Body

COLUMBUS, Ohio - People who start adulthood with a body mass index (BMI) in the normal range and move later in life to being overweight - but never obese - tend to live the longest, a new study suggests.

Adults in this category lived longer than even those whose BMI stayed in the normal range throughout their life. Those who started adulthood as obese and continued to add weight had the highest mortality rate.

FOLSOM, Calif., February 2, 2021 - Researchers, from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in collaboration with investigators from Rovira i Virgili University and the University of Navarra, Spain, used machine learning models, a subset of artificial intelligence, to identify more precisely the components in walnuts that may be responsible for potentially reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases - two of the leading causes of death in the U.S.

More fully appreciating family and engaging in more conflict are among the heightened experiences during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new UC Riverside study.

The study from David Funder's psychology lab looked at how people experience everyday life and its situations and how those experiences change because of an extraordinary event - the global pandemic.

Researchers at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have discovered that three patients with a severe genetic immunodeficiency spontaneously repaired the harmful variants in their DNA and restored normal immune function over time.

As cells grow and divide to produce new cells, DNA is copied from the parent cell to provide instructions for the new daughter cells. Random changes that occur as the DNA is copied are usually harmless but in some cases are associated with the development of diseases like cancer.

An underused type of knee surgery in younger patients, called high tibial osteotomy, shows considerable success in reducing the need for total knee replacement, according to new research in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal).

DALLAS, Feb. 1, 2021 -- Women with a history of diabetes during pregnancy (gestational diabetes) are twice as likely by mid-life to develop calcium in heart arteries - a strong predictor of heart disease - even if healthy blood sugar levels were attained many years after pregnancy, according to new research published today in the American Heart Association's flagship journal Circulation.

The American College of Cardiology's Cardiovascular Summit will feature several poster presentations on care delivery, cost reduction and quality improvement that offer innovative concepts to combat access to care, especially during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and as the broader health care system works to improve health equity. Research examines the rapid adoption of virtual outpatient care, enabling rural primary care teams to improve cardiovascular health and optimizing emergency room use after clinic hours.

Irvine, Calif. -- Researchers from the University of California, Irvine and the University of Minnesota have found that an enriched diet and companionship can reduce pain in mice with sickle cell disease by increasing serotonin. They also discovered that duloxetine, an antidepressant that boosts serotonin levels, could be an alternative to opioids in treating chronic pain.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Researchers from Mayo Clinic and AliveCor Inc. have been using artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a mobile device that can identify certain patients at risk of sudden cardiac death. This research has yielded a breakthrough in determining the health of the electrical recharging system in a patient's heart. The researchers determined that a smartphone-enabled mobile EKG device can rapidly and accurately determine a patient's QTc, thereby identifying patients at risk of sudden cardiac death from congenital long QT syndrome (LQTS) or drug-induced QT prolongation.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (Feb. 1, 2020) - A gene panel that looks for about 10 times the number of cancer-causing genes as panels currently used to diagnose and fine tune treatment for a variety of cancers is effective at identifying problematic genes in the most common leukemia, investigators report.

The 523-gene panel, developed by San Diego-based biotech company Illumina, which includes all genes known to potentially cause cancer, can be readily adopted for use in clinical laboratories to diagnose acute myeloid leukemia, or AML, the investigators report in the journal PLOS ONE.

(Singapore--January 30, 2021 11:00 p.m. SPT/January 30, 2021 10:00 a.m. EST)-- Nivolumab monotherapy is an effective treatment option for relapsed malignant mesothelioma (MM), according to research presented today at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer World Conference on Lung Cancer.

Malignant mesothelioma is an intractable cancer, and no phase III trial has yet shown an improvement in overall survival following the standard first line chemotherapy doublet comprising pemetrexed and cisplatin or carboplatin since it was licensed in 2004.

(Singapore--January 30, 2021 11:00 p.m. SPT/January 30, 2021 10:00 a.m. EST)-- A study presented today by researchers with the Ministry of Health and Welfare in Taiwan confirmed the effectiveness of low-dose computed tomography (LDCT) screening in a pre-defined, never-smoker, high-risk population. The research was presented today at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2021 World Conference on Lung Cancer.

CHICAGO (January 30, 2021) -- Women are significantly less likely than men to undergo coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) using guideline-recommended approaches, which may result in worse outcomes after surgery, according to a scientific presentation at the 57th Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons.

"This study highlights key differences between women and men in surgical techniques used for CABG and reveals opportunities to improve outcomes in women," said Oliver K. Jawitz, MD, from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

(Singapore--January 31, 2021 2:40 p.m. SPT 1:40 a.m. EST)--Patient-reported outcomes from the phase III CROWN study showed that time to treatment deterioration (TTD) in pain in chest, dyspnea, and cough was comparable between those who received lorlatinib and patients who took crizotinib. The research was presented today at the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer's 2020 World Conference on Lung Cancer Singapore.

Philadelphia, January 29, 2021--Researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have developed a gene therapy vector for blood disorders like sickle cell disease and beta-thalassemia that is potentially safer and more effective than those currently used in gene therapy trials for those conditions. The vector, an engineered vehicle for delivering functional copies of the hemoglobin gene to correct a genetic abnormality, leads to the production of more hemoglobin with a lower dose, minimizing the risk of toxic side effects.