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Research from the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences (CHÉOS) sheds new light on the factors behind drug shortages in Canada, a common problem across the country.

In 2018 alone, Canadian patients faced shortages for hundreds of medications, including EpiPens, opioid drugs, and treatments for Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, and depression.

People living with Chagas disease without symptoms or signs of cardiac injury are at high risk of developing cardiomyopathy, a progressive heart disease, and the risk more than doubled among patients with acute infections, according to a new study from the University of Colorado School of Medicine at the Anschutz Medical Campus.

The study was published today in JAMA Network Open.

STONY BROOK, NY, August 31, 2020 - Findings from a positron emission tomography (PET) brain imaging study of the amygdala reveals that low levels of the enzyme aromatase, which catalyzes estrogen biosynthesis, are associated with a higher body mass index (BMI) and lower self-control, as measured by a standard personality test. Published in PNAS, the study is led by Anat Biegon, PhD, Professor of Radiology and Director of the Center on Gender, Hormones and Health at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University.

Sophia Antipolis, France - 30 Aug 2020: Sacubitril/valsartan reduces NT-proBNP, a biomarker predictive of long-term clinical outcomes in heart failure, but does not improve functional capacity compared to individualised background therapy in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction. That's the main finding of the PARALLAX trial presented in a Hot Line session today at ESC Congress 2020.1

Sophia Antipolis, France - 31 Aug 2020: Patients with acute pulmonary embolism can be selected for home management using the sPESI score or the Hestia criteria, according to results of the HOME-PE trial presented in a Hot Line session today at ESC Congress 2020.1

Principal investigator Professor Pierre-Marie Roy of the University Hospital of Angers, France said: "The pragmatic Hestia method was at least as safe as the sPESI score for triaging haemodynamically stable pulmonary embolism patients for outpatient care."

Sophia Antipolis, France - 31 Aug 2020: Colchicine reduces the risk of major cardiovascular events in patients with chronic coronary disease, according to results of the LoDoCo2 trial presented in a Hot Line session today at ESC Congress 2020.1

"Over a decade, more than one in three heart patients will have another heart attack or stroke, or die from heart disease, despite taking preventive medication," said study author Dr. Mark Nidorf of GenesisCare, Australia. "Our study shows that this could be reduced to one in four with the addition of low-dose colchicine."

A practice-changing study, NRG Oncology clinical trial NRG-RTOG 9802, has demonstrated, for the first time, a survival benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy following radiotherapy over radiotherapy alone in certain subgroups of patients with high-risk, low-grade glioma (WHO classification: LGG, grade II), a type of brain tumor that originates from glial cells.

Sophia Antipolis, France - 30 Aug 2020: Dapagliflozin reduces the risk of kidney failure, death from cardiovascular causes or heart failure hospitalisation and all-cause mortality in chronic kidney disease patients with or without type 2 diabetes. That's the main result of the DAPA-CKD trial presented in a Hot Line session today at ESC Congress 2020.1

A team including researchers from the Institute for Astrophysics of the University of Cologne has for the first time directly observed the columns of matter that build up newborn stars. This was observed in the young star TW Hydrae system located approximately 163 light years from Earth. This result was obtained with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) and its GRAVITY instrument of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile. The article 'A measure of the size of the magnetospheric accretion region in TW Hydrae' has been published in a recent issue of Nature.

Cambridge, Mass. - In March 2020, federal officials declared the COVID-19 outbreak a national emergency. Around the same time, most states implemented stay-at-home advisories - to different degrees and at different times. Publicly available cell phone location data - anonymized at the county-level - showed marked reductions in cell phone activity at the workplace and at retail locations, as well as increased activity in residential areas. However, it was not known whether these data correlate with the spread of COVID-19 in a given region.

An Australian-Dutch trial led by Perth GenesisCare cardiologists, Professor Peter Thompson and Dr Mark Nidorf, in collaboration with the Dutch Network for Cardiovascular Research (WCN) in the Netherlands, confirmed that low dose colchicine was safe, well tolerated over the long-term, and significantly reduced the risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack, and ischemic stroke in patients with chronic coronary disease.

A new study from North Carolina State University and Virginia Commonwealth University highlights several factors that play key roles in determining the extent to which fathers who don't have custody are involved in their children's lives - specifically in cases where the children are in "kinship care."

HANOVER, N.H. – Aug. 31, 2020 – On March 28, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) exercised its Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) authority to allow the use of hydroxychloroquine for the treatment of COVID-19. On June 15, after a number of studies failed to find positive effects, the agency revoked this authorization. This chain of events raises questions about the speed, rigor and potential politicization of the authorization process.

DALLAS, August 31, 2020 -- People enrolled in a pharmacist-led telemonitoring program to control high blood pressure were about half as likely to have a heart attack or stroke compared to those who received routine primary care, according to new research published today in Hypertension, an American Heart Association journal.

The European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), Europe's collaborative peer network of professionals working in the field of stem cell transplantation and cellular therapy, announced today the results of the phase III RACE trial during EBMTs virtual 46th Annual Meeting. Preliminary data show that adding Eltrombopag to standard immunosuppressive treatment is safe and increases response rates in patients with Severe Aplastic Anaemia (SAA).