Bottom Line: Measuring frailty using the Frailty Index (FI) can be a predictor of in-hospital complications, need for discharge to a skilled nursing facility or in-hospital death in older patients following physical trauma.
Author: Bellal Joseph, M.D., of the University of Arizona Medical Center, Tucson, and colleagues
BOSTON -- Using a zebrafish model, investigators have identified a drug compound that appears to reverse arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM), a hereditary disease and leading cause of sudden death in young people. The findings, led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and Brigham and Women's Hospital, provide a key first step in developing new therapies for this dangerous condition, for which there is currently no preventive treatment.
The study appears in the June 11 issue of Science Translational Medicine.
HOUSTON – (June 11, 2014) – Almost all adult Texans were aware of the Affordable Care Act's Health Insurance Marketplace before the open-enrollment period ended March 31, according to a report released today by Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy and the Episcopal Health Foundation.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – June 11, 2014 – Hospital readmission, an important measure of quality care, costs the United States an estimated $17 billion each year. And according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), about half of those readmissions could be avoided.
The war on drugs could get a boost with a new method that analyzes sewage to track levels of illicit drug use in local communities in real time. The new study, a first-of-its-kind in the U.S., was published in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology and could help law enforcement identify new drug hot spots and monitor whether anti-drug measures are working.
Your memory for that last bite of a steak or chocolate cake may be more influential than memory for the first bite in determining when you want to eat it again, according to research published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
Our memories for foods are often vivid, especially when we experience foods that are terrifyingly bad or delightfully good. The findings from this research shed light on how memories for food are formed and how they guide our decisions about how soon we're willing to eat a food again.
A new study presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2014) showed that, for the majority of lupus patients who are in remission, it is possible to successfully stop immunosuppressant therapy without triggering a flare of their disease.1 Within two years, it was possible to stop the immunosuppressant in about 70% of clinically stable patients. Half were successful within three years, and this proportion remained stable for up to five years.1
Data presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2014) showed that a significant number of patients with psoriatic arthritis (PsA) were not receiving doses of the tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) inhibitor adalimumab necessary to achieve optimal clinical benefit.1 Further data revealed that, in the case of the TNFα inhibitor infliximab, nearly three-quarters of PsA patients were on doses lower than recommended in international guidelines. 2
New data presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2014) show that the newly-approved infliximab biosimilar CT-P13 achieves statistically similar improvements in disease activity, disability and mobility in patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) compared to its original reference product infliximab (INX).1
Five different presentations at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2014) have introduced new patient empowerment and educational initiatives, which are predicted to bring significant benefits to the many thousands of patients worldwide who suffer from a rheumatic disease.
These initiatives include:
New data presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2014) show that ultrasound-guided injections of growth factors-containing platelet-rich plasma (PRP) are no more effective in treating recently developed epicondylitis than injections of saline.1
In an editorial, The BMJ's Editor-in-Chief, Fiona Godlee and Patient Partnership Editor, Tessa Richards, explain that, over the past six months, an international panel of patient advisors the journal has set up "have stimulated, provoked, steered, and supported us to make landmark changes to our editorial processes."
These include asking authors of all educational articles to invite input from patients at an early stage in writing their papers and to document their input as contributors or co authors.
For long-term treatment of newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease (PD), the old drug levodopa provides better mobility and a higher quality of life than the two main alternatives, dopamine agonists (DA) and monoamine oxidase type B inhibitors (MAOBI), according to the largest-ever trial of PD treatment (PD MED), published in The Lancet.
Rochester, Minn. — Rheumatoid arthritis patients overall are twice as likely as the average person to develop heart problems. Pinpointing which rheumatoid arthritis patients need stepped-up heart disease prevention efforts has been a challenge; research by Mayo Clinic and others has found that standard heart disease risk assessment tools may underrate the danger a particular person faces. To better pinpoint rheumatoid arthritis patients' heart disease risk, an international team that includes Mayo researchers has created a heart disease risk calculator tailored to rheumatoid arthritis.
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — A UC Davis study comparing violent misdemeanor convictions with their original criminal charges has found that subsequent violent crimes could be prevented if criminal charges were reduced less often during plea bargaining.