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BOSTON — Routine ultrasound guidance for accessing the femoral vein for percutaneous coronary procedures didn’t cut down on bleeding and vascular complications, the UNIVERSAL trial showed. The primary combined endpoint of major bleeding and major vascular complications at 30 days showed no advantage to the imaging technique added to fluoroscopy, reported Sanjit S. Jolly, MD,

The World Health Organization voiced optimism about when can the COVID-19 pandemic finally come to an end.  Last week, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the WHO, said in a news briefing in Geneva that the world was already in a better position to end the global health crisis. This was based on the latest

Pulmonary artery denervation (PADN) plus a phosphodiesterase-5 inhibitor improved exercise capacity, cardiac function, and some clinical outcomes in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in a sham-controlled trial. The primary outcome of change from baseline in 6-minute walk distance increased in both groups at 30 days, with a median change at 6 months of 61

Just how dire is the situation in Ontario hospitals? Premier Doug Ford’s government is willing to face the almost inevitable public blowback from sending seniors up to 150 kilometres away for long-term care, all to free up a few hundred hospital beds.  Under new rules that take effect next Wednesday, hospital patients in southern Ontario awaiting spots in

The Sentinel cerebral embolic protection (CEP) device failed to reduce the overall stroke rate in patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in the largest TAVR trial to date, further calling into question its clinical utility. The primary outcome of stroke at 72 hours or before discharge occurred in 34 of 1501 patients with CEP

BOSTON — Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) in patients with small aortic annuli had better hemodynamic results with a self-expandable than a balloon-expandable valve, with suggestion of better clinical outcomes too, in the France-TAVI registry. Mean gradient was significantly lower with self-expanding Medtronic CoreValve Evolut Pro or R devices at the end of the procedure

It’s no secret that sugary drinks are bad for people’s health, but how are they linked to cancer? Researchers have found that consuming them may increase one’s risk of mortality from certain cancers. Sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB) are the “leading sources of added sugars” for Americans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

A newly available transcatheter device for edge-to-edge mitral valve (MV) repair, named for a famed scientist-inventor, is similar to the long-available MitraClip (Abbott Vascular) for short-term efficacy and safety, suggests an interim but prespecified analysis from a randomized trial. In its comparison with MitraClip, the PASCAL transcatheter valve repair system (Edwards Lifesciences) was noninferior with

This is an excerpt from Second Opinion, a weekly analysis of health and medical science news. If you haven’t subscribed yet, you can do that by clicking here. One night in March 2020, as wastewater researcher Robert Delatolla was making dinner at his Ottawa home, his wife wondered out loud: Was it possible to spot the novel coronavirus in the

New European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines for the management of patients with ventricular arrhythmias and the prevention of sudden cardiac death contain a variety of updates since the 2015 edition — including 140 new recommendations and 20 changed recommendations, and now tables and algorithms for managing patients with specific cardiovascular diseases.    The changes

Recognizing the potential for vaccine administration errors with look-alike vials, CDC staff shared best practices for giving the right vaccine to the right person at the right dose, during a Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity (COCA) webinar earlier this week. The most concerning possible vaccination error would be that a child might receive a higher

The latest COVID booster shot has now been authorized for use by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for protection against Omicron-specific variants and is currently rolling out across the country. The shot from Pfizer is authorized for use in people 12 and older, while the Moderna shot can be administered to those that are

Even a little walking may help avert serious illness and death, and a brisk stroll may be especially beneficial, according to a study of nearly 80,000 middle-aged and older adults. Each additional 2,000 steps per day — up to 10,000 — was associated with 8% to 11% fewer deaths and less heart disease and cancer,

In recent years, walking 10,000 steps a day has become a popular fitness goal, but until now, there wasn’t much scientific research to back that number. A number of studies have shown that physical exercise can improve health and provide anti-aging benefits, but few have looked at exactly how many steps people should walk per day

Against the backdrop of ongoing legislation regarding assisted suicide, the German Society of Hematology and Medical Oncology (DGHO) is asking that emotions be removed from the debate. Currently, three bills on assisted suicide are pending. In June, the German Bundestag discussed them in a first reading. The DGHO believes that the discussion lacks “appropriate nuances.”

[embedded content] In this video, Mikhail Varshavski, DO — who goes by “Dr. Mike” on social media — takes a trip through history to look at what caused each U.S. president’s death. Following is a partial transcript of the video (note that errors are possible): Varshavski: There have been 45 presidents in the history of

hink you are exposed to too much blue light? Better give yourself a little break from your favorite gadgets now. A new study has found that the harmful effects of blue light is strongly age-dependent and the damages it causes will worsen as you age. For a study, published in the Nature Partner Journals Aging, researchers

PHILADELPHIA — In patients with persistent hyposmia after COVID-19 infection, the specific pattern of impaired olfaction can distinguish these patients from normal controls and from individuals with mild cognitive impairment, a study has shown. “We know that overall, 1 in 8 patients, at least, who have had COVID, are going to have persistent olfactory dysfunction,”

As most people in James Smith Cree Nation were still sleeping, violence erupted.  The killings began in homes around the northern part of the community before sunrise — at least three attacks, followed by five more in the central village and two in the south, said Chief Robert Head, tracing the path with his hand

During the first two years of the pandemic, the number of people working from home in the United States tripled, home values grew and the percentage of people who spent more than a third of their income on rent went up, according to survey results released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. Providing the most

WASHINGTON — Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) will introduce a bill in the House on Thursday that is aimed at fixing problems with Medicare’s program for non-emergency ambulance transport for certain low-income beneficiaries, MedPage Today has learned. The Repetitive, Scheduled Non-Emergent Ambulance Transport (RSNAT) prior authorization model started in 2014 as a project of the Centers

Health officials warned that they expect a severe winter flu season and urged the country to get flu shots in addition to the latest COVID booster shot. Australia and other Southern Hemisphere countries are currently experiencing severe flu seasons and the U.S. is expected to have a record flu season as cases in the northern