Page 72 - Lead Author News Today

Use of telehealth jumped sharply during the first months of the coronavirus pandemic shutdown, with the approach being used more often for behavioral health services than for medical care, according to a new RAND Corporation study.

Study highlights racial disparities in liver transplantation listing A new study of liver transplant centers confirms that non-Hispanic white patients get placed on liver transplant waitlists at disproportionately higher rates than non-Hispanic Black patients. However, researchers went a step further as they identified key reasons for that disparity: disproportionate access to private health insurance, travel distance to transplant centers, and a potential lack of knowledge among both practitio...

Cholesterol-lowering drugs may protect womens hearts from damage caused during chemotherapy Statins, common cholesterol-lowering medications, may protect womens hearts from damage caused during chemotherapy for early-stage breast cancer, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access journal of the American Heart Association. "Two types of cancer medications, anthracyclines and trastuzumab, are effective treatments for many women with...

Changes to Hippocampus Key in Alzheimer’s Disease Research led by researchers within the Neuroimaging Group UNSW Sydney’s Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) has found that specific subregions within the hippocampus may be key in understanding Alzheimer’s disease. The hippocampus is one of the regions in the brain that has been frequently used in the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease – the most common type of dementia – with hippocampal volume an important biomarker of the diseas...

Statins may protect the heart from damaging side-effects of early breast cancer treatment New research from UHNs Peter Munk Cardiac Centre (PMCC) shows statins, commonly prescribed to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke, may also protect the heart from damaging side-effects of early breast cancer treatment. Published Jan. 6, 2021 in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an observational study found women already taking statins and treated with either anth...

Brain scans predict posttraumatic stress disorder following mild TBI Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a complex psychiatric disorder brought on by physical and/or psychological trauma. How its symptoms, including anxiety, depression and cognitive disturbances arise remains incompletely understood and unpredictable. Treatments and outcomes could potentially be improved if doctors could better predict who would develop PTSD. Now, researchers using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have foun...

Study finds significantly lower mother-to-newborn transfer of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies Pregnant women may be especially vulnerable to developing more severe cases of COVID-19 following SARS-CoV-2 infection, but little is known about their anti-SARS-CoV-2 immune response or how it may affect their offspring. In a study published in JAMA Network Open, a group led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) provides new insights that could help improve care for these women and thei...

The weak spot of colon cancer stem cells Colon cancer stem cells have one weak spot: the enzyme Mll1. An MDC team led by Walter Birchmeier has now shown in Nature Communications that blocking this protein prevents the development of new tumors in the body. Since colonoscopies were introduced in Germany for early cancer detection, the number of diagnoses of advanced cancer every year has decreased, as precancerous lesions can now be detected and immediately removed as part of the examination. As...

New report offers recommendations to address opioid epidemic during COVID-19 pandemic A new report from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health offers recommendations aimed at federal, state, and local policymakers to address the opioid epidemic during the pandemic, which has seen sharp increases in fatal and nonfatal overdoses. The recommendations detail policy solutions in the areas of data and surveillance, harm reduction, and treatment, with special considerations...

Inter-arm blood pressure difference linked to greater risk of heart attack, stroke and death Robust evidence from a large international study confirms that a difference in blood pressure readings between arms is linked to greater risk of heart attack, stroke and death. Led by the University of Exeter, the global INTERPRESS-IPD Collaboration conducted a meta-analysis of all the available research, then merged data from 24 global studies to create a database of nearly 54,000 people. The data span...