Emergencies happen anywhere, anytime, and sometimes medical professionals find themselves in situations where they are the only ones who can help. Is There a Doctor in the House? is a Medscape series telling these stories. “Dad, they just called for a doctor.” It was a routine flight home to Hawaii from Salt Lake City with my … Read more
Mr M. was no stranger to hospitals in his area. He regularly showed up in emergency departments, demanded morphine and sleeping pills, and complained loudly about everything and everyone until he was discharged. His unexpected death caused Mark Earnest, MD, PhD, from the Department of Medicine at the University of Colorado, Denver, to reflect. Demands … Read more
Whatever’s ailing you, a vacation might just be the cure. Yes, getting away can improve your health, according to research published in in 2023. It might help combat symptoms of aging, suggested a 2024 study in Journal of Travel Research. But it could also have even more powerful psychological and physical benefits, transforming your life … Read more
TOPLINE: A dry suction technique was noninferior to a wet suction technique for endoscopic ultrasound–guided fine-needle biopsy (EUS-FNB) in patients with solid pancreatic lesions, with comparable diagnostic accuracies. A single needle pass achieved more than 90% accuracy in both the techniques. METHODOLOGY: This randomized noninferiority trial conducted across four hospitals in China (2022-2024) assessed the … Read more
Vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 was detected in wastewater systems between September and December 2024 in five European countries: Spain, Poland, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Finland, potentially putting undervaccinated people at risk, according to a Eurosurveillance report. Analyses have revealed wide genetic variation among the samples between and within countries, and even within the same … Read more
TOPLINE: Type I interferon (IFN) score may effectively predict disease progression in limited cutaneous systemic sclerosis (lcSSc), with patients having a high IFN activity presenting worse clinical outcomes. METHODOLOGY: Researchers conducted a longitudinal retrospective analysis to investigate whether the serum IFN score could predict clinically meaningful progression in patients with lcSSc using a novel composite … Read more
Subtle signs of neurodegeneration can be detected in blood, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and through neuroimaging, up to two decades before motor symptoms in Huntington’s disease (HD) present, new research showed. Investigators believe these early biomarkers could pave the way for novel interventions that could improve outcomes for individuals at risk for HD. Sarah Tabrizi, PhD … Read more
TOPLINE: Beta-blocker use is associated with a 34% reduction of onset in premanifest Huntington disease (preHD) and slower progression in early motor-manifest Huntington disease (mmHD), new research shows. METHODOLOGY: In this longitudinal multicenter study, 174 beta-blocker users with preHD (mean age, 46.4 years; 66% women) were matched with 174 nonusers (mean age, 48 years; 66% … Read more