Proportion of Minorities Low in Internal Medicine Residency Programs
TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) — The proportion of internal medicine (IM) applicants and matriculants who identify as underrepresented in medicine (UIM) remained low during 2010 to 2018, according to a research letter published online Jan. 2…
Learn MorePfizer Begins Testing COVID-19 Vaccine Targeted to Omicron
TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Pfizer Inc. announced Tuesday that it has launched a trial that will compare its existing COVID-19 vaccine against a new version tailored to beat back the highly contagious omicron variant.”While current rese…
Learn MoreOmicron