News

Chikungunya virus could become the infectious disease of the hour-not because of any new cases in the US, but because actress Lindsay Lohan says she has it.Lohan has been tweeting about contracting the febrile, mosquito-borne illness during a vacation in French Polynesia.There have been locally transmitted cases in the US.

Cosentyx (secukinumab) has been approved in Japan for the treatment of psoriasis vulgaris (also known as plaque psoriasis) and psoriatic arthritis.

From inflammatory bowel disease to Crohn's disease and everywhere in the gastrointestinal system in between 2014 was a big year for medical breakthroughs and potential future treatments. Here is a look at the top 10 stories.

A child's genes may invoke symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis in a mother while she is carrying, according to research from the University of California, Berkeley.

Obesity and physical activity have become a focus of the healthcare community in the recent past and that was no exception in 2014. Over the past 12 months we have highlighted advancements in the treatment, diagnosis and impact of diabetes on our daily lives. Here is a look at the top 10 stories from the year.

Rheumatoid arthritis patients can heal slower if they demonstrate depressive symptoms, according to research published in Arthritis Care & Research.

Express Scripts has dropped Solvaldi, Harvoni, and Olysio in favor of an exclusive deal with the drug maker AbbVie Inc. to prescribe its newly approved hepatitis C drug called Viekira Pak, according to a statement from the prescription drug-benefits management company.

A look at the top rheumatoid arthritis stories on HCPLive for 2014.

Treating patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) with autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) has worked for most patients based on an interim report 3 years into a study. But the therapy has risks that critics say outweigh the benefits.

While rheumatoid arthritis makes the most headlines in the field of rheumatology a recent push has been made to bring more attention to patients with rheumatic heart disease.

For patients diagnosed with knee osteoarthritis the pain associated not only with the condition but also the potential knee replacement surgery can be excruciating. A recent study looked at ways to minimize the pain after the operation to get people back on their feet as quickly as possible.

A Dutch trial that compared the effectiveness of treating acute ischemic stroke patients with tPA with that of using tPA plus mechanical clot removal and/or other clot-busting agents showed the more aggressive therapies got better results. Dubbed MR CLEAN, the 500-patient 16-center study also found that such measures gave treating physicians more time-up to 6 hours after a stroke vs. the 4.5 hours that is the accepted treatment window for tPA.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Wednesday that workers in a lab in their Atlanta headquarters may have been exposed to a live strain of the Ebola virus.

Waiting lists for donor organs are shorter in some parts of the US, creating a geographic disparity that The US Department of Health and Human Services would like to eliminate. There are currently 58 Donor Service Areas in 11 US regions and donor organs go first to patients within each one. That has created a system where transplant patients often travel to regions where the waits are shorter, a hardship for them and a barrier to poor patients.

The identification of a gene mutation could provide an added boost to the research into treatments for conditions like Cushing's syndrome, according to a recent European study.

A new virus has reportedly been discovered in the Midwest, with scientists looking at how the tick-borne illness claimed the life of one person in Kansas.

Postextubation dysphagia is a common but often unrecognized problem in critically ill patients who've been intubated for 2 days or more. Its causes include mechanical abrasion, cognitive disturbances, and the residual effects of narcotics and anxiolytic medications.

The entrepreneur who founded Napster and secured Facebook some of its first venture capital money has donated $24 million to fund an allergy research center at Stanford University.

As many as 15% of diabetics may be misdiagnosed with simple diabetes mellitus (DM) types 1 or 2. But DM presents as more than 50 unique types, and even among correctly diagnosed type 2 patients, 60 predisposing genetic variants exist.

A experimental device designed to replace medications such a warfarin in the treatment of nonvalvular atrial fibrillation may have taken another step closer to market earlier this month.

An article published electronically in JAMA Facial and Plastic Surgery discusses what happens when ears have been stretched beyond the body's ability to heal.

Saxenda (liraglutide [rDNA origin] injection) 3 mg has been approved as an adjunct to a reduced-calorie diet and increased physical activity for chronic weight management in obese and overweight adults who have at least one weight-related comorbidity.

A longstanding policy of the US Food and Drug Administration could be coming to an end as Commissioner Margaret A. Hamburg released a statement with proposed changes to the blood donor deferral for homosexual men.

Soolantra (ivermectin) Cream, 1% has been approved for the once-daily topical treatment of inflammatory lesions, or bumps and pimples, of rosacea.

Around 10% of elders experience some form of elder abuse (physical, sexual or emotional abuse; neglect, exploitation, or abandonment), and elders who are abused appear to have a high level of comorbidity. Evidence suggests that patients who have experienced elder abuse are at higher risk of cardiovascular-related mortality.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine (ASRM) published a 2013 guideline addressing the number of embryos to transfer. Its guideline relied on empiric data to individualize patient care while minimizing the risk of high-order multiple births.

Variations of an enzyme could help health care professionals identify patients more likely to be diagnosed with a rare rheumatologic condition.

A new analysis of Medicare data has found that prostate cancer patients who use testosterone replacement therapy live just as long as those who don't and do not have greater need for androgen deprivation therapy.

Results from a small trial indicate that radiofrequency ablation can be an effective treatment for atrial fibrillation in patients with atrial septal defects.

The Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS) will hear arguments in the King v. Burwell case on March 4, according to information posted today on its calendar. The viability of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) hangs in the balance. The case focuses on language in the ACA that plaintiffs charge makes it illegal for people to get federal subsidies for health insurance purchased on state exchanges if they live in states where the federal government runs those exchanges.