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NEWS:
The Shape of Your Heart Matters
Curious to know if you’re at risk for two common heart conditions? Your doctor may want to check the shape of your heart.
Investigators from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai have discovered that patients who have round hearts shaped like baseballs are more likely to develop future heart failure and atrial fibrillation than patients who have longer hearts shaped like the traditional Valentine heart.
Their findings, published in Med-Cell Press’ new peer-reviewed medical journal-used deep learning and advanced imaging analysis to study the genetics of heart structure. Their results were telling.
"We found that individuals with spherical hearts were 31% more likely to develop atrial fibrillation and 24% more likely to develop cardiomyopathy, a type of heart muscle disease," said David Ouyang, MD, a cardiologist in the Smidt Heart Institute and a researcher in the Division of
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NIH Study Identifies Features Of Long COVID Neurological Symptoms
Twelve people with persistent neurological symptoms after SARS-CoV-2 infection were intensely studied at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and were found to have differences in their immune cell profiles and autonomic dysfunction. These data inform future studies to help explain persistent neurological symptoms in Long COVID. The findings, published in Neurology: Neuroimmunology & Neuroinflammation(link is external), may lead to better diagnoses and new treatments.
People with post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC), which includes Long COVID, have a wide range of symptoms, including fatigue, shortness of breath, fever, headaches, sleep disturbances, and “brain fog,” or cognitive impairment. Such symptoms can last for months or longer after an initial SARS-CoV-2 infection. Fatigue and “brain fog” are among the most common and debilitating symptoms, and likely stem from nervous syst
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NIH-Funded Study Explains Link To Increased Cardiovascular Risks For People With Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Researchers have found that people with obstructive sleep apnea have an increased cardiovascular risk due to reduced blood oxygen levels, largely explained by interrupted breathing. Obstructive sleep apnea has long been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular issues, including heart attack, stroke, and death, but the findings from this study, partially supported by the National Institutes of Health and published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, show the mechanism mostly responsible for the link.
“These findings will help better characterize high-risk versions of obstructive sleep apnea,” said Ali Azarbarzin, Ph.D., a study author and director of the Sleep Apnea Health Outcomes Research Group at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston. “We think that including a higher-risk version of obstructive sleep apnea in a randomiz
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New Study Shows Critical Importance of Hearing Care
The American Academy of Audiology endorsed the Medicare Audiology Access Improvement Act of 2023, bipartisan legislation introduced by U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Rand Paul (R-KY) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) that will provide seniors with more timely and robust access to services provided by audiologists.
The importance and timeliness of the re-introduced bill was reaffirmed this past week by an important study in the Lancet and a recent advisory from the U.S. Surgeon General (May 2023) about consequences of social isolation and loneliness. The study, Hearing intervention versus health education control to reduce cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss in the USA (ACHIEVE): a multicentre, randomized controlled trial, showed that hearing intervention—hearing care by an audiologist along with the use of hearing aids in older adults at greater risk for dementia due t
