Curated News: Medical Meetings

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Women with interruptions in health insurance coverage or with low income levels had a significantly increased likelihood of failing to receive breast cancer care that is in concordance with recommended treatment guidelines, according to results presented here at the Sixth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, held Dec. 6-9.

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Patients with epilepsy and, in particular, those with severe syndromic forms of the disorder, harbor a risk of sudden unexplained death in epilepsy, or SUDEP. Cardiac arrhythmias are a proposed cause. In a test of this theory, researchers have demonstrated that mice harboring a human SCN1A gene mutation that results in Dravet Syndrome (DS), a severe and intractable genetic epilepsy, have electrical disturbances in the heart that culminate in ventricular fibrillation and sudden cardiac death. Their findings, reported today at the American Epilepsy Society (AES) 67th annual meeting, suggest there may be novel strategies aimed at preventing SUDEP (Platform C.02 / abstract 1751046 – Heart Rate Variability Analysis Reveals Altered Autonomic Tone in Mouse Model of Dravet Syndrome).

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Epilepsy patients with complex partial seizures have impaired consciousness during seizure episodes and typically have no memory of the event. However, the mechanisms of seizure unconsciousness are unclear. Research reported today at the American Epilepsy Society (AES) 67th Annual Meeting suggests that the mechanism underlying loss of awareness during complex partial seizures is likely the same as that involved in slow wave or deep sleep.

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Washington, D.C., December 8, 2013 – Receiving specialized care in a timely manner plays a significant role in the progression and impact of epilepsy on someone’s life. Multiple organizations across the global epilepsy community have collaborated on “My Seizure, Know More” a web-based tool that empowers people with epilepsy and their families to seek specialized care.

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Hematology researchers have manipulated key biological events in adult blood cells to produce a form of hemoglobin normally absent after the newborn period. These cell culture findings may lead to a new therapy for sickle cell disease.

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Washington, DC, December 8, 2013 - The management of refractory convulsive status epilepticus (RCSE) varies at different medical centers and from patient to patient. Rapid success in aborting these non-stop seizures is crucial as the risk of neurological damage is high and, though rare, may result in death depending on seizure duration. By pooling data and analyzing current RCSE management practices, researchers representing a multicenter network of tertiary referral hospitals in the U.S. conducted a study that could lead to improved treatment outcomes for potentially life-threatening seizures.

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A long-standing hypothesis holds that prolonged febrile (fever induced) seizures (PFS), the most common form of childhood convulsive status epilepticus (CSE), cause mesial temporal sclerosis (MTS). CSE is a single seizure, or to or more seizures between which consciousness is not regained, lasting for more than 30 minutes. In MTS there is a loss of neurons and scarring of a key brain structure called the hippocampus. Whether prolonged convulsions lead to long-term damage to hippocampus or MTS is uncertain. A team of investigators from the United Kingdom and United States looking into this question has found that a subgroup, and not all, children who experience CSE have impaired hippocampal growth years after the prolonged seizure.

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Washington, DC, December 8 - Children with epilepsy are at high risk for depression, anxiety, and behavioral functioning disorders. Mood and behavior are known to change or improve in children following epilepsy surgery, but research is inconsistent concerning the extent of the change.

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Washington, DC, December 8 - Resective surgery is seldom used in epilepsy patients aged 60 and older despite its potential to offer seizure freedom. Older age may deter referrals to specialized epilepsy centers given concern of increased surgical risk due to age and presence of other health problems common in the elderly.

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Resective surgery is an effective treatment for drug-resistant epilepsy. To investigate the effect of epilepsy surgery on patients lives, researchers from the Comprehensive Epilepsy Program at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit conducted a long-term retrospective follow up of surgical patients and correlated post-surgical psychosocial outcomes with seizure outcome and brain area surgically treated.

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Patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) who were as old as 74 fared as well with stem cell transplantation as did patients in the 60-to-65 age range, according to a study from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

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Knowledge about the efficacy of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in preventing cervical cancer was lacking in the majority of survey respondents for whom the information would be relevant, according to results presented here at the Sixth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, held Dec. 6-9.

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Certain genetic alterations to the PAX gene family may be responsible for survival disparities seen between African-American and non-Latino white men with head and neck cancer, according to results presented here at the Sixth AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved, held Dec. 6-9.

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Seizures in people with epilepsy are commonly treated with anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) but 30-40 percent do not achieve adequate seizure control, predisposing them to severe health risks, impaired quality of life and higher healthcare costs.

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Patients with epilepsy often undergo evaluation by concurrent video and EEG monitoring (vEEG) for therapeutic planning, including possible epilepsy surgery. Seizures during monitoring increase the diagnostic yield and requires the withdrawal of anticonvulsant drugs (AEDs) to allow seizures to occur. A frequently asked question in clinical practice concerns the safety and long-term effect of AED withdrawal or discontinuation in this diagnostic procedure.

