Body

Overweight and obese women are more likely to require specialist medical care during their pregnancy due to the increased risk of adverse neonatal and maternal outcomes, finds a new study published today (27 March) in BJOG: An International Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology.

Researchers from Lund University and the University of Oxford have been able to provide one answer as to why males in many species still provide paternal care, even when their offspring may not belong to them. The study finds that, when the conditions are right, sticking around despite being 'cuckolded' actually turns out to be the most successful evolutionary strategy. The study, by Charlie Cornwallis and colleagues, is published 26 March in the open access journal PLOS Biology.

In England, hospital is still the most common place for patients with cancer to die but an increase in home and hospice deaths since 2005 suggests that the National End of Life Care Programme (a Programme to promote the rollout of national end-of-life care initiatives) has helped more people to die at their preferred place of death, according to a UK study funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research (NIHR HS&DR) Programme, published in this week's PLOS Medicine.

In poorer countries, young children are more likely to die in the months before their mother's death, when she is seriously ill, and also in the period after her death, according to a study by international researchers published in this week's PLOS Medicine.

These findings are important as they highlight the urgent need for proactive and coordinated community-based interventions to support families, especially vulnerable children, when a mother becomes seriously ill, not just in the period following her death.

Chelation therapy with the drug disodium EDTA has been used for many years with no evidence of efficacy for the treatment of coronary disease, but a randomized trial that included patients with a prior heart attack found that use of a chelation regimen modestly reduced the risk of a composite of adverse cardiovascular outcomes. However, the findings do not support the routine use of chelation therapy for treatment of patients who have had a heart attack, according to a study in the March 27 issue of JAMA.

In an examination of a type of treatment for allergic rhinitis and asthma that is used in Europe but not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, researchers found moderate strength in the evidence from previous studies to support the use of sublingual immunotherapy for the treatment of these conditions, according to an article in the March 27 issue of JAMA. Sublingual immunotherapy involves administration of aqueous allergens under the tongue for local absorption to desensitize the allergic individual over an extended treatment period to diminish allergic symptoms.