Uncontrolled hypertension increases the risk of stroke

According to a study published in the European Heart Journal, patients with hypertension who do not take their antihypertensive medication when they should have an increased risk to stroke and of dying than those who take their medication correctly. It is known that the main risk factor for stroke is uncontrolled high blood pressure and also that reducing hypertension decreases both the risk of ischemic stroke and hemorrhagic stroke.

The study was conducted by scientists from Finland and University College London, UK and involved the analysis of 73 527 patients with hypertension. It was showed that patients who did not adhere to treatment had a 4-fold increased risk to die from stroke in the second year after the first prescription of medication and 3 times higher risk in the tenth year, compared with patients taking antihypertensive treatment correctly. It was also shown that patients who died of stroke had a 5.7-fold higher risk than adherent patients. Also, patients who did not got the medication correctly were more likely to be hospitalized after stroke (risk was 2.7 times higher than in patients who adhered to treatment).

stroke

Dr Kimmo Herttua, a senior fellow in the Population Research Unit at the University of Helsinki, Finland, and first author of the study, said the study underscores how important it is to take the antihypertensive drugs in order to minimize the risk of serious complications such are fatal and non-fatal stroke. He added that non-adherent patients had a higher risk even 10 years before to suffer from a stroke and that there is a dose-response relationship.

The researchers could find out if patients were adherent to treatment by tracking the number of prescriptions issued for them every year. Those who were taking the treatment correctly more than 80% of the time were declared adherents while non-adherents patients were divided into two categories: intermediate adherence (adherence 30-80%) and low adherence (less than 30%). Dr Herttua said they also took into account the fact that patient adherence can change over time and that every year they analyzed the association between treatment adherence and fatal stroke and non-fatal. The study also took into account the classes of antihypertensive drugs. It was found that among patients taking drugs that affect the renin-angiotensin system (such as converting enzyme inhibitors) combined with diuretics or beta-blockers, those who were non-adherent had a 7.5 times higher risk of death and a 4-fold increased risk of hospitalization compared with patients who took the medication correctly.

Scientists made new progress in pulmonary hypertension research

Researchers at the University of Lincoln in colaboration with those from the University of Cambridge, King’s College London and Papworth Hospital, made new advances in the research regarding pulmonary hypertension. They were able to isolate the cells associated with the disease: blood outgrowth endothelial cells (BOEC).

Pulmonary hypertension is defined by a pressure greater than 25 mmHg in the pulmonary artery at rest. In pulmonary hypertension symptoms appear and worsen gradually so that in advanced stages can lead to severe heart failure and even death. There are several classifications and types of pulmonary hypertension: arterial, venous, familial, hypoxic, idiopathic etc. It should be noted that this disorder is associated with a number of diseases such as left heart disease, pulmonary embolism, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, scleroderma and other collagen diseases etc.

Nobody knows what causes this disorder but it is known that in patients with pulmonary hypertension  vasoconstriction of the pulmonary arteries occurs. In addition, there is a proliferation of the endothelium of blood vessels that further narrows their caliber which lead to pulmonary hypertension. The symptoms are nonspecific, this is why the disease is difficult to diagnose at the beginning. Patients can have shortness of breath, heart pain, palpitations, rapid pulse, swelling in the legs, hemoptysis etc.

PAH

A team of researchers led by academic Dr Rajiv Machado conducted a study that investigated genetically identical twins who had both genetic marker for pulmonary hypertension. What is worth mentioning is that only one of them developed the disease that required a heart and lung transplant. The research team was able to investigate the origin of blood outgrowth endothelial cells (BOEC). BOEC, which are stem cells, are considered possible candidates for vascular regenerative therapy. However, there is not much known about these cells, specially about their origin. The study of twins led to the discovery of a marker showing that those BOEC (stem cells) were very unlikely to come from the heart or lungs.

Dr Machado said that even when circulating BOECs were grown in the new heart and lungs, they still expressed the mutation. This means that these cells have been produced elsewhere in the body. He added that the discovery of the origin of these cells is important because it may serve as a proxy for the fundamental sciences and to understand what is happening in our circulatory system. “If we can in one fell swoop remove two organs as being contributory then we are another step closer to knowing where these cells come from”, he said.

New test tells if the fever is caused by bacterial or viral infections

Fever in children is a pretty common and perhaps the one that scares the most parents. Fever may be a sign of infection (whose origin is not always found) or may tell that the first first tooth appear. However, in a child who has no other signs than fever is difficult to distinguish if the fever is caused by a bacterial infection that requires antibiotic treatment, or a viral infection that can go away and do not require antibiotic.

However, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, can find out if the fever is due to a bacterial or viral infection using a microarray technology. Microarray technology refers to the analysis of gene activity in a blood sample. What is worthy to note is that the study showed that the new analysis has an accuracy of 90% compared to standard test that has an accuracy of only 70%. Though other studies are needed to confirm this new test, this new finding demonstrates that through the analysis of gene activity, doctors can figure out the cause of fever and apply the correct treatment.

Senior author Gregory Storch, MD, the Ruth L. Siteman Professor of Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Washington University School of Medicine and St. Louis Children’s Hospital, said it is quite common for a child to have fever without having other symptoms and that some of these children may have a life-threatening illness, but most children actually have viral infections. He emphasized that it is difficult to differentiate the two types of infection. Doctors usually are cautious and prescribe antibiotics to children who have fever without an apparent cause. However, antibiotic treatment has no effect if the infection is caused by viruses and in addition may lead to bacterial resistance.

Researchers conducted a study involving 30 children ages 2 months to 3 years who had fever over 100.4 ° F without other symptoms. Based on extensive genomic test,  the investigators knew that eight had bacterial infection and twenty-two had viral infections. Researchers wanted to see if the new test, called gene expression microarray, can tell whether children have a bacterial infection or a viral infection. Blood leukocytes are cells that defends the body against infections and testing is based on the fact that their immune response varies depending on the organism causing the infection: bacteria or virus. Indeed, the study demonstrated that the microarray technology distinguished between the two types of infection (bacterial or viral) and this differentiation is very useful for correct diagnosis and treatment.

Anxiety in pregnancy is associated with the lack of fish in diet

According to a research conducted by scientists at the University of Bristol and the Federal University of Rio de Janiero, Brazil, women who do not consume fish during pregnancy are more prone to anxiety. The link was made during a study on the type of diet in pregnancy and it showed that eating fish during pregnancy reduces anxiety. During pregnancy, many women are stressed and excessive stress can harm both mother and fetus: it may affect the health of the mother on the log term and, on the baby, it might cause premature birth or low birth weight. Researchers analyzed the diet during pregnancy of more than 9500 pregnant women. They divided the diet into five major categories: health-conscious, traditional, processed, confectionery and vegetarian diet. In this way it was found that women who eat seafood during pregnancy were less likely to suffer from stress. Those who did not eat seafood had a 53% higher risk of experiencing high levels of anxiety in the 32nd week of pregnancy compared to women who regularly consumed seafood. According to the study, the amount of fish deemed sufficient meant more than two fish meals of white fish and one meal oily fish per week.

Fish

Researchers believe that these results are due to the fact that the nutritional needs of a pregnant women are higher during pregnancy due to fetal growth. Dr Juliana Vaz, the report’s senior author, said that one important message is that in order to have normal pregnancy, women do not have to do anything special, but to have a healthy diet. A healthy diet means a diet containing whole grains, fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, fish: three meals of fish per week with at least one portion of oily fish (sardines, salmon, tuna). She added that the fast food and sweets should be consumed in minimal amounts because are low in nutrients. Dr Pauline Emmett, senior dietician at Children of the 90s, and a co-author of the report, noted that this association may be due to the omega-3 fatty acids contained in fish. Vegetarians can also have their intake of omega 3 fatty acids in the diet because  hazelnuts, walnuts, flax oils, algae oils are rich in these compounds; there are also products on the market that contain omega 3 fatty acids. However some vegetarians are happy to occasionally eat fish. She stressed that it is highly recommended for vegetarians to eat fish sometimes because it is not clear which ingredient in fish is most effective.

New protein found could prevent Alzheimer disease

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia that affects most frequently people over 65. The most common sign of Alzheimer’s is memory loss, but there can also appear confusion, changes in personality, irritability, urinary incontinence. In advanced stages people with advanced Alzheimer’s can no longer take care of themselves and need special care.

There is no cure for Alzheimer’s disease, which means that once started it cannot be stopped; treatments that exist at present for Alzheimer’s disease are aimed to improve symptoms. Researchers are struggling to find a way to diagnose the disease earlier or rather to prevent the onset of it.

Memory loss occurs due to destruction of neurons which is caused by incorrect folding of proteins in the brain. Now researchers at RIKEN Bioengineering Laboratory in collaboration with the scientists from the Laboratory for Proteolytic Neuroscience at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, found that the human protein prefoldin can change how these protein aggregates form. They believe this will reduce the harmful effect of these aggregates in the brain.

