Local News Valley woman and son team up to promote brain health Nick Ciletti
A Valley mom is sharing the importance of building better brain health. Genein Letford is taking what she has learned from spending 15 years as a teacher to educate all of us about how to power up our brains for a changing world. She’s hoping to raise awareness for things like brain disease, inspire more […]
Buprenorphine for OUD Tied to Better Outcomes for Mother and Baby
Buprenorphine treatment was linked with better outcomes for mother and infant, according to a study of pregnant individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD). Among 14,463 maternal-infant dyads, there was a statistically significant lower rate of adverse pregnancy outcomes among those who were treated with buprenorphine compared to those who did not receive treatment (25.4% vs […]
New Tuberculosis Framework May Improve Research, Clinical Care
A new framework may better characterize the early stages of tuberculosis (TB) and improve research and clinical care, an international team of researchers said. Turning against the current “active” or “latent” classification of TB, the International Consensus for Early TB (ICE-TB) group released a five-state system that distinguishes disease from infection, clinical versus subclinical states, […]
Liquid Biopsy for CRC Screening May Not Be Ready for Prime Time
While screening for colorectal cancer (CRC) with a blood-based test would result in better outcomes than no screening at all, it would likely result in worse outcomes than currently available tests — while increasing costs — according to two modeling studies published in Gastroenterology. In the first, models suggested that compared with no screening at […]
Intravascular Imaging-Guided PCI Reaches a Turning Point With Survival, MI Benefits
For the first time, intravascular imaging-guided coronary stenting was associated with better survival and reduced myocardial infarction (MI) in a meta-analysis powered to detect these benefits against angiography, researchers reported. Randomized to optical coherence tomography (OCT) or intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) guidance, patients who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) with contemporary stents showed a decrease in […]
E-Cigs Show Some Benefit as Smoking Cessation Aid in Clinical Trial
Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) helped people better stick to smoking cessation in the randomized controlled ESTxENDS trial. Participants smoking at least five tobacco cigarettes a day at baseline showed validated continuous abstinence from tobacco smoking at 6 months in 28.9% of cases after getting free e-cigarettes and counseling, which was significantly better than the 16.3% abstinence […]
Even With Alzheimer’s Pathology, Healthy Lifestyles May Preserve Cognition
Cognitive function was better for older adults with healthy lifestyles even if they had Alzheimer’s or other dementia-related pathologies, autopsy data showed. A 1-point increase in a healthy lifestyle score was associated with better cognitive performance proximate to death (β=0.216, P<0.001), reported Klodian Dhana, MD, PhD, of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, and co-authors. […]
Surgical Volumes Matter for Outcomes at Ambulatory Centers, Too
As seen for hospital-based procedures, ambulatory surgical outcomes were significantly better on average at centers with relatively high volumes, Medicare data indicated. Odds of hospital admission or emergency department visit within 7 days of an ambulatory surgical procedure were 21% greater in low- versus high-volume centers (95% CI 9%-36%), according to Jeffrey H. Silber, MD, […]
Cryobiopsy and Forceps Biopsy Go Head-to-Head for Diagnosing Lung Lesions
As a supplement to standard needle aspiration for diagnosing lung lesions, cryobiopsy was no better than forceps biopsy for producing a definite diagnosis in a randomized trial, but the tissue-freezing procedure was less time-consuming and did produce biopsy samples more suitable to molecular testing. Tested alone, the diagnostic yield was higher with mediastinal cryobiopsy versus […]
Study Confirms Better Survival for HPV-Positive Cervical Cancer
Cervical cancer associated with detectable human papillomavirus (HPV+) RNA or DNA had significantly better outcomes, including survival, a large meta-analysis of published studies showed. Patients who tested positive for HPV had a 62% improvement in disease-free survival (DFS), 44% improvement in cancer-specific survival (CSS), and 41% improvement in overall survival (OS), as compared with patients […]