Heart Transplant: A Slightly More Level Playing Field Under New UNOS System
Recent changes to U.S. donor heart allocation were followed by a narrowing of racial disparities in listing and transplant, though much more work remains to eliminate inequality, researchers warned. Black patients listed for cardiac transplantation in 2011-2020 were less likely than white peers to die while waiting (adjusted HR 0.88, 95% CI 0.78-0.98). However, they […]
We can expect more emissions from oil refineries in the near-term future, analysis finds
A global inventory has revealed that CO2 emissions from oil refineries were 1.3 Gigatonnes (Gt) in 2018 and could be as large as 16.5 Gt from 2020 to 2030. Based on the results, the researchers recommend distinct mitigation strategies for refineries in different regions and age groups. The findings appear August 20 in the journal […]
Rheumatic Events With Checkpoint Inhibitors: Tumor Type Matters
Among the factors that were associated with an increased risk for the development of rheumatic immune-related adverse events following cancer treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) was the type of malignancy involved, a large case-control study found. Compared with reference lung cancer (the most common type of malignancy in this cohort), the development of a […]
Help, My Kid Is A ‘Whiteatarian’!
It was parents’ weekend at my freshman daughter’s college, and we were treating her to dinner at an off-campus bistro. The waitress arrived, and she gave her order: “I’ll have the baked salmon with a side of sauteed spinach, please.” I dropped my menu, my jaw and the mistaken notion that I knew what this […]
‘Staring Down the Barrel of This Gun’: What We Heard This Week
“We’re still staring down the barrel of this gun because its hypertransmissibility is causing more pediatric infections than earlier versions did.” — David Kimberlin, MD, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Diseases, offering his take on how the Delta variant altered the course of the pandemic. “Mandatory models are like […]
Incomplete Polyp Resection Proves Tricky Business for Cancer Risk
Patients with incomplete colorectal polyp resections were at higher risk for more metachronous neoplasia and advanced neoplasia compared to patients who had a complete polyp resection, a post-hoc analysis suggested. More neoplastic polyps were found in patients with incomplete resections compared to complete resections (mean 0.8 vs 0.3, P=0.008), and these incomplete segments were at […]
Probiotics Show Promise for Symptoms of Functional GI Disorders
Spore-forming probiotics were safe and effective for treating functional dyspepsia symptoms in a small randomized Belgium trial. In an intention-to-treat analysis involving 55 patients with functional dyspepsia, a greater proportion of those given probiotics achieved clinical response at 8 weeks compared to patients given placebo (48% vs 20%, respectively; RR 1.95, 95% CI 1.07-4.11, P=0.028), […]
Two Ulcerative Colitis Biologics: Same Clinical Difference?
While infliximab (Remicade) and vedolizumab (Entyvio) were comparable for clinical remission in previously biologic-naive ulcerative colitis patients, infliximab was more likely to result in corticosteroid-free clinical remission as well as endoscopic remission, a post-hoc analysis found. At 1 year, a similar percentage of ulcerative colitis patients reached clinical remission from infliximab and vedolizumab (39.9% vs […]
The Pill Can Spell Trouble for Long QTc
Some oral contraceptives were associated with greater cardiovascular risk among women with inherited long QT syndrome (LQTS), a registry study showed. Progestin-only oral contraceptive users had a 2.54-fold higher risk (95% CI 1.09-1.51) of a cardiac event compared with LQTS women not on oral contraceptives in multivariate analysis. Beta-blocker use appeared to mitigate that risk, […]
Inside Olympic Precautions: Three Team Doctors Dish
While the Olympic games were cancelled due to the pandemic last year, Japan and host city Tokyo ironically are experiencing higher COVID-19 case numbers than last summer, with a 7-day average of about 5,000 cases. To mitigate spread, the Olympics are ‘bubbled’ and devoid of fans. So how are precautions playing out on the ground? […]