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Surgery for drug–resistant epilepsy is performed with the dual aim of obtaining seizure freedom and potential for reducing or discontinuing anticonvulsant drugs (AEDs). Most epilepsy patients become seizure free with surgery. But there are no criteria for the timing of AED withdrawal following the procedure, and the long-term effect of post-operative AED withdrawal is unclear.

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MRI-Guided Stereotactic Laser Ablation (SLA) of the hippocampus to control seizures in people with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) may result in seizure control that approaches that from anterior temporal lobectory or selective amygdalohippocampectomy and better cognitive outcomes than any of the standard open resections, according to a study presented at the American Epilepsy Society’s 67th Annual Meeting in Washington DC. If the SLA continues to prove safe and shows adequate efficacy for seizure control, the technique has the potential to drastically change brain surgery.

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MRI-Guided Stereotactic Laser Ablation (SLA) of the hippocampus to control seizures in people with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) may result in seizure control that approaches that from anterior temporal lobectory or selective amygdalohippocampectomy and better cognitive outcomes than any of the standard open resections, according to a study presented at the American Epilepsy Society’s 67th Annual Meeting in Washington DC. If the SLA continues to prove safe and shows adequate efficacy for seizure control, the technique has the potential to drastically change brain surgery.

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Researchers present the findings from a 2-year multicenter randomized double blinded controlled clinical study and a 7 year long-term treatment study of the NeuroPace RNS System at the American Epilepsy Society’s 67th Annual Meeting. The RNS System is a novel, implantable therapeutic device that delivers responsive neurostimulation, an advanced technology designed to detect abnormal electrical activity in the brain and respond by delivering imperceptible levels of electrical stimulation to normalize brain activity before an individual experiences seizures. NeuroPace received pre-market approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November.

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Nearly 90 percent of children and adults with a highly aggressive form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) showed no evidence of cancer after receiving a novel, personalized cell therapy that reprograms a patient's immune system.

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Epilepsy surgery is a very effective intervention for patients with treatment resistant epilepsy. The most successful and most common epilepsy surgery is temporal lobectomy, which produces seizure freedom in approximately two-thirds of patients. The strongest candidates for this type of surgery are those who have had treatment resistant epilepsy which includes 30-40 percent of all epilepsy cases. Even with this clear benefit, epilepsy specialists today reported at the Presidential Symposia during the American Epilepsy Society Annual Meeting, that the overall number of surgeries in adults, as well as the number of temporal lobectomies, has decreased from their peaks.

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It is hard to image the Colorado River, whose headlands start in the Rocky Mountains and serve more than 36 million users in the U.S., running dry. However, by the time the remaining nine percent of the original flow meets the Morelos Dam in Mexico, 90 percent of the riparian areas have vanished. "We've got at least a year, maybe two years before we start seeing [water] shortages in Arizona," said Michael Cohen, one of eight experts who presented at the "Adapting to a water-stressed West" water forum at ASU.

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The Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) hosted a groundbreaking Innovation and Technology Symposium at its recent Annual Meeting in San Francisco. In a first-of-its-kind gathering, neurosurgeons, lead engineers, inventors, researchers, CEOs and venture capitalists gathered to discuss breakthrough technologies and devices in cerebrovascular/endovascular, spine and brain tumor procedures.

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Compared to traditional mammography, 3D mammography—known as digital breast tomosynthesis—found 22 percent more breast cancers and led to fewer call backs in a large screening study at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP), researchers reported today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

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Movements so minute they cannot be detected by the human eye are being analyzed by researchers to diagnose autism spectrum disorder and determine its severity in children and young adults.

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A study comparing the efficacy and tolerability of two popular osteoporosis drugs, denosumab and zoledronic acid, found that denosumab had a significantly greater effect on increasing spine bone mineral density and zoledronic acid caused more flulike symptoms. These findings were presented recently at the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research’s annual meeting.

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Finger pricks may soon be a thing of the past for diabetics. Researchers at Western New England University have created a breathalyzer that may help control blood sugar by measuring the amount of acetone in the breath.

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Mayo Clinic researchers found that improvement of mood over the course of post-acute brain rehabilitation is associated with increased participation in day-to-day activities, independent living, and ability to work after rehabilitation is complete.

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Eight of 16 patients participating in a study of an experimental immune system therapy directed against the most aggressive malignant brain tumors – glioblastoma multiforme – survived longer than five years after diagnosis, according to Cedars-Sinai researchers, who presented findings Nov. 23 at the Fourth Quadrennial Meeting of the World Federation of Neuro-Oncology.

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An investigational, man-made blood vessel used in vascular grafts for kidney dialysis patients may potentially show encouraging early results among study patients in Poland, according to preliminary data reported Wednesday by a researcher at Duke Medicine.

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Dallas, TX – Researchers from the Sinai Center for Thrombosis Research presented findings from a Phase 2a trial substudy that examined the antiplatelet effects of CSL112, a novel apolipoprotein A-I (apo A-I) infusion therapy, at the American Heart Association 2013 Scientific Sessions.

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Among thousands of hospital patients treated for a “mini stroke,” those who were at highest risk for suffering a full-blown ischemic attack were less likely to received optimal care, according to a study led by researchers at Duke Medicine.

