Ozanimod Controls MS Disease Activity Regardless of Age
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Clinical and radiologic measures of disease activity remained stable or improved for relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS) patients in all age groups over 7 to 8 years of continuous treatment with ozanimod (Zeposia). “Regardless of age category, the adjusted annualized relapse rate was below 0.2 in the phase III parent trials […]
CDC: Biennial Surge in Acute Flaccid Myelitis Has Come to a Halt
Acute flaccid myelitis (AFM) cases remained low in 2022, despite increased circulation of the enterovirus D68 (EV-D68) in the U.S., according to an analysis of CDC data. AFM cases ranged from 28 to 47 per year from 2019 to 2022 — far lower than the 238 confirmed cases in 2018, Sarah Kidd, MD, from the […]
Nurses Still the Most Trusted Profession, Doctors Fall to Fifth
Nurses remained the most trusted profession in the U.S., while medical doctors dropped to the fifth spot, according to Gallup’s 2023 Honesty and Ethics poll. Out of 23 professions, 78% of surveyed adults rated nurses as having “very high or high” honesty and ethical standards, while 56% said the same for medical doctors. But the […]
Pediatric Asthma Risk Score Robust Across Diverse Backgrounds
The Pediatric Asthma Risk Score (PARS) remained an effective tool for estimating asthma risk when used for patients of varying backgrounds, a study of 10 cohorts found. The area under the receiver operating curve (AUC) for the PARS assessment was 0.76 (95% CI 0.74-0.78), with AUC scores ranging from 0.61-0.83 across the cohorts, reported Gurjit […]
COVID Infection May Impair Semen Quality, Even After Mild Cases
Semen quality remained impaired more than 3 months after a mild COVID-19 infection, according to a small study from Spain involving unvaccinated men. Testing performed a median 100 days after infection among existing patients at one of six reproductive centers showed lower sperm counts, slower motility, and lower overall sperm quality compared with pre-infection tests […]
Lung Cancer Declining in People With HIV, but Still High
Lung cancer rates declined for people living with HIV but remained higher than the general population and, in older individuals, even higher than other cancers normally considered to be associated with HIV/AIDS, a population-based registry linkage study showed. The overall outlook for lung cancer improved for HIV-positive people during the study period from 2001-2016, decreasing […]
Walk It Off: Exercise Therapy for Meniscal Tears on Par With Surgery
Exercise-based physical therapy remained noninferior to arthroscopic partial meniscectomy for treating degenerative meniscal tears, according to longer-term data from the ESCAPE trial, suggesting physical therapy be the preferred treatment over surgery. By the 5-year mark, patient-reported knee function after 16 sessions of physical therapy was non-inferior to that observed after surgery, with a between-group difference […]
The Pandemic’s Impact on Mental Health – MedicineNet Health News
Latest Mental Health News THURSDAY, Nov. 11, 2021 Depression remained common during the pandemic and worsened for some people, according to a new study aiming to cast light on links between the pandemic and mental health. Researchers examined the records of 4,633 people at a large health care system in Utah who were […]
Researchers discover connection between brain’s opioid system and eating behavior
Brain regulation of feeding behavior traits has remained incompletely understood. In their latest study, researchers at the Turku PET Centre, Finland, discovered a connection between the function of the opioid system and food craving triggered by appetitive external stimuli. Animal studies have established that the brain’s opioid and endocannabinoid systems are important in regulating eating […]
Health Insurance Coverage Stable in 2020, Despite Pandemic
Rates of health insurance coverage remained mostly stable during the pandemic, with an estimated 1.6 million more Americans gaining coverage in 2020, according to an early release from the CDC’s National Health Interview Survey (NHIS). From 2019 to 2020, the uninsured rate dropped from an estimated 10.3% (33.2 million) to 9.7% (31.6 million), a non-significant […]