Posted on

Prenatal Exposure to Everyday Chemicals Tied to Liver Injury in Kids

Loading

— Researchers identify a potential contributor to epidemic of pediatric NAFLD

Prenatal environmental exposure to mixtures of endocrine-disrupting chemicals was associated with a higher risk for liver injury in children, a prospective cohort study found.

In the study of over 1,000 European mother-child pairs, the likelihood of liver injury was 44-121% higher among children with prenatal exposure to organochlorine pesticides, perfluoroalkyl substances, polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), and metals, reported Damaskini Valvi, MD, MPH, PhD, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and colleagues. Read more in MedPage Today.

Loading
Posted on

Proactive, virtual intervention improves quality of life after discharge for COPD exacerbation

Loading

A pragmatic health system-level intervention improved quality of life for patients discharged after COPD exacerbation but failed to reduce 180-day readmission or mortality, researchers reported.

“Despite national policy efforts to drive improvement, most patients discharged after COPD do not receive care known to improve health outcomes for COPD, and there is scant evidence that overall quality of care has improved,”David H. Au, MD, MS, professor in the department of medicine at the Center of Innovation for Veteran-Centered and Value-Driven Care, Seattle, and colleagues wrote in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Read more in Healio.

Loading
Posted on

People With Gum Disease Are More Prone to Heart Failure

Loading

— Add HF to the list of cardiovascular conditions associated with periodontitis

The link between periodontal disease and heart failure (HF) was reinforced by long-term data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) cohort.

Among study participants with full-mouth periodontal exams in 1996-1998, those with a finding of periodontal disease were significantly more likely to experience incident HF over approximately 13 years of follow-up — namely HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF; adjusted HR 1.69, 95% CI 1.18-2.43), with a nonsignificant trend of excess HF with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF; adjusted HR 1.35, 95% CI 0.98-1.86) as well.
Read more in MedPage Today.

Loading
Posted on

Extending Eligibility of Reinstatement of Waiting Time after Allograft Failure

Loading

The optimal treatment for kidney failure is kidney transplantation. The shortage of kidneys available for transplantation is intensifying, creating interest in the high proportion of deceased donor kidneys discarded after procurement. The discard rate for deceased donor kidneys recovered for transplant in the United States is approximately one in five, despite evidence that transplantation with even marginal deceased donor kidneys can improve survival, quality of life, and cost, compared with dialysis. Read the full story in Nephrology Times.

Loading
Posted on

Declines in US cardiometabolic health ‘striking’; disparities persist over 2 decades

Loading

The prevalence of optimal cardiometabolic health among U.S. adults declined in the past 2 decades, with disparity gaps widening based on age, sex, education and race, researchers reported.

Optimal cardiometabolic health was defined as optimal levels of adiposity, blood glucose, blood lipids and BP, as well as no history of clinical CVD, according to data published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Read more in Healio.

Loading
Posted on

Prevalence of anxiety, depression in U.S. adults elevated in first year of pandemic

Loading

Prevalence of clinically significant anxiety and depression among adults in the United States increased during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic compared with prior years, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.

“Concerns about adverse mental health effects of COVID-19 have been raised since the beginning of the pandemic,” Ronald C. Kessler, PhD, of the department of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, and colleagues wrote. “Many empirical papers subsequently investigated the association of the pandemic with mental health, and most concluded that the pandemic cause dramatic increases in anxiety and depression.”
Read more in Healio.

Loading
Posted on

Kidney Failure May Drive COVID Deaths in People With Sickle Cell Trait

Loading

— COVID-19 severity strongly linked with sickle cell anemia as well

COVID-19 patients with sickle cell trait (SCT) were prone to poor outcomes that appeared to be driven in part by kidney dysfunction, a genetic association study suggested.

Among U.S. veterans of African ancestry, SCT was tied to a higher chance of COVID-related mortality versus those without the trait (OR 1.77, 95% CI 1.13-2.77). The presence of either sickle cell anemia or another SCT-related condition was linked with more than 93-times higher odds of severe COVID-19 illness (OR 93.17, 95% CI 78.60-110.44), according to Shiuh-Wen Luoh, MD, PhD, of the VA Portland Health Care System in Oregon, and colleagues. Read more in MedPage Today.

Loading
Posted on

Liver transplantation linked to lower antibody, T-cell response to COVID-19 vaccine

Loading

LONDON — Patients who received a liver transplant had significantly reduced antibody and T-cell responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination compared with healthy controls, according to research presented at the International Liver Congress.

“Emerging data have demonstrated suboptimal immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in immunosuppressed cohorts,” Thomas Marjot, a clinical research training fellow at the Oxford Liver Unit at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and colleagues wrote. Read more in Healio.

Loading
Posted on

Effects of exercise in renal transplant recipients

Loading

Even after a successful renal transplantation, the renal transplant recipients (RTRs) keeps on suffering the consequences of the uremic sickness. Cardiovascular risk, work capacity, and quality of life do not improve according to expectations since biological and psychological problems are not completely solved by pharmacological treatment.
Read more in the World Journal of Transplantation here.

Loading