter study led by Johns Hopkins Children’s Center to be published in the May issue of the American Journal of Kidney Disease.

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Shoulder and upper extremity injuries are very common according to Non-Surgical Orthopaedics, P.C. Many of them result from years of cumulative injuries punctuated by a trauma such as a motor vehicle accident, falls, or sports injuries. These injuries cost consumers, their employers and insurance companies billions of dollars a year in treatment and productivity losses.

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As a child, Angie Kelly, RN, BS, used to dress up in play scrubs, tuck her toy nurse kit under her arm and tend to her father - her prime patient. It is no wonder she chose this form of make-believe over any other. She had witnessed the value of the nursing profession firsthand from her mother, an accomplished nurse, researcher and educator.

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The increasing number of minorities diagnosed with cancer has inspired a variety of initiatives at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center focusing on minority health through research, education and community relations.

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A new study published in the May issue of Anesthesiology seeks to reduce the occurrence of ICU transfusions, revealing a new marker for patients at higher risk for developing severe anemia and subsequently requiring transfusion in the ICU.

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Researchers from NYU Langone Medical Center have discovered and characterized a general mechanism that controls transcription elongation in bacteria. The mechanism, described in the April 23 issue of Science, relies on physical cooperation between a moving ribosome and RNA polymerase (RNAP) that allows for a precise adjustment of the transcriptional yield in response to translational needs. The study could lead to the development of new ways to interfere with bacterial gene expression and serve as a new target for antimicrobial therapy.

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National guidelines say heart attack patients should receive emergency balloon angioplasties within 90 minutes of arriving at the hospital. Some hospitals are striving to reduce "door-to-balloon" times to under one hour.

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Adult ICU patients who received tracheotomy 6 to 8 days vs. 13 to 15 days after mechanical ventilation did not have a significant reduction in the risk of ventilator-associated pneumonia, according to a study in the April 21 issue of JAMA.

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The growing number of Americans with cardiovascular disease has caused a heightened sensitivity in the evaluation of chest pain. In a study published in the April issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings researchers reported that patients dismissed from the hospital with noncardiac chest pain continue to experience cardiac events, which may highlight a need for more aggressive cardiovascular risk factor management in this population.

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Criminal poisoning cases can be hard to recognize and even harder to solve when law enforcement officials don't know what a poisoning looks like. "Criminal Poisoning: Clinical and Forensic Perspectives" contains information for law enforcement, attorneys and medical providers to use when investigating cases of suspected criminal poisonings.

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A smile means happiness, a frown sadness, a raised brow surprise. Even when languages and cultures differ, people have this universal form of communication. But Moebius syndrome, a rare congenital condition causing facial paralysis, can rob people of this basic connection, affecting social interaction. However, contrary to previous studies, it does not appear to increase anxiety and depression or lower their satisfaction with life, compared to a control group.

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Millions of people are afflicted with inflammatory bowel diseases, and 30 percent of new cases occur in childhood. Mucin 1 may be a noninvasive indicator of the progression of these illnesses, according to a new study.

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The use of platelet rich plasma (PRP) following tooth removal appears to speed healing and bone formation. When a tooth is removed, poor healing can lead to excessive bone loss in the jaw that can delay tooth replacement, require costly reconstructive surgery, or even be impossible to fix, according to the authors. “Patients and clinicians could benefit if a cost-effective, simple technique were available that decreased bone-healing time and increased the predictability of favorable results,” they write.

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Patients with acute kidney injury (AKI) who are admitted to the hospital on a weekend are more likely to die than those admitted on a weekday, according to a study appearing in an upcoming issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). This disparity was most evident in smaller hospitals. The findings indicate that researchers should further investigate the availability and timing of care to patients hospitalized with AKI.