Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/epvaDUcS6b4

Quantitating the eye pupillary reflex response in children and teens may help to screen for autism.  Speech-language pathologists at the Washington State University measured the reflex rate using a monocular pupillometer in 36 diagnosed autistic persons versus 24 matched subjects with normal communication skills.  The data showed that the pupillary light reflex in the autistic developed 19% faster and faded 26% more slowly compared with the normal controls.

Pupillometry may be a rapid, objective screening tool to use alongside behavioral testing to earlier diagnose autism.  Though earlier diagnosis leads to better rehabilitation outcomes, the average age of diagnosis has not diminished from the 4 year mark over the past 20 years.

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10072-022-05976-2

#autism #pupillaryreflex #pupillometry

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/WWe69nmL9T0

Cannabis is an increasingly popular treatment for chronic pain.   $  Danish researchers compared 4931 chronic pain patients using various cannabis derivatives for pain with an equal number of of controls.  The risk of developing a new cardiac arrhythmia was 74% higher in those regularly using cannabis.  Of the group, 18% had cancer, 17% arthritis, 15% back pain, 10% neurological diseases, 4% headaches, 3% complicated fractures, and 33.% unspecified chronic pain

Those who use cannabis regularly should regularly check for cardiac rhythm problems with a pulse check or an Apple Watch EKG.

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20220822/Medical-cannabis-used-for-chronic-pain-linked-with-elevated-risk-of-heart-rhythm-disorders.aspx

#cannabis #arrhythmia #pain

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/SZFXpfHF-7U

A total of 1,173,156 or 20% more Americans than expected died during the first 2 years of CoVid according to Yale researchers.  The largest relative mortality increase occurred in 18-49 year olds and in males.  As expected, the largest death toll occurred in this over 65 years of age.  

Looking at various regions, the highest cumulative excess mortality occurred in the South with the lowest numbers in the West and Northeast.  The most excess deaths occurred in Hispanics followed by Black people and then Whites.  Once vaccines were available, the excess mortality in those over 65 dropped precipitously.

These terrible stats reflect the government’s and the media’s incompetent and inconsistent public health messaging as well as frank lies regarding masking and and then vaccination.   Also to blame was a shameful lack of activism and pushback by academic public health expects. 

https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.08.16.22278800v1.full.pdf

#CoVid #mortality #masking #vaccine #cdc #gop #foxnews

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/KAnfe8VSL_4

Here is some notable healthcare-related business news for this 3rd Week of August, 2022.

Diseases of the cornea rob nearly 13 million people worldwide of their sight yet only 1 in 7 victims are able to obtain cornea transplants due to tissue shortages.  To answer that shortfall, a Swedish bioengineering company LinkoCare has developed a technique to create replacement cornea tissue using purified skin collagen from pigs.  The pig hydrogel protein is introduced into the diseased cornea restoring its shape and optical characteristics without invasive or expensive surgery.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-022-01408-w

JD Power, the customer satisfaction survey people, have ranked Medicare Advantage Plans.  The best one turned out to be the Kaiser Foundation’s Health Plan offering.  It was followed by Humana, Highmark, United HealthCare, BlueCross/BlueShield of Michigan, Aetna, Anthem now called Elevance, Cigna, and, bringing up the rear, Centene. Buyer beware!

https://www.jdpower.com/business/press-releases/2022-us-medicare-advantage-study

Minnetronix Medical, a company that has developed many devices for marketing by others including Medtronic and Abbott, has now come out with its own product called MindsEye.  This expandable portal is introduced into brain tissue and provides a tiny retractor system that permits surgical microscope views, the safe passage of imaging fibers, and the introduction of micro instruments.

https://medcitynews.com/2022/08/minnetronix-commercializes-its-own-product-a-minimally-invasive-deep-brain-access-port/

And finally….NYU is partnering with Fermilab’s Superconducting Quantum Materials and Systems Center to create cutting edge quantitative MR imaging utilizing high speed quantum computers.  The additional computing power permits higher resolution imaging that more clearly differentiates tissue properties separating normal from cancerous.  It also facilitates the use of artificial intelligence techniques to better automate the diagnostic process.

https://www.dotmed.com/news/story/58464

There you have the latest healthcare-related business news for this 3rd Week of August, 2022, 2022.

