On the HCPLive news page, resources on the topics of disease- and specialty-specific medical news and expert insight can be found. Content includes articles, interviews, videos, podcasts, and breaking news on health care research, treatment, and drug development.
Pituitary Incidentaloma Treatment Guideline
August 21st 2015It is unclear how many people have pituitary incidentaloma, but imaging and autopsy studies indicate they are quite common and occur in up to one-third of patients. Fortunately, the vast majority of these serendipitously discovered tumors are clinically insignificant. A management guideline in the Annals of Endocrinology brings endocrinologists up to date on current thinking about pituitary incidentaloma management.
Fighting Fat with Fitbit, Text Messages, and Other Electronic Interventions to Promote Exercise
August 21st 2015Most self-improvement intervention programs rely on self-monitoring, or increased awareness of bad habits, to help people change their behaviors. Traditionally, programs have used diaries, calendar notes, or check-ins at daily or weekly meetings to help individuals recognize and replace unhelpful routines. The October 2015 issue of Telemedicine and e-Health includes a study that describes how simple electronic feedback can help people with weight problems.
Is it Time to Revise Opioid Prescribing Guidelines (Again)?
August 21st 2015Study results show that opioid overdoses appear to frequently occur in patients who are not chronic users with high prescribed doses of opioids, in contrast to the patient groups targeted by current opioid prescribing guidelines.
The Social and Socioeconomic Benefits of HIV Treatment
August 21st 2015Findings from two studies presented July 22 at the International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference in Vancouver, Canada indicate that HIV treatment for illicit drug users appears to improve their social and socioeconomic wellbeing, in addition to their overall health.
Major Depressive Disorder: Protein Linked to Potential Suicidality
Investigators have shown that changes in toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) mRNA expression level are significantly associated with major depressive disorder (MDD). The study, which appeared in Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, is a follow-up to an earlier study by the same researchers that first established the connection between TLR4 and MDD.
Blunter Needle Has Safety Advantages for Some Intravascular Steroid Injections
Some studies have shown the benefit of a blunt, Whitacre-type needle in reducing the incidence of intravascular injection during TFESI, but other studies showed that a short-bevel needle did not reduce the incidence of intravascular injection in lumbar TFESI compared to long-bevel, Quincke-type needles.
Does the Analgesic Placebo Response Differ in Children?
There has been a great deal of study on the placebo effect in the medical literature, and despite some evidence suggesting that placebo response rates in randomized controlled trials are higher in children and adolescents compared to adults, there has only been limited research involving the placebo response of children.
Studies: Exercise and Sleep Are Key in Ankylosing Spondylitis
A recent study suggests that patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS) have a higher incidence of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome that increases with the severity of cervical vertebral involvement. A separate study published on the same day suggests that specific exercise regimens may be beneficial for patients with AS.
What Role Do miRNAs Play in the Onset and Severity of OCD?
Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) presents several diagnostic and treatment challenges, in part because etiology and pathogenesis remains relatively unknown. Most studies of OCD focus on adult patients, but there have been some studies of OCD onset before the age of 6 years, and the vast majority of OCD patients (80%) report that related symptoms began before age 18.
Lack of Standardized Measurements Clouds Picture of Pain Interventions
Data concerning general outcomes and indicating performance of general pain clinics remain sparse, according to a study in the Journal of Pain and Research. The United Kingdom study suggests that this lack of standardized measurements negatively impacts the ability to judge the overall effectiveness of pain clinics, both in the UK and in other parts of the world.
Can a Woman's Finger Length Predict Susceptibility to Acne Vulgaris?
What can the length of a woman's fingers tell us about their susceptibility to acne vulgaris (AV)? Plenty, it turns out, according to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Dermatology. The study suggests that a more masculine second-to-fourth digit (2D:4D) ratio may predict sebum levels and, therefore, the potential for developing AV.
Cluster Headache Remains an Enigma Despite Clinical Clues
A recent study in The Journal of Headache and Pain sheds some additional light on the chronobiological experience of patients with cluster headache (CH). However, it still leaves lingering mysteries around the pattern of pain CH that patients typically experience, the triggers of those headaches, and the mechanisms and interactions that drive headache frequency and severity.
RAPID3 Shown to Be an Effective Assessment Tool for Patients with Psoriatic Arthritis
New research suggests that a 10-second self assessment might provide nearly as much information about psoriatic arthritis case progression as complex tests that generally require either require laboratory results or formal joint-by-joint evaluation.
FDA Alerts Testosterone Supplements May Lack Safety and Effectiveness
August 20th 2015The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is requiring additional clinical trials on testosterone supplements after revealing that labeling claims about their safety and efficacy are not backed by substantial evidence.
Study: One Size Doesn't Fit All in Treating Bronchogenic Cysts
Researchers have confirmed that bronchoscopy is a good tool to diagnose bronchogenic cysts, that therapeutic aspiration is an alternative to surgery for adults who are unfit or are reluctant to have surgery, however, transbronchial needle aspiration (TBNA) as a primary method of managing mediastinal bronchogenic cysts may not be the best modality for all patients.
Pediatric Epilepsy Racks Up Big Bills
The year following a child's first diagnosis of epilepsy is likely to cost as much as $20,000 researchers concluded after a retrospective study of billing data for 258 patients. Jamie L. Ryan, PhD, and colleagues findings' were published in Neurology online on July 10, 2015.
Brain Tumors: Girls Survive Longer
Weill-Cornell researchers looking into genetic differences in high-grade gliomas made an unexpected finding: while both boys and girls live longer when their visible tumors are completely removed, the girls lived almost six years longer post-surgery.
Hepatologists are seeing a growing number of patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in their practices. Finding the most effective ways to treat them has become a focus of the field. A recent study also looked at the link between this and similar conditions and cardiovascular disease.
Caffeine Addicted Colon Cancer Patients May See Improvements in Survival Rates
Caffeine addicts, rejoice. A recent study concluded that regularly consuming caffeinated coffee could potentially help inhibit the return of colon cancer post-treatment, eventually improving the chance for a cure.