Oct 3rd, 2022 - Tocilizumab vs placebo was found to normalize serum amyloid A (SAA) levels and decrease disease activity in patients with Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF), according to findings published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine. FMF is an autoinflammatory disease that causes chronic inflammation without the presence of autoantibodies or antigen-specific T-lymphocytes. Symptoms include recurrent f...

Oct 3rd, 2022 - Young children and adolescent patients present differently with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), according to study results published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. For the study, researchers sourced data from the European Pediatric Eosinophilic Esophagitis Registry (pEEr) registry, which was initiated in 2015 by the Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disorders Working Gr...

Oct 3rd, 2022 - According to research published in Lancet Haematology, a novel approach to haploidentical bone marrow transplantation results in excellent overall survival (OS) with minimal graft vs host disease (GVHD) in patients with relapsed or refractory severe aplastic anemia and may now be considered a standard salvage treatment for the disorder. The researchers reported the outcomes of BMT CTN 1502, a s...

Sep 30th, 2022 - More than 1100 wildfires burned in the US during the month of September, according to the Fire, Weather, and Avalanche Center1 — a situation that, according to research, causes more people with asthma, other respiratory issues, and heart conditions to show up at doctors’ offices, emergency departments, and hospitals. The particulate matter generated by wildfires is especially hazardous for chil...

Sep 30th, 2022 - The American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) released a clinical practice update about the role of endoscopy in recurrent acute and chronic pancreatitis. The expert review, which details 8 best practice advice statements, was published in Gastroenterology. Up to 30% of patients with pancreatitis will develop recurrent acute pancreatitis, defined as 2 or more acute pancreatitis episodes. A...

Sep 30th, 2022 - An expert consensus statement from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) on the role of nonstatin therapies for maintaining low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels to manage atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Newer nonstatin therapy options include ezetimibe, alirocumab or evolocumab, bempedoic ac...

Sep 30th, 2022 - Patients with vs without psoriatic arthritis (PsA) have markedly elevated risks to their cardiometabolic health. More than half of patients with PsA have at least 1 comorbidity (Figure 1).1 Patients with PsA are estimated to be 46% more likely to be diagnosed with a cardiovascular disease (CVD) than the general population, with a higher rate of hospitalization related to CVD as well.2 Moreover,...

Sep 30th, 2022 - The FDA has identified this as a Class I recall, the most serious type of recall. Use of these devices may cause serious injuries or death. The LifeSPARC System is intended to pump the blood through an extracorporeal circuit for periods lasting less than 6 hours for the purpose of providing either: The LifeSPARC System has two components: the LifeSPARC Pump and the LifeSPARC Controller. The Lif...

Sep 30th, 2022 - Updated clinical guidelines for managing patients with ventricular arrhythmias and preventing sudden cardiac death were published in August 2022 by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), in the European Heart Journal.[1] In patients presenting with tolerated sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia (SMVT), first-line treatment with direct current cardioversion is recommended if the anes...

Sep 30th, 2022 - STOCKHOLM — Recent study results confirm that two agents from the sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitor class can significantly cut the incidence of adverse cardiovascular events in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFpEF), a disease especially common in people with type 2 diabetes, obesity, or both. And findings from secondary analyses of the studies ― incl...

Sep 30th, 2022 - A home-based palliative care program involving primary care physicians, cardiologists, and palliative care specialists is associated with a lower likelihood of dying in the hospital for patients with chronic heart failure, data indicate. The program is also associated with fewer visits to the emergency department, more clinician home visits, shorter hospital stays, and more days spent at home. ...

Sep 30th, 2022 - Device maker LivaNova (TandemLife) has recalled the LifeSPARC controller, part of the LifeSPARC system, because of a software malfunction that may cause the controller's monitoring feature to wrongly enter critical failure mode, causing the pump to stop working. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has labeled this a Class I recall, the most serious type, because of the risk for serious in...

Sep 29th, 2022 - Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) delivered with a helmet interface, rather than a facemask, may prevent endotracheal intubation in patients with COVID-19 and moderate-to-severe respiratory failure, researchers reported in Chest. The prospective, single-center, cohort study compared clinical outcomes in patients with acute hypoxemic respiratory failure due to COVID-19 who received CPAP...

Sep 29th, 2022 - An expert consensus statement from the American College of Cardiology (ACC) on the role of nonstatin therapies for maintaining low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) levels to manage atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Newer nonstatin therapy options include ezetimibe, alirocumab or evolocumab, bempedoic ac...

Sep 29th, 2022 - Reduced risk for heart failure (HF) is associated with device-measured physical activity, especially moderate-intensity physical activity, according to study findings published in Circulation. Researchers sought to evaluate the dose-response relationship between device-measured physical activity and HF stratified by physical activity intensity. They conducted a prospective cohort study that inc...

Sep 29th, 2022 - Young children and adolescent patients present differently with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), according to study results published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. For the study, researchers sourced data from the European Pediatric Eosinophilic Esophagitis Registry (pEEr) registry, which was initiated in 2015 by the Eosinophilic Gastrointestinal Disorders Working Gr...

Sep 29th, 2022 - Dermatologists should be aware of misinformation regarding acne vulgaris and counter it with evidence-based practice with their patients, according to findings from a study published in Clinical and Experimental Dermatology. Researchers assessed online misinformation regarding acne by conducting a literature search on PubMed, which ultimately yielded 5 papers for their review. They also perform...

Sep 29th, 2022 - Factors associated with an increased risk for long COVID include older age, a higher comorbidity burden, disease severity at the time of diagnosis, and unvaccinated status at initial onset of infection. These study findings were published in JAMA Network Open. Using data from the Veterans Affairs Corporate Data Warehouse and the COVID-19 Shared Data Resource, researchers conducted a retrospecti...

Sep 29th, 2022 - High tumor mutational burden—the number of mutations found inside cancer cells—may not generalize as an accurate biomarker across diverse cancer patient populations, researchers report on September 29 in the journal Cancer Cell. The results could have important implications for clinical decision-making regarding treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), a type of immunotherapy. “The s...

Sep 29th, 2022 - Intravenous treatment with omega-3 fatty acids in elderly hospitalised patients in intensive care due to COVID-19 seems to have positive effects on the ability of the immune system to cope with the virus, according to a study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. In the future, the study, published in the journal Clinical and Translational Medicine, could lead to a complementary, cost-effective...