Alzheimer

Regarding the causes of Alzheimer’s disease, one of the hypotheses is that of beta-amyloid. The formation of insoluble aggregates of beta-amyloid is considered one of the key mechanisms responsible for the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. It is known that these aggregates are toxic to neurons, so researchers are trying to discover a way to prevent the formation of these. Prefoldin is a molecular chaperone that prevents the wrong packaging of proteins and to help those wrongly packaged to return to normal form. Researchers observed that incubation of beta-amyloid molecules with a small amount of prefoldin can change their behavior: instead of forming insoluble aggregates, prefoldin enabled the formation of soluble beta-amiloid oligomers. Although some researchers believe that amyloid beta oligomers are toxic to neurons, the study shows that certain types of these oligomers are less toxic to neurons.

What researchers noticed was that, like in the brain, beta-amyloid led to the destruction of neurons. Furthermore, experiments on laboratory animals showed that the oligomers formed in the presence of human prefoldin reduced the loss of neurons. Another interesting finding was that prefoldin expression increases with the levels of beta-amyloid, which indicates that there is a mechanism by which the brain is protected by high levels of beta-amyloid. “Our findings may also apply to various other neurological diseases caused by protein misfolding, such as prion disease, Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease,” researchers said.

New findings could improve prognosis in squamous cell carcinoma patients

Researchers made new progress in terms of diagnosis and possible treatment of squamous cell carcinoma, a type of skin cancer. The results of the research, which was conducted by scientists at Medical Hospital del Mar Research Institute (IMIM), have been recently published in the journal Cancer Cell.

Squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma are included in the non-melanoma skin cancers, which represent about 80% of skin cancers. Of non-melanoma skin cancers, squamous cell carcinoma is approximately 20%, but its incidence varies with geographic area, race, age, gender, etc.. It should be noted that squamous cell carcinoma is a cancer of epithelial cells, which means it can develop not only in the epidermis (skin cancer), but also in other parts of the body such as the digestive tract, bladder, lung, prostate, etc.. Although it can occur in several regions of the body, squamous cell carcinoma is the second type of skin cancer and it most commonly occurs in sun-exposed areas (ie skin).

Research

Lluís Espinosa, a researcher of the Stem Cells and Cancer Group at IMIM, who led the study, explained that in this study they have identified a new protein (IB) which regulates the activity of genes directly involved in cell differentiation and cancer development. So far, what they knew was that this protein is found in the cytoplasm and that it’s function is to inhibit NF-B complex ( which is implied in immune defense). Now researchers have found that another protein variant of IB resulting from binding to another molecule called Sumo (Sumo leading to the formation of protein-IB) is found in the nucleus of keratinocytes and fibroblasts.

Researchers made the discovery after analyzing 112 patients with urogenital skin squamous-cell carcinoma in different stages. What they observed was that in advanced cancers, IB disappeared from the nucleus, which could indicate that nuclear IB was lost or accumulated in the cytoplasm. This new function of protein IB involving cell nucleus could overturn the significance of other studies conducted so far. Agustí Toll, dermatologist at the Hospital del Mar and researcher at the IMIM, and one of the authors of this article, said that although this discovery must be confirmed by other research, this study shows that the presence of this protein in skin lesions could serve as a predictor and prognosis marker for squamous cell carcinoma. In addition, understanding  the mechanisms controlling metastasis could improve treatment and prognosis of patients with advanced squamous cell carcinoma.

Heavy drinking and smoking accelerate cognitive decline, study says

According to a study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, excessive alcohol consumption along with smoking accelerate cognitive decline. It is already known that smoking and alcohol consumption may increase the risk of certain cancers (such as pancreatic cancer or oropharyngeal cancer), but now researchers at University College London have found that people who smoke and consume alcohol excessively have a 36% faster cognitive decline than those who consume moderate alcohol and smoking.

Usually excessive alcohol consumption is accompanied by excessive smoking and it should be said that the combined effect of these two addictions is more harmful than the individual effect. To reach this conclusion, the researchers investigated over 10-year period 4,635 men and 1,838 women (in total 6,473 persons) aged between 45 and 69 years. All participants were asked about cigarettes and alcohol consumption; in addition, to see the combined effect of these two on their health, the participants were assessed three times during the 10 years: cognitive verbal fluency, verbal short-term memory, mathematical thinking. The UCL  researchers considered heavy alcohol drinking consumption of alcohol over recommended limit that is 14 units per week for women and more than 21 units per week for men.

The investigators found that, compared to non-smoking moderate drinkers, those who consumed alcohol and smoke in the same time had a cognitive decline by 36% faster. In addition, it was also found that cognitive decline among smokers was greater as the number of units of alcohol increased. Lead researcher Dr Gareth Hagger-Johnson said that the increasing burden associated with cognitive aging could be reduced if lifestyle factors could be changed. He also said that people should not consume alcohol in the belief that alcohol is a protective factor against cognitive decline.

