Digital Tools to Detect Tardive Dyskinesia
Accurate and early diagnosis of tardive dyskinesia (TD), a serious movement disorder typically caused by exposure to antipsychotic medications, is imperative for long-term management. “Keeping an eye on things and recognizing it early allows for potential interventions that will prevent it from being permanent or chronic,” said Tsao-Wei Liang, MD, of Thomas Jefferson University in […]
Medical Thoracoscopy Not the Only Good Way to Biopsy Complex Pleural Effusion
For the diagnosis of people with pleural effusion, an initial image-assisted Abrams needle biopsy (IA-ANPB) can match medical thoracoscopy (MT) in diagnostic accuracy in some cases, a small randomized controlled trial found. IA-ANPB diagnosis had a sensitivity of just 69.7% with a negative likelihood ratio of 0.30 in patients with pleural effusion only, underperforming when […]
‘Study drugs’ set the stage for other drug use and mental health decline
Taking “study drugs” like Adderall without a diagnosis is not only dangerous in itself, but can lead to other drug use and a decline in mental health, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) medications are frequently used illicitly by college students as a study […]
12 Statistics That Will Completely Change How You Think About HIV
Illustration: Kim Salt for HuffPost; Photos: Getty In the last 10 years, new HIV diagnosis rates have declined, but the virus still infects tens of thousands of people every year in the U.S. Certain ideas probably come to mind when you hear the word HIV — like what groups of people are most impacted and […]
Clinical Challenges: Diagnosing Axial Spondyloarthritis
The diagnosis of axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) can be highly challenging because its hallmark symptom — chronic back pain — is experienced by some 20% of adults at some point in their lives. Yet axSpA only accounts for 0.5% to 1% of those cases, “so axSpA is lost within a sea of chronic back pain,” said […]
COVID Cleared of Increasing Risk of Type 1 Diabetes in Kids?
COVID-19 infection didn’t appear to precipitate a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes in kids, a prospective multinational cohort study suggested. Researchers tested more than 4,500 adolescents every few months for type 1 diabetes, SARS-CoV-2 infection, and vaccination antibodies from January 2020 through December 2021. However, there was no difference among the 45 kids diagnosed with […]
What to Know About Hank Green’s Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Diagnosis
YouTube star and novelist Hank Green revealed his cancer diagnosis in a Vlogbrothers video on Friday that has garnered 6.6 million views as of Tuesday afternoon. The popular internet personality will soon begin treatment for Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of blood cancer that affects the lymphatic system. He opted to first share his personal health […]
Surgery No Help for the Kidneys in Older Folks With Primary Hyperparathyroidism
Parathyroidectomy within the first year after a primary hyperparathyroidism (PHPT) diagnosis wasn’t much help for preserving kidney function in older adults, an observational study suggested. Looking at over 43,000 patients with PHPT, there was no difference in the risk for estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) decline between patients managed surgically with early parathyroidectomy compared with […]
Evaluating and Treating Children With Long COVID
Experts shared advice on diagnosis and treatment of children and adolescents showing signs of post-COVID conditions — also known as long COVID — during a CDC Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA) webinar. “Post-COVID conditions” is the preferred term of the CDC and is defined as “the wide range of physical and mental health consequences […]
For People With HIV, Early Anal Cancer Screening Tied to Better Outcomes
Screening HIV-positive individuals for early signs of anal cancer may lead to an earlier diagnosis and better survival, according to an observational Dutch cohort study. Among men who have sex with men (MSM) living with HIV, anal cancer-related mortality was 3.7% in those who had been screened in the Netherlands compared with 24.0% in those […]