May 27th, 2022 - Approximately 25% of the global population has nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a broad term that covers a range of conditions. NAFLD is defined by the presence of macrovesicular steatosis without secondary causes, such as chronic use of medications, significant alcohol consumption, or hereditary disorders. Several phases of progression are noted, including simple steatosis, fibrosis, ...

May 27th, 2022 - Healthcare providers should be aware of important updates to vaccine recommendations that could affect patients preparing to travel internationally this summer. This includes information about: New rabies pre-exposure prophylaxis guidelines (PrEP); The new tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) vaccine; and Updated cholera vaccine recommendations and a restart of Vaxchora manufacturing and distribution....

May 27th, 2022 - Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's Coronavirus Resource Center. The number of daily COVID-19 deaths is dropping in the United States, but one fact has not changed in two-plus years of the pandemic: The elderly are still most at risk of dying from the virus. The seven-day moving average of COVID-related deaths is now 288, a number far lower than the peaks of ...

May 27th, 2022 - The COVID pandemic pushed telemedicine forward as a safe, accessible, and more widely reimbursed approach to care delivery for patients with cancer, but uptake of telemedicine was plagued by inequities, a retrospective study suggests. Before March 2020, only a very small percentage of patients with cancer used telemedicine services. By November 2021, nearly 16% of patients initiating cancer tre...

May 27th, 2022 - Here we go, again, and again, and again. There just aren't enough tears, and before the bodies of 19 small children are identified, the political noise starts up. Mass shootings are a part of the American landscape, but when they happen at schools, we all feel a distinct sense of violation and gaping grief. Those children are so innocent, so deserving of a right to live their lives, hold their ...

May 27th, 2022 - Wide disparities exist in diabetes-related emergency department (ED) use between racial and ethnic groups, rural and urban patients, and Medicare and Medicaid-insured adults versus those who were privately insured between 2008 and 2017, a serial cross-sectional study indicates. All-cause ED visits increased by over 50% during the same period even though substantial health reforms were made duri...

May 27th, 2022 - Patients with acute cholangitis are twice as likely to be readmitted within 30 days if they don't get a cholecystectomy in the same hospital admission for which they get biliary decompression, researchers say. The readmissions result mostly from sepsis and recurrence of the acute cholangitis, said Ahmad Khan, MD, MS, a gastroenterology fellow at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, at ...

May 27th, 2022 - Eosinophilic GI diseases (EGIDs) often overlap with other eosinophil-associated diseases (EADs), which leads to greater health care costs, according to an analysis of the U.S. Optum Clinformatics claims database. EADs have gained increased attention in recent years. They include eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), eosinophilic asthma, bullous pemphigoid, eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiiti...

May 27th, 2022 - A new study suggests that, at least for certain male patients, the answer to infertility might lie with epigenetics. According to the study, a commercially-available test of epigenetic anomalies — factors that affect how genes express themselves — can grade the likelihood that sperm are viable for conception. "The uniqueness of epigenetics is that some of the abnormalities detected have the pot...

May 27th, 2022 - SAN DIEGO, California — Race-based recommendations and clinical algorithms may be doing more harm than good, according to a systematic review of databases and guidelines. The study found examples of screening recommendations based on race or ethnicity that were likely misleading since these are social constructs that don't reflect a patient's individual risk, said Shazia Siddique, MD, who prese...

May 27th, 2022 - SAN DIEGO — A combination of cognitive-behavioral therapy and mindfulness meditation could reduce pain and fatigue from Crohn's disease, researchers say. Patients who followed the program not only felt better but were also more often able to show up for work and leisure activities, compared with a control group assigned to a wait list, said Shmuel Odes, MD, a professor of internal medicine at B...

May 27th, 2022 - Patients who have histologically active ulcerative colitis (UC) with a Mayo endoscopic subscore (MES) of 1 and a history of steroid use may be at increased risk for clinical relapse, according to a new single-center, retrospective analysis. In recent years, treat-to-target approaches in UC have incorporated clinician and patient-reported outcomes, along with endoscopic remission, defined as MES...

May 27th, 2022 - A previously unknown subtype of hormone-resistant prostate cancer accounts for about 30% of all cases, according to a new study from a team of scientists at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and Weill Cornell Medicine, published May 27, 2022, in the journal Science. The results could pave the way for targeted therapies for people with this subtype of prostate cancer. Prior to this re...

May 27th, 2022 - Scientists have identified a new disease in a ground-breaking discovery that could help patients with unexplained liver and kidney problems. Experts at Newcastle University, UK, have established the inherited condition, called TULP3-related ciliopathy that causes kidney and liver failure in children and adults. There are numerous reasons for kidney and liver organ failure, which if left untreat...

May 27th, 2022 - COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) found the majority of older adults want to stay in their own home as they age. However, given the natural decline in health that comes with aging, some older adults may have to move into a nursing home or assisted-living facility to receive more intensive levels of care. To help older adults live independently as they ‘age in p...

May 27th, 2022 - Research drawing on the national Overcoming COVID-19 study, led by Boston Children’s Hospital, and the hospital’s own Taking On COVID-19 Together Group provides evidence that children who previously had COVID-19 (or the inflammatory condition MIS-C) are not protected against the newer Omicron variant. Vaccination, however, does afford protection, the study found. The findings, published in Natu...

May 27th, 2022 - The most common subtype of thyroid cancer is differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC), which has a good prognosis and a survival rate of over 85%. The initial treatment approach is surgery followed, in some cases, by adjuvant radioactive iodine (RAI) therapy. A subset of patients develop RAI-refractory progressive disease, and, until the advent of multikinase inhibitors, lenvatinib and sorafenib, tr...

May 27th, 2022 - A study by Brazilian scientists points to the probable biological mechanism that modulates the accumulation of mutant mitochondrial DNA in cells during aging, especially in the liver. The mechanism is called autophagy, a process of cellular cleansing that destroys organelles, including mitochondria, and recycles their components. The findings resolve a paradigm in the field and raise a hypothes...

May 27th, 2022 - Jairo Kenupp Bastos first heard about the insect while visiting Canavieiras on the south coast of Bahia, a state in the Northeast of Brazil. “Local beekeepers told me about a tiny beetle that made holes in a plant called Dalbergia ecastaphyllum [Coinvine], a member of the pea family, and that the holes leaked a resin used by bees to make red propolis,” said Bastos, a professor of pharmacognosy ...

May 27th, 2022 - About The Study: The findings in this study of 2.6 million Chicago residents suggest that zip codes with low vaccination rates were associated with more deaths during the Alpha and Delta waves of COVID-19 and that inequitable vaccination coverage exacerbated existing racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 deaths. Authors: William F. Parker, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Chicago, is the c...