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Researchers from the Cardiovascular Research Center at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai reported the long-term benefits of a single dose of their gene therapy AAV1/SERCA2a in advanced heart failure patients on Nov. 19 at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2013.

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For years, doctors have been divided on how effective annual testing and screenings are for apparently healthy individuals. New research, however, shows that a simple blood test may predict who is at highest risk to develop heart problems – and how long these people may have to live.

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A targeted effort to help high-risk heart failure patients stay on their medications did improve adherence to drug regimens, but had surprisingly little effect lowering hospital readmission rates, according to a study at Duke Medicine.

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Researchers report for the first time evidence on whether or not there is any significant difference between the two current surgical approaches to treat patients with severe ischemic mitral regurgitation -- mitral valve repair and mitral valve replacement.

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Two drugs tested in a larger trial did not improve kidney function in acute heart failure patients, contrary to results of smaller studies. The results were presented today at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2013 in Dallas and simultaneously published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Previous smaller studies showed that low-dose dopamine or low-dose nesiritide could improve kidney function and reduce fluid overload that is often present in hospitalized acute heart failure patients by increasing urine production.

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Researchers show end-stage heart failure patients who receive a surgically implanted left ventricular assist device (LVAD) heart pump may also benefit from a single dose of millions of powerful cells injected directly into their heart during surgery.

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Researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute have discovered a link between elevated red cell distribution width levels and depression in patients being treated for heart disease. This new discovery can help physicians provide earlier diagnosis and treatment for possible depression in heart patients.

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Preschoolers can learn about healthy eating and exercise through Sesame Street. In a study presented on November 18 at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2013, preschoolers in Bogotá, Colombia participating in a structured curriculum that used Sesame Street’s Healthy Habits for Life materials improved their knowledge, attitudes and habits related to a heart-healthy lifestyle. Also, the percentage of children at a healthy weight improved by 13 percent.

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Research presented today, at the 117th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology in New Orleans, has found that women who have taken oral contraceptives for three or more years are twice as likely to suffer from glaucoma, one of the leading causes of blindness which affects nearly 60 million worldwide. The researchers caution gynecologists and ophthalmologists to be aware of the fact that oral contraceptives might play a role in glaucomatous diseases, and inform patients to have their eyes screened for glaucoma if they also have other risk factors.

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The American Academy of Ophthalmology today unveiled the nation’s first comprehensive eye disease and condition patient database. The IRIS ™ Registry (Intelligent Research in Sight) made its debut in a presentation to 25,000 attendees during the opening session of the world’s largest ophthalmic conference – the 117th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

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Researchers from the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute, in collaboration with researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the National Institutes of Health, have discovered a simple way to further predict a diabetic patient’s risk for heart disease: by measuring their body mass index or BMI.

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A new study highlights the importance of exercise and physical fitness among people with stable coronary artery disease. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Henry Ford Hospital found that higher levels of physical fitness lower the risk of having heart attacks and increase survival in those with coronary artery disease, whether or not they have had a procedure to open up their blocked arteries.

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Residents of major cities with high levels of air pollution have an increased risk of dry eye syndrome, according to a study presented at the world's largest ophthalmic conference, the 117th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology, in New Orleans. Study subjects in and around Chicago and New York City were found to be three to four times more likely to be diagnosed with dry eye syndrome compared to less urban areas with relatively little air pollution.

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Research presented today at the 117th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology shows that wearing visors in the National Hockey League (NHL) could cause a four-fold decrease in the risk of eye injuries. Furthermore, the study found that eye injuries over the last 10 seasons have cost the NHL and its associated franchises more than $32 million in missed games.

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Research presented today at the 117th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology shows promising data about a device that helps people who have lost their vision due to a blinding genetic disease to recognize common objects. In the study, the researchers found when the objects’ outlines had been enhanced, there was increased recognition. The device, called the Argus II, is the first FDA-approved retinal implant for adults with retinitis pigmentosa.

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The progressive loss of skeletal muscle during aging, known as sarcopenia, underlies limitations in physical function and mobility, which in turn lead to falls, loss of independence, institutionalization and even death. Mayo Clinic researcher Nathan LeBrasseur, Ph.D., of Mayo Clinic’s Robert and Arlene Kogod Center on Aging and Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, presented an update on promising strategies and therapies to restore skeletal muscle health in the face of aging and disease during a symposium at the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine Annual Conference.

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Cataract surgeries performed over one year eventually save $123.4 billion over 13 years and delivers a 4,567 percent financial return on investment to society according to the results of a cost-utility study, published online today in the Academy’s official journal, Ophthalmology, and will be presented on Nov. 17 at the world’s largest ophthalmic conference, the American Academy of Ophthalmology’s 117th Annual Meeting, in New Orleans. Researchers say that the results prove that healthcare interventions create substantial economic wealth.

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Saint Louis University researchers found that antioxidant extracts from spearmint and rosemary fight mild cognitive impairment in an animal model.