Clinical Research

An alarming number of young, white, poor men who abuse recreational opioids are developing infections of either the heart's inner lining or valves, known as infective endocarditis This new trend predominantly affects men who also have higher rates of HIV, hepatitis C and alcohol abuse, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association. Infective endocarditis occurs when bacteria or fungi in the blood stream enter the heart's inner lining or valves. Nearly 34,000 people receive treatment for this condition each year, of which approximately 20% die. One of the…

Diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases are challenging medical and social problems. Patients with diabetes mellitus are at a higher risk of developing vascular dysfunction and hypertension. Cumulative evidence suggests that oxidative stress may play a key role in the development of diseases. It has been found that oxidative stress is associated with several cardiovascular diseases, including atherosclerosis, hypertension, heart failure, stroke, and diabetes, and plays a fundamental role in endothelial dysfunction associated with these diseases 1-6. Further, oxidative stress plays…

We hear a lot about a crisis in organ donations but a whole lot of patients who died waiting for transplants got organs offered, but their transplant teams declined - and someone lower on the list got the transplant instead. Candidates who died without a transplant received a median of 16 offers (over 651 days) while waitlisted. And most patients were never made aware they got an offer at all. This data comes from 14,000,000 kidney offers made between 2008 and 2015 to more than 350,000 waitlisted patients in the United States. The analysis revealed that 76 percent received at least one viable…

A new study finds that French transplant centers would have transplanted about 17,500 kidneys from nearly 28,000 deceased-donor kidneys discarded in the United States between 2004 and 2014. If American standards are simply too high, and not instead that French patients have higher future risk, then many of the 90,000 Americans awaiting a kidney transplant could reap major benefits from the more lax standard in Europe. This is epidemiology, the scholars do not know what happened to patients in France, they looked at data on the acceptance and use of deceased-donor kidneys in France (…

Angiogenesis is a critical component for processes in wound healing and is defined as the formation of new capillaries from pre-existing blood vessels [1, 2]. Insufficient angiogenesis can result in impaired wound healing and chronic wound formation [4–8]. Electrical stimulation (ES) in its various forms has been shown to enhance wound healing by promoting the migration of keratinocytes and macrophages, enhancing angiogenesis, stimulating fibroblasts, and influencing protein synthesis throughout the inflammatory, proliferative and remodelling phases of healing [9–11]. Electrical signals have…

Researchers have published the results of the largest prospective multicenter trial conducted of FDG-PET/CT in head and neck cancer, providing data on clinical decision-making. The non-randomized phase two trial, ACRIN 6685, followed 287 patients with newly diagnosed stage T2 to T4 disease, all being considered for surgery when at least one side of the neck had no evidence of lymph node involvement based on a physical exam, preoperative MRI and/or a CT evaluation (clinically node-negative or cN0). It found that FDG-PET/CT imaging achieved a true negative in 94 percent of patients (by…

Restless Legs Syndrome is a condition that causes an overwhelming urge to move the legs. Patients complain of unpleasant symptoms such as tingling, burning and painful cramping sensations in the leg and more than 80 people of people who report restless legs syndrome say they experience their legs jerking or twitching uncontrollably, usually at night. Until now it was thought to be a result of genetic, metabolic and central nervous system mechanisms but a new paper finds it is not only the central nervous system but also the nerve cells targeting the muscles themselves that are responsible.…

When there are more free radicals present than can be kept in balance by antioxidants, the free radicals can start doing damage to fatty tissue, DNA, and proteins in your body. Proteins, lipids, and DNA make up a large part of your body, so that damage can lead to a vast number of diseases over time. This imbalance is associated with a number of health related concerns including heart disease, diabetes, atherosclerosis and high blood pressure. We produce a small amount of free radicals naturally, when we exercise or have inflammation, such as an impacted tooth. Oxidative stress is how we…

A new paper in the journal Early Human Development hopes to use the infant form of the Body Mass Index(BMI) to predict future heart disease. BMI is famous by now and has been used by government guidance bodies since the 1980s. It was invented nearly 200 years ago but, like homeopathy from the same period, somehow remains dogma to a few. It's a simple math calculation that takes into account height and weight. If you want to calculate yours, multiply your weight by 703 and then divide that by your height squared - (weight x 703)/(height in inches x height in inches).(1) That is with adults.…

A new look at data tracked the diets, health and lifestyle habits of nearly 30,000 adults across the country for as long as 31 years has concluded that the risk of heart disease and death increases with the number of eggs an individual consumes. The epidemiology paper believes that is due to the cholesterol. This statistical correlation is in defiance of recent studies of eggs but in line with the accordion of food claims made by nutritionists and epidemiologists, which go back and forth correlating products to benefit or harm.  Due to eggs recently being back on the health food side of…