Mayo Clinic Monthly News Tips — November 2016

Gait as a predictor for cognitive decline A Mayo Clinic study recently published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease found that problems associated with gait can predict a significant decline in memory and thinking. Using the Rochester Epidemiology Project, Mayo Clinic researchers examined medical records of Olmsted County, Minnesota, residents, who were between ages 70 to 89 as of Oct. 1, 2004. The analysis included 3,426 cognitively normal participants enrolled in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging who had a complete gait and neuropsychological assessment.Media Contact: Susan Barber Lindquist, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 507-284-5005, [email protected]

Mayo establishes High Altitude and Harsh Environments Medical ClinicMayo Clinic is seeing patients with concerns about traveling to high altitudes at the recently established High Altitude and Harsh Environments Medical Clinic. The clinic focuses primarily on travelers concerned about ascending to climates above 8,000 feet. Additional aspects of the clinic focus on the remote nature of high-altitude austere environments, including decreased oxygen, extreme cold conditions, scarcity of safe food and water sources and limited health care resources. Jan Stepanek, M.D., chair of Division of Preventive, Occupational and Aerospace Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Arizona, is a native of Switzerland whose interest in this domain of medicine stems from his time stationed in the mountains while serving in the Swiss military.Media Contact: Jim McVeigh, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 480-301-4368, [email protected]

Next-generation biomaterial being developed to treat bleedingResearchers at Mayo Clinic, Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are developing a biomaterial that has potential to protect patients at high risk for bleeding in surgery. The Nov. 16 cover article, “An Injectable Shear-Thinning Biomaterial for Endovascular Embolization,” in the journal Science Translational Medicine reports on a universal shear-thinning biomaterial that may provide an alternative for treating vascular bleeding. The study’s lead co-author Rahmi Oklu, M.D., Ph.D., a vascular interventional radiologist at Mayo Clinic’s Arizona campus, explains shear-thinning biomaterial offers many advantages over metallic coils, the current gold standard.Media Contact: Julie Janovsky-Mason, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 480-301-6173, [email protected]

Mayo Clinic study shows that choice of medical center impacts life expectancy of multiple myeloma patientsPeople diagnosed with multiple myeloma are more likely to live longer if they are treated at a medical center that sees many patients with this blood cancer. Mayo Clinic researchers published these findings in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. For example, patients treated at centers seeing 10 new patients per year had a 20 percent higher risk of death than those treated at centers seeing 40 new patients per year. Most cancer treatment centers in the United States see fewer than 10 new multiple myeloma patients per year. The researchers used the National Cancer Database, examining outcomes for 94,722 multiple myeloma patients at 1,333 centers.Media Contact: Elizabeth Zimmerman Young, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 507-284-5005, [email protected]

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