Feature Channels: Bone Health

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Engineers have developed neutrophil “nanosponges” that can safely absorb and neutralize a variety of proteins that play a role in the progression of rheumatoid arthritis. Injections of these nanosponges effectively treated severe rheumatoid arthritis in two mouse models. Administering the nanosponges early on also prevented the disease from developing. The nanosponges are nanoparticles of biodegradable polymer coated with the cell membranes of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell.

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The latest research, features and announcements in healthcare in the Healthcare News Source

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While we appreciate the agency’s efforts to make prescription medications more affordable, we have serious concerns about a new CMS guidance to allow Medicare Part D plan sponsors to implement indication-based formulary designs that allow plans to select drugs for their formularies based only on the disease indications they want to use.

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Independence in mobility is the single most important factor affecting quality of life in patients with traumatic spinal cord injury (TSCI), reports a study in the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation, the official journal of the Association of Academic Physiatrists. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.

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A broad coalition of 126 patient and provider groups – led by leading national organizations including the American College of Rheumatology – today sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) urging the agency not to move forward with a proposal that would significantly reduce Medicare reimbursements for evaluation and management (E/M) services provided by specialists, citing concerns that these time-intensive services – which include examinations, disease diagnosis and risk assessments, and care coordination – are already grossly under-compensated and that additional payment cuts would worsen workforce shortages in already strained specialties like rheumatology.

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Researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have discovered a way to stop immune cell death associated with multiple diseases, including sepsis, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), and arthritis. The findings, published in Science Immunology, identify a chemical that potently inhibits inflammatory cell death.

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This September, Sports Broadcaster Terry Bradshaw is teaming up once again with the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) to share important information about rheumatic diseases in a new public service announcement (PSA) airing nationwide this fall.

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Most Americans will have walked 75,000 miles by the time they reach the age of 50 – the equivalent of trekking around the Earth on the equator three times - which is why regular foot care is so important.

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The Endocrine Society has selected five new recipients for its Early Investigators Awards.

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NIBIB-funded researchers at Stanford University used dual PET and MRI technology to detect increased bone remodeling in the injured knees of patients likely to get osteoarthritis. This increased bone activity was often seen next to areas of early cartilage tissue degradation, suggesting an important link between degenerative changes in neighboring tissues in the disease.

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A patient blood management program designed to limit the amount of transfused blood orthopedic patients undergoing common surgeries such as hip and knee replacement receive was associated with fewer transfusions, reduced blood use and improved outcomes, reports a study published in the Online First edition of Anesthesiology.

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The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) and the Association for Rheumatology Health Professionals (ARHP) welcome members of the press to write about research presented at the 2018 ACR/ARHP Annual Meeting by attending sessions on-site or covering them remotely.

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In 2008, a contaminant eluded the quality safeguards in the pharmaceutical industry and infiltrated a large portion of the supply of the popular blood thinner heparin, sickening hundreds and killing about 100 in the U.S.

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Researchers discovered a gene mutation underlying hydrops fetalis – a fatal condition to fetuses. The proteins at the center of this finding are implicated in a number of diseases, opening avenues of potential drug discovery related to migraines, diabetes, osteoporosis, and other conditions.

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Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine report that women whose mothers lived to at least age 90 were more likely to also live to 90, free of serious diseases and disabilities.

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Amid the chaos of getting kids out the door in the morning and taming the hangry monsters that get off the bus in the afternoon, parents may be overlooking a critical part of setting their kids up for success during the school year: a nutrient-rich diet. One out of two kids ages 9 and up are not getting enough calcium, vitamin D and potassium – nutrients they need to grow, learn and play. And, most kids younger than nine are falling short on vitamin D and potassium.

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It’s a longstanding mystery why salamanders can perfectly regenerate their tails whereas lizard tails grow back all wrong. By transplanting neural stem cells between species, Pitt researchers have discovered that the lizard’s native stem cells are the primary factor hampering tail regeneration.

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Young baseball pitchers can reduce their risk for elbow injuries with better conditioning and throwing mechanics. That’s the takeaway of a pair of recent research studies conducted by sports medicine orthopedic researchers at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit and published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine.

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The American College of Rheumatology’s Collaborative Initiatives department has received two grants from the Office of Minority Health (OMH) to support the development of programs that aim to increase the recruitment and enrollment in clinical trials of minority populations affected by lupus.

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A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed an artificial intelligence (AI) technology platform that could potentially change the way drug combinations are being designed, hence enabling doctors to determine the most effective drug combination for a patient quickly

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The American College of Rheumatology (ACR) today expressed its extreme disappointment with a new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) decision to allow Medicare Advantage (MA) plans to implement step therapy for Part B drugs and cross-manage Part B and D drug utilization.

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Engineers and medical researchers at the University of Minnesota have teamed up to create a groundbreaking 3D-printed device that could someday help patients with long-term spinal cord injuries regain some function.

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Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine report that they have successfully created spinal cord neural stem cells (NSCs) from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) that differentiate into a diverse population of cells capable of dispersing throughout the spinal cord and can be maintained for long periods of time.

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Hackensack Meridian Health Bayshore Medical Center in Holmdel, NJ, is pleased to welcome Robert Borzio, M.D., to its team of physicians. Dr. Borzio is an orthopedic surgeon, providing general orthopedic care and treatment of fractures in the upper and lower extremities. He specializes in muscle sparing computer navigated total hip and knee replacement and revision hip and knee replacement.

