In a study published this week in the open-access medical journal, PLoS Medicine, Petteri Hovi and colleagues from the National Institute for Health and Welfare Helsinki, Finland evaluated skeletal health in 144 adults (ages ranging from 18 to 27 years) who were born preterm with very low birth weight. They show that as adults these individuals have significantly lower bone mineral density than do their term-born peers and suggest that this finding translates into increased risk for osteoporosis in adulthood for these individuals.
Funding: This study was supported by grants from the Academy of Finland; the Finnish Medical Society Duodecim; Finska La¨karesa¨llskapet; the Finnish Foundation for Paediatric Research; the Special Governmental Subsidiary for Health Sciences Research; the Jalmari and Rauha Ahokas Foundation; the Novo Nordisk Foundation; the Pa¨ ivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation; the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation; the Yrjo¨ Jahnsson Foundation; the Orion-Pharma Foundation; Emil Aaltonen Foundation; Maud Kuistila Memorial Foundation; the Paediatric Graduate School, University of Helsinki; the Clinical Graduate School in Paediatrics and Obstetrics/Gynaecology, University of Helsinki; the Wilhelm and Else Stockmann Foundation; the Perkle´n Foundation, the Biomedicum Helsinki Foundation; the Finnish Medical Foundation; and the National Graduate School of Clinical Investigation, University of Helsinki. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Citation: Hovi P, Andersson S, Järvenpää A-L, Eriksson JG, Strang-Karlsson S, et al. (2009) Decreased Bone Mineral Density in Adults Born with Very Low Birth Weight: A Cohort Study. PLoS Med 6(8): e1000135. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000135
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000135
Medical students need better training in genetics
In a Student Forum piece published this week in the open access journal PLoS Medicine, medical student Keyan Salari (Stanford University, Stanford, California) argues that it is crucial that medical students be trained to use and interpret patients' genetic information appropriately and responsibly. This is especially true, he argues, because personal genetic information is becoming an increasingly frequent component of the patient medical record.
Funding: KS is supported by the Paul & Daisy Soros Foundation and is a fellow of the Medical ScientistTraining Program at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The funders had no role in the decision to publish or the preparation of this manuscript.
Citation: Salari K (2009) The Dawning Era of Personalized Medicine Exposes a Gap in Medical Education. PLoS Med 6(8): e1000138. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000138
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000138
Source: Public Library of Science