NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A modified form of intermittent theta-burst stimulation (iTBS) called SAINT that delivers higher doses of magnetic stimulation on an accelerated timeline and targeted to individual neurocircuitry relieved depression in 90% of patients with treatment-resistant depression in a small open-label study. SAINT, or Stanford Accelerated Intelligent Neuromodulation Therapy, "...

GENEVA/ZURICH (Reuters) - World leaders pledged on Friday to accelerate work on tests, drugs and vaccines against COVID-19 and to share them around the globe, but the United States did not take part in the launch of the World Health Organization (WHO) initiative. French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa were among those who jo...

Editor's note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape's  Coronavirus Resource Center. (Reuters) — U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn is in self-quarantine for a couple of weeks after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19, an FDA spokesman told Reuters late on Friday. Hahn immediately took a diagnostic test and was tested negat...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Therapeutic intravascular ultrasound pulmonary-artery denervation is safe and reduces pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR) in certain patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), according to a small open-label trial. The study "demonstrated a good safety profile and suggested a positive effect on hemodynamics, exercise tolerance and daily activity on top of c...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Shoved to the ground, splashed with bleach or glared at on public transportation, health workers face a growing tide of hostility across Latin America for potentially spreading COVID-19. For Sandra Aleman, a nurse in the city of San Luis Potosi in central Mexico, the attack began when a group of children sprayed juice and soda on her white uniform, shouting, "It's Covid!...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Topical corticosteroids use is associated with a reduced recurrence rate of vulvar squamous cell carcinoma (vSCC) and differentiated vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (dVIN) in women with vulvar lichen sclerosus, according to researchers in Australia. "Topical corticosteroids are not routinely prescribed following surgical treatment of a malignant or pre-malignant les...

BENGALURU/LONDON (Reuters) - The United States has secured almost a third of the first one billion doses planned for AstraZeneca's experimental COVID-19 vaccine by pledging up to $1.2 billion, as world powers scramble for medicines to get their economies back to work. While not proven to be effective against the coronavirus, vaccines are seen by world leaders as the only real way to restart the...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The city of Los Angeles has filed a lawsuit against Wellness Matrix Group and two of its executives, saying the company falsely marketed new coronavirus antibody test kits for home use. The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday, is one of several filed by L.A. city attorney Mike Feuer against companies selling coronavirus test kits and in one case, a radish paste cure for COVID-19, the...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Infants with symptomatic COVID-19 infection harbor higher SARS-CoV-2 viral loads in the nose at presentation but develop less severe disease as compared to older children and adolescents, report clinicians from New York City. The reason for the differing viral loads in infants and older children is unclear. "Maybe the virus just sticks around in the nose more in infa...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Both generalists and oncologists are prescribing fewer opioids, a new analysis of Medicare data shows. From 2013 to 2017, opioid-prescribing rates among generalists dropped by 27%, while prescribing rates fell by 24% among oncologists, Dr. Trevor J. Royce of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and colleagues report in JAMA Oncology. "You really would thin...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - The risk of developing nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) after exposure to gadolinium agents appears to be low, at least among people with normal kidney function, according to a systematic review. "The main take-home message from this evidence synthesis is that, in the meantime while we await more rigorous studies, physicians should consider adopting a patient-cent...

SEOUL/BERLIN/LONDON (Reuters) - Some governments in Europe and Asia said on Wednesday they have enough of Gilead's COVID-19 anti-viral remdesivir for now despite fears of shortages since the U.S. drugmaker pledged most output to its home market for the next three months. The pharmaceutical company's move stirred the global debate about equitable access to drugs and brought concerns about access...

(Reuters Health) - The "double hit" of dementia and the coronavirus pandemic creates an especially vulnerable group of patients and caregivers, dementia experts say. During the COVID-19 outbreak in China, national organizations released guidelines about how to provide support, and multidisciplinary teams started free counseling services. Other countries can follow their approach, the experts wr...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Scientists in China who studied nose and throat swabs from 18 patients infected with the new coronavirus say it behaves much more like influenza than other closely related viruses, suggesting it may spread even more easily than previously believed. In at least in one case, the virus was present even though the patient had no symptoms, confirming concerns that asymptomatic pa...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Empirical anti-MRSA treatment is associated with an increased risk of 30-day mortality in patients hospitalized for pneumonia, compared with standard antibiotic therapy, according to a retrospective study. "What we were most surprised about was that we were unable to establish benefit of early empiric anti-MRSA antibiotics for any group of patients, even those with r...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - An artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm outperforms radiologists for detecting breast cancer on mammography, according to a retrospective study. If shown to work "in real practice, AI-CAD (computer-aided detection) can replace the role of second readers in double-reading settings or reduce radiologist workload to triage a portion of mammograms as cancer-free," Dr. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Adopting the EASE (Elder-Friendly Approaches to the Surgical Environment) model in an emergency general surgical setting led to a reduction in complications and deaths, in a nonrandomized controlled study. "The aging population and extended lifespans mean a growing number of emergency surgeries are being performed on older and frailer patients," Dr. Rachel Khadaroo o...

BOSTON (Reuters) - Dr. Ann McKee of Boston University studies the brains of deceased football players at the world's largest brain bank, hoping to learn about the long-term impact of repeated head traumas for people ranging from professional athletes to victims of domestic abuse. "For the last 12 years, we've really focused on the long-term effects of head trauma, including what we call repetit...

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's drug pricing agency is contemplating significant changes to how it will apply new regulations aimed at lowering costs, Reuters has learned, as drugmakers unhappy with the policy delay introducing new medicines in the country and blame it for job cuts. Canada in August passed the new regulations for medicines under patent protection despite heavy lobbying from drugma...

(Reuters Health) - Healthy adults who get at least eight hours of sleep a night may be less likely to experience common exercise-related injuries, a study of U.S. soldiers suggests. Based on survey responses from 7,576 men and women in the Army's Special Operations Forces, soldiers who got no more than four or five hours of sleep a night were more than twice as likely to report a musculoskeleta...