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• When opioids are prescribed following surgery, approximately four percent of the general patient population will continue using opioids for an extended time period • Race and household income were not significant risk factors for prolonged opioid use • Physicians’ prescribing practices may influence patient risk • Patients in the worker’s compensation setting experienced the highest rates of prolonged opioid use

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More than 60 years after the drug thalidomide caused birth defects in thousands of children whose mothers took the drug while pregnant, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have solved a mystery that has lingered ever since the dangers of the drug first became apparent: how did the drug produce such severe fetal harm?

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Orthopedics & Joint Replacement at Mercy Medical Center now offers a new advanced minimally invasive surgical option for patients needing total knee replacement: MAKOplasty Total Knee Replacement Surgery using robotic technology.

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Finding could lead to targeted therapies for chronic condition

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After suffering a severe cervical spinal cord injury from a bad fall at work, Scott McConnell had little function remaining in his hands and arms. Loyola Medicine orthopaedic surgeon Michael Bednar, MD, was able to restore key functions with a series of operations called tendon transfers.

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The American College of Rheumatology expressed concerns that the proposed cuts to cognitive E/M services, along with the methodology changes to PE, will further restrict patient access to rheumatologists and other cognitive specialists at a time when the workforce is already shrinking.

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Broken bones among older people increase their risk of death for up to 10 years, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

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Patients who take prescription opioids for more than 60 days before total knee or hip replacement surgery are at significantly higher risk of being readmitted to the hospital and of undergoing repeat joint-replacement surgery, compared to patients with no preoperative opioid use, reports a study in the July 18 issue of The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio in partnership with Wolters Kluwer.

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Mayfield Brain & Spine joins over 100 existing QOD participating centers.

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Mary K. Crow, MD, physician-in-chief and chief of Rheumatology, and Jane E. Salmon, MD, rheumatologist at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS), have been named honorary members of the European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) during the Annual European Congress of Rheumatology in Amsterdam.

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Supplementing a single protein found in the spinal cord could help prevent symptoms of Lou Gehrig’s disease, according to a new study out of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. Researchers found high levels of the protein—called mitofusion 2 or Mfn2—prevented nerve degeneration, muscle atrophy, and paralysis in a mouse model of the disease. Since Mfn2 is often depleted during Lou Gehrig’s, the new study suggests supplementing it could be a novel therapeutic approach for the disease.

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UCLA researchers have found that the PGC-1α gene, previously known to control human metabolism, also controls the equilibrium of bone and fat in bone marrow and also how an adult stem cell expresses its final cell type. The findings could lead to a better understanding of the disruption of bone-to-fat ratio in bone marrow and its health consequences, and point to the gene as a therapeutic target in the treatment of osteoporosis and skeletal aging.

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Los investigadores de Mayo Clinic aplican la genómica de precisión para buscar mutaciones genéticas, aún no descubiertas y hereditarias que aceleran el envejecimiento.

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Previous studies have shown graphene foam’s compatibility with chondrogenic cell lines for cartilage tissue engineering; this is the first to focus on the viscoelastic behavior of the engineered tissue to test the functionality of the grown cartilage.

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Spine surgeons earn high ratings for their skill and good clinical outcomes on internet review sites – but are more likely to receive negative ratings and comments on factors pertaining to clinic staff, billing, and wait times, reports a landmark study in Spine. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

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South Australian researchers are embarking on a $20 million medical and manufacturing research project which could reduce the chance of infection after orthopaedic surgery, thanks to a little help from the humble dragonfly.

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Atlantic Health System is now enrolling patients in four pancreatic cancer clinical trials. Angela Alistar, MD, a nationally known expert on pancreatic cancer, is serving as national Principal Investigator (PI) on the first trial and as local PI on three other trials.

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A new post-less distraction technique of the hip joint lessens complications of hip arthroscopy.

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A recent study by University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHS) researchers shows that a type of blood protein we are all born with protects against osteoporosis, illuminating the potential for a novel approach to treatment.

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Reviewing medical information gathered on more than 6,000 adults over a 10-year period, Johns Hopkins researchers have found that lower than normal blood levels of vitamin D were linked to increased risk of early signs of interstitial lung disease (ILD).

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A new study from researchers at Michigan Medicine explores links between chronic joint inflammation and cognitive impairment.

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This study found that women with a blood level of >60 ng/ml had an 80 percent lower risk for breast cancer than those with levels of 20 ng/ml or less.

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Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine suggest higher levels of vitamin D are associated with decreasing risk of breast cancer. Their epidemiological study is published in the June 15 online issue of PLOS ONE, in collaboration with Creighton University, Medical University of South Carolina and GrassrootsHealth, an Encinitas-based nonprofit organization that promotes vitamin D research and its therapeutic benefits.

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Children's Hospital Los Angeles occupational therapist Jamie Sakamoto breaks down growing pains, the most common cause of musculoskeletal pain in children

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University Hospitals (UH) announced that Walmart has selected UH Cleveland Medical Center as a national Center of Excellence to provide joint-replacement surgery and orthopedic care for Walmart employees and their families.

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The American College of Rheumatology has released a position statement on pharmacovigilance emphasizing the need for the continued monitoring of new drugs once they are introduced to the market.