February 09, 2021
Patent foramen ovale (PFO) closure in conjunction with optimal medical therapy can reduce both the number of migraine days and the frequency of attacks compared with medicine alone, according to a new pooled analysis.
The findings are unlikely to have an effect on clinical practice, as regulatory bodies have not approved any PFO closure device for the treatment of migraine. However, the procedure is now an option for the prevention of PFO-associated stroke.
“What this [study] will do is increase people s interest and whet their appetite for the next clinical trial, but it s not going to have an immediate practical, clinical effect,” senior study author Jonathan Tobis, MD (University of California, Los Angeles), told TCTMD. “People aren t going to go out and start closing PFOs for migraine. I hope if anything it will stimulate interest in the patient population to participate in the RELIEF PFO trial [because] this shows the good justification for why PFO cl
Illustration: Damon Dahlen/HuffPost; Photos: Getty
Eating healthy is a give and take between the foods we want to eat and the foods we should eat. Throw in the complications of being a modern person ― a busy schedule, long hours, preferences, kids, spouses, traditions, health conditions ― and it’s not so hard to see why eating well is more complicated than it sounds.
None of this is any less true for doctors. While their patients may not have the same income level or background, most doctors can relate to long, stressful days at work, which leaves limited time for meal preparation. And, of course, even cardiologists aren’t immune to craving steak, alcohol, pizza and other tasty favorites that aren’t exactly nutritious or healthy.
Study identifies major flaws in iBMEC-based models of the blood-brain barrier
A type of cell derived from human stem cells that has been widely used for brain research and drug development may have been leading researchers astray for years, according to a study from scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
The cell, known as an induced Brain Microvascular Endothelial Cell (iBMEC), was first described by other researchers in 2012, and has been used to model the special lining of capillaries in the brain that is called the blood-brain barrier.
Many brain diseases, including brain cancers as well as degenerative and genetic disorders, could be much more treatable if researchers could get drugs across this barrier. For that and other reasons, iBMEC-based models of the barrier have been embraced as an important standard tool in brain research.
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Weill Cornell researchers detect key flaw in brain modeling
A type of cell derived from human stem cells that has been widely used for brain research and drug development may have been leading researchers astray for years, according to a study from scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine and Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Lis Lab/Provided
Induced brain microvascular endothelial cells (IBMECs), top, cultured in 3D assume an epithelial organoid structure and express the epithelial cell marker EPCAM (purple). When they are reprogrammed by overexpression of ETV2, ERG and FLI1, they lose EPCAM expression, acquire vascular markers VE-Cad (red) and PECAM1 (green) and are able to fulfill the function of endothelial cells – forming blood vessels, shown in bottom image.