#cornea #medicareadvantage #jdpower #neurosurgery #brainportal #mr #cancer #quantumcomputing

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/pHgQ9JsvwDo

Here are the latest cutting edge medical and healthcare discoveries this 3rd Week of August, 2022.  Many of discoveries will become the therapies of tomorrow.

MIT bioengineers have developed self-powered wearable wireless sensors capable of transmitting data about pulse rate, sweat composition, and ultraviolet radiation exposure.  What’s unique about these wearables is that they perform this monitoring without embedded Bluetooth chips or batteries.  The ultrathin sensing film is composed of gallium nitride with 2-way piezoelectric properties allowing it to both sense underlying skin changes and complete wireless transmission of the collected data when paired with a conducting layer of gold.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abn7325

The placenta is known as the “engine of pregnancy” since it provides oxygen and vital nutrients to the developing fetus.  University of Pennsylvania researchers now report a unique method for monitoring placental function and blood flow utilizing a unique combination of ultrasound and optical spectroscopy.  Light and sound waves are simultaneously directed through the pregnant woman’s abdomen, and the reflected light is amplified and background noise removed to permit quantification of placental oxygen levels.  This precise placental monitoring permits better management of hight risk pregnancies.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41551-022-00913-2

A newly synthesized peptide called A1R-CT is capable of suppressing seizures when introduced into the body in a nasal spray.  Neurologic researchers at the University of Alabama-Birmingham have shown that this protein facilitates activation of the A1 receptor on neurons that squelches excess electrical activity and seizures.  These epileptic seizures that commonly accompany strokes, traumatic brain injuries, and neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s are poorly controlled by conventional agents in some 40% of patients.  The A1R-CT nasal spray may help solve this problem.

https://insight.jci.org/articles/view/155002

And finally…..More news about uniquely therapeutic nasal sprays.  Looking to create nasal lining immunity where the CoVid virus first enters the body,  MIT researchers have successfully fused CoVid receptor binding domain spike antigens with an albumin-binding polymer lipid that opens a portal into nasal linings so that the CoVid proteins can effectively trigger a vigorous, local immune response against themselves.  The hope is that effective nasal IgA antibody immunity will offer better protection against the latest group of Omicron subvariants including BA.5.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.abn1413

There you have the cutting edge medical and healthcare discoveries this 3rd Week of August, 2022. 

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/F2ENtjzemsg

CoVid-infected persons were 61% more likely to have low serum levels of Vitamin D than the uninfected, and this phenomenon was more prominent in women than in men.  This diminished Vitamin D was more strongly associated with contracting CoVid than other medical issues or so-called comorbidities.  

These conclusions are the result of a large collaborative meta-analysis by researchers in India and in the UK.  Sixteen eligible studies yield 386,631 patients for analysis.  The Vitamin D levels were more than 2-fold lower in CoVid-infected women compared with uninfected women while infected men had Vitamin D levels 74% lower.  The presence or absence of comorbidities including excess weight, diabetes, hypertension, elevated cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, and mental illness were not as strongly associated with CoVid infection as were Vitamin D levels.

A potential vulnerability to a CoVid infection is yet another reason for you to ask your medical team to assess your serum Vitamin D level.  Add this reason to the long list including bone weakness and dissolution, cardiovascular disease, asthma in children, cognitive problems, and cancer.

https://jpmph.org/upload/pdf/jpmph-21-640.pdf

#vitaminD #CoVid #osteoporosis #cardiovascular #dementia #cancer

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/_es5STnRzrU

Fruit-flavored gummy candies containing nicotine, marketing to help smokers kick the habit, pose a danger to young children and teenagers.  The FDA has sent a warning letter to VPR Brands, the marketer of these nicotine candies, giving the company 15 days to remove the product or prevent its distribution to younger Americans.  These gummy cubes, never approved for sale by the FDA, can trigger nicotine poisoning and sometimes death if consumed by small children.

An FDA-funded California study found that these nicotine candies were the second most popular nicotine-containing product after e-cigarettes.  

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-08-fda-illegal-nicotine-gummies-letter.html

#nicotine #gummies #children #adolescents #poisoning

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/lnfpbeZ7pqU

Victims of Traumatic Brain Injuries, TBI for short, have a 23 to 63 fold higher risk of death during the ensuing 6 months when they have high levels of two protein biomarkers circulating in their bloodstreams on the day of injury.  This conclusion stems from a collaborative study from the University of Michigan, UC-San Francisco, and the University of Pennsylvania.

The researchers studied 1700 patients with TBI and measured their circulating levels of two proteins, GFAP and UCH-L1 as they were admitted to the hospital.  The levels of these proteins were compared with the occurrence of patient mortality within 6 months post-injury.   Those with the highest vs. the lowest GFAP values had a 23 times higher risk of death while those with the highest vs. the lowest UCH-L1 values had a 63 times higher risk of death.

This prospective data is invaluable for setting realistic family expectations for patient recovery after these devastating episodes of head trauma.

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(22)00256-3/fulltext

#tbi #gfap #uchl1 #mortality

tbi, gfap, uchl1, mortality

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/QqX4vyzngIk

The shortage of the available Danish monkeypox vaccine Jynneos has driven the CDC to recommend vaccination with one-fifth the originally recommended dose injected between the layers of the skin rather than beneath the skin.  Some scientists are pushing back on the plan claiming that the so-called intradermal vaccination route is not as effective.

The literature pushes back on this notion.  As early as 1980, a Swedish study on the typhoid vaccine showed that the intradermal route generated comparable protective antibody titers when compared with the subcutaneous route.  The added benefits of intradermal vaccinations: 7.5 fold lower incidence of local skin and general febrile reactions as well as a 3.7 fold lower incidence of severe local skin reactions.

More recently, in 2004, Dr. Anthony Fauci himself co-authored a New England Journal article about stretching available doses of flu vaccine using a smaller dose of vaccine administered intradermally rather than intramuscularly.  He points out that intradermal vaccination may actually induce a stronger immune response than intramuscular vaccination when used for not only flu vaccinations but also for those against hepatitis B, rabies, and other infectious disease,

If you need a monkeypox vaccination, get the intradermal jab.  If you can’t get the vaccine, protect yourself with hygenic sexual practices, avoiding contact with those demonstrating skin rashes, and us hand and surface cleansing using disinfectants and go ol’ 70% isopropyl alcohol.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/5612191EDC16CF79A2B2C88B6FBA4ABE/S0022172400026462a.pdf/intradermal-versus-subcutaneous-immunization-with-typhoid-vaccine.pdf

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe048314

#monkeypox #vaccination #intradermal #subcutaneous 

Vidcast:  https://youtu.be/9yjeL3pYS-4

Metformin, ivermectin, and fluvoxamine, 3 drugs in current use for other conditions, offer no help when taken for CoVid infections in non-hospitalized patients.  This the conclusion of a definitive doubled-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled collaborative study headed by researchers at the University of Minnesota.

A total of 1431 patients participated.  Their median age was 46 years, 56% were female, 6% were pregnant, and 52% had been vaccinated.  The data analysis showed that these 3 drugs, metformin, ivermectin, and fluvoxamine failed to prevent CoVid-driven lung infections with low blood oxygenation, ER visits, hospitalizations, or death.

If you do contract CoVid and are at risk for serious disease, know that there are effective agents to stop the virus from landing you in the hospital or in a coffin.  Taken as soon as possible after a CoVid diagnosis, Paxlovid taken orally and remdesivir administered intravenously are viral polymerase inhibitors that block CoVid replication in those with early infections. For those with more severe and persistent infections, intravenously administered monoclonal antibodies that block viral entry into human cells as a group have less effectiveness against the current Omicron sub-variant BA.5.  One monoclonal antibody, bebtelovimab, and the monoclonal antibody cocktail of 2 monoclonal antibodies, Evusheld, do work against BA.5 and can be used for outpatient and hospitalized CoVid patients.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2201662?query=TOC&cid=NEJM%20eToc,%20August%2018,%202022%20DM1352386_NEJM_Non_Subscriber&bid=1120617993

#covid #paxlovid #monoclonalantibodies #bebtelovimab #evusheld #ivermectin #metformin #fluvoxamine