Researchers urge smokers to quit the habit and avoid excessive alcohol consumption. The results of the study on cognitive decline should warn people to avoid combining these two unhealthy habits especially in midlife. “When we looked at people who were heavy-drinking smokers, we found that for every 10 years that they aged their brains aged the equivalent of 12 years”, researchers said.

Smoking and alcohol have a lot of harmful effects on health. For example, it has been shown that people who consume alcohol and smoke in the same time develop pancreatic cancer much earlier. The average age of diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is 72 years, but studies have shown that those who consume excessive alcohol and smoke develop cancer about 10 years earlier, that is at 62 years.

 Treating cerebrovascular disease may help prevent Alzheimer’s

According to a study recently published in Brain, one of the causes that contributes to the onset of dementia is cerebrovascular disease, which affects blood flow in the brain. This is the first study that compares the presence of cerebrovascular disease in patients with neurodegenerative diseases. Researchers believe that people who already suffer from Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases affecting memory may benefit from current treatment recommended for vascular problems. Therefore, the reduction of cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol along with a healthy lifestyle (sport, diet) could prevent neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

According to researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, compared with other neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal lobar degeneration), Alzheimer’s disease had the strongest association with cerebrovascular disease. Senior author John Q. Trojanowski, MD, PhD, director of the National Institute on Aging-Funded Alzheimer’s Disease Core Center at the University of Pennsylvania and Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, said that although it was known that vascular disease contributes to neurological disease, though it is first study to compare the burden of neurodegenerative diseases across vascular disease with multiple and distinct origins.

Alzheimer’s

To conduct the study, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have investigated 5715 cases from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC) database. They have found more than 4600 patients with Alzheimer’s disease and what is interesting is that almost 80% of them had vascular disease (of varying degrees). There were considered as having vascular disease those who had blocked or hardened blood vessels or dead tissue due to ischemia (cessation of blood flow). Compared to the 80% who had vascular disease, in the control group only 33% of participants had vascular pathology; a similar percentage was found in participants with Parkinson’s disease (only 34% had vascular disease).

Lead study author Jon B. Toledo, MD, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, said that in the absence of any therapies that could change the course of Alzheimer’s disease, they hope that the current treatment for vascular diseases could help patients with Alzheimer’s. He also said that implementing campaigns to promote healthy lifestyles among youth and middle-aged people can have a positive impact and reduce or prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia that affects more than 5 million Americans. Once started, Alzheimer’s disease cannot be stopped. Until now there has not been found a drug to cure Alzheimer’s, but there are therapies available that help relieve symptoms.

 Lower rates of embryo implantation may be due to female obesity

A recent analysis conducted by researchers at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology suggests that obesity in women can compromise the success of IVF treatment. The study results, presented at the annual meeting of ESHRE by the Spanish gynecologist Dr Jose Bellver, show that excessive weight impairs human reproductivity and that one of the mechanisms involved is reduced uterine receptivity. One important conclusion of the study is that women who want to undergo in vitro fertilization treatment should first lose weight.

The negative effects of overweight on assisted reproduction have been highlighted in several studies so far. The reasons given were that overweight affects menstrual regularity and ovulation. An example is polycystic ovary syndrome, the most common cause of anovulation, in which the body weight plays an essential role. The researchers came to the conclusion that obesity influence in a negative way IVF after analyzing almost 10 000 egg donation treatments conducted at three clinics in Spain between 2000 and 2011. All egg donors had normal weight but egg recipients had different body weights. The latter were divided into four groups: lean ( 1458 patients, 15.2%), normal (5706 patients, 59.5%), overweight (1770 patients, 18.5%), and obese (653 patients, 6.8%). Division into four categories was made according to BMI. Results showed that not only rates of embryo implantation but also pregnancy, twin pregnancy and live birth were  reduced as BMI increased.

POS

Dr Bellver said the results show that the chances of having children by egg donation are reduced by about a third for obese women. These women who received eggs from women (with normal weight) had 23% lower implantation rates than normal weight women. Dr Bellver explained that obesity is a systemic disease (ie affecting the whole body) that affects the reproductive system. Two of the mechanisms that explain the link between obesity and reproductive system are hyperandrogenism and insulin resistance, which are part of the polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Polycystic ovary syndrome is an endocrine dysfunction with an unknown cause characterized by chronic anovulation, hyperandrogenism and metabolic disorders (insulin resistance). Hyperandrogenism, ie high levels of androgens in the blood, cause acne, hirsutism, alopecia etc.. Dr Bellver explained that even in ovulatory obese women conception rates are reduced and that ovulation is not the only mechanism that justify this poor outcome. Oocyte and embryo quality seem to be affected also, but it is not yet clearly known by what mechanism. “The clinical evidence is now strong enough for implementing preconceptional health policies for obese patients considering assisted reproduction,” Dr Bellver concluded.