As the medical field makes strides in women’s health, more information has become widely available to people in different ways. This includes mobile apps, of which there are a variety of options. According to a 2022 study in Women’s Health that surveyed users’ experiences with period tracking apps, 7% of the health apps available in the App Store focus on women’s health and pregnancy.¹ With so many apps and so much information available, there are potential benefits and risks, particularly in a newer industry like app development. How accurate are these tracking apps? How secure are the data ..read more

Income level correlates to a higher risk for stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), heart failure, and amputation among individuals with diabetes, according to study results published in Diabetes Care. In the study, researchers used records from administrative population-level health care databases in Ontario, Canada, for information from fee-for-service billing claims, the Registered Persons Database for demographic information on Ontario residents, and the Discharge Abstracts Database for detailed information on hospital admissions in Ontario. Data were classified into annual cohorts, from 1995 ..read more

Bariatric surgery is more likely to result in diabetes remission and effective blood glucose control than nonsurgical treatments in patients with mild obesity, according to a study published in BMC Endocrine Disorders. Investigators systematically reviewed literature published between January 2010, and January 2023 after performing a keyword search of the Embase, PubMed/MEDLINE, Scopus, and Cochrane Library databases. The efficacy of surgical and nonsurgical methods for achieving diabetes remission were analyzed in individuals with mild obesity. The team included a total of 7 articles in the m ..read more

A response rate of 78% to medial opening wedge high tibial osteotomy (HTO) for knee osteoarthritis (OA) was reported in a study published in The Journal of Rheumatology. The response rate and predictors for response to medial opening wedge HTO for the treatment of knee OA have not been fully elucidated. Patients with knee OA who underwent medial opening wedge HTO at Fowler Kennedy Sport Medicine Clinic in Canada between 2002 and 2014 were evaluated for response through 2 years. Response to treatment was defined as at least 20% relative improvement with a 10-point or more absolute change in pai ..read more

Older individuals, especially women, who had higher consumption of healthy plant-based foods were at lower risk for osteoporosis, according to study findings published in Osteoporosis International. Between 2019 and 2021, individuals aged older than 60 years were enrolled in the study from 9 communities in China. Study participants responded to a questionnaire about demographic characteristics and dietary habits and underwent skeletal muscle mass evaluation by an HBF-701 body composition analyzer. Osteoporosis was defined by heel ultrasound, based on a T-score of 2.5 or lesser. A total of 9613 ..read more

HealthDay News — Statin use is low for primary prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), with the lowest use seen among Black and Hispanic adults, according to a study published online March 22 in JAMA Cardiology. Joshua A. Jacobs, Pharm.D., from the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City, and colleagues examined the prevalence of primary prevention statin use by race and ethnicity according to 10-year ASCVD risk using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2013 to March 2020. Data were included fo ..read more

HealthDay News — Publicly funded bariatric surgery is associated with improvements in obesity, type 2 diabetes, and related comorbidities, according to a study published online Feb. 24 in PLOS ONE. Trisha O’Moore-Sullivan, from Mater Health in Brisbane, Australia, and colleagues evaluated the clinical and patient-reported outcomes of patients treated through the Bariatric Surgery Initiative. The analysis included 212 patients with type 2 diabetes and morbid obesity undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy through a publicly funded initiative. The researchers found that followi ..read more

Long-term thyroid dysfunction is unlikely following hospitalization for severe COVID-19 infection, according to results of a study published in European Thyroid Journal. Severe COVID-19 infection may interfere with typical thyroid functioning, but long-term effects are largely unknown. Researchers conducted a single-center observational study between March 2020 and May 2021 to evaluate changes in thyroid dysfunction following severe COVID-19 infection. Correlations between COVID-19 disease severity and thyroid dysfunction detected were analyzed among patients who survived infection. Patients w ..read more

Sixty years ago, William Beetham, MD, of Massachusetts Eye and Ear, said medicine could offer no options to prevent or slow diabetic retinopathy (DR). At that time, he was basically correct. Ophthalmologists had to accept progressive vascular degeneration.1  But in 2023, we know that diabetic eye disease starts with diabetic neurodegeneration (DN), which affects all the retinal neurons and glia. The diabetic damage can affect other ocular tissues, such as cranial nerves (third and sixth), and the corneal epithelium, and lead to cataracts and glaucoma.2  With this knowledge, physicia ..read more

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Evkeeza® (evinacumab-dgnb) as an adjunct to other lipid-lowering therapies to treat children 5 to 11 years of age with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH). Evinacumab is a fully-human monoclonal antibody that binds to and blocks the function of angiopoietin-like 3 (ANGPTL3). The approval was based on data from a 3-part single-arm, open-label trial (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04233918) that evaluated the efficacy and safety of evinacumab in 14 pediatrics patients (average age, 9 years) with HoFH who were enrolled in the Part ..read more