Aldosterone Linked to Kidney Failure Risk, Irrespective of Diabetes
Higher serum aldosterone levels were linked to a greater risk of kidney failure in chronic kidney disease (CKD), both for those with and without diabetes, a study showed. Every doubling in aldosterone level was associated with 11% (95% CI 1.04-1.18) greater risk of progression of CKD to end-stage kidney disease or halving of estimated glomerular […]
Heart Defects Tend to Accompany Penis Abnormality at Birth
Boys with hypospadias were several times more likely to also have congenital heart disease compared with peers without the urethral birth defect, a cohort study showed. Active surveillance programs in Texas and Arkansas revealed that 5.5% to 7.0% of boys born with hypospadias had a co-occurring congenital heart defect (CHD). Boys with hypospadias were 5.8 […]
Vaping May Open the Door to Cannabis Use in Teens
Adolescents who used e-cigarettes were significantly more likely to become new smokers of cannabis shortly thereafter, a cohort study found. Cannabis-naive adolescents reporting ever vaping at baseline were more than twice as likely to report also using cannabis when surveyed a year later (adjusted RR 2.57 vs nonusers of e-cigarettes, 95% CI 2.04-3.09), reported Ruoyan […]
Life Doesn’t Come With a Prescription
The page came late, around 7 p.m. Shruti and I were an hour away from sign-out. Neither of us had eaten dinner. Shruti leaned back in her chair and groaned before flicking her pager off its holster and holding it up to her face. Then she jumped to her feet. “Trauma, 10 minutes,” she said. […]
Opinion | What Comes After Death?
I once attended a funeral during which the guests were invited to take a flower from atop a young mother’s casket as a memento. A little boy, her son, was being held by his father. He had been remarkably quiet throughout the funeral and interment process up to this point. Then, I began watching him, […]
Maternal milk tied to better school-age outcomes for children born preterm
Children who were born preterm are at heightened risk of lower academic achievement in math, reading and other skills and are also at greater risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). But a new study suggests that an intervention in the first weeks and months of a preterm infant’s life may lead to better neurodevelopmental outcomes in […]
Opinion | What a Lifetime of Gaslighting by Other Doctors Feels Like
“If your shoulder were really injured, that maneuver would make you scream in pain,” he told me confidently. My husband and I recently established care with a new family doctor. I was frightened and scarred from a long history of medical gaslighting that still tightens my throat whenever I meet a new physician. Will this […]
Various Ailments Plague Some Pediatric Cancer Survivors More Than Others
Childhood cancer survivors of certain racial and ethnic groups were prone to more hospitalizations for various conditions years down the road, according to a cohort study from Washington State. Racial disparities in outcomes began to emerge 5 years after diagnosis of childhood cancer, when overall hospitalization was more common among American Indian and Alaska Native […]
Women’s heart attacks are often missed: This gene may help explain why
When diagnostic tests for the heart were first created, scientists at the time did not fully consider that no two bodies are the same, especially between the sexes. According to University of Florida College of Nursing associate professor Jennifer Dungan, many of the current symptom profiles and lab tests for heart disease do not accurately […]
Genotype Tied to Azathioprine Discontinuation for Toxicity
Patients with inflammatory conditions who have the CC genotype were at greater risk both for discontinuing the use of azathioprine (Imuran) due to hematopoietic toxicity and for needing to switch to lower doses, a retrospective cohort study found. In a competing-risk analysis involving over 1,400 such patients starting on azathioprine, those who carried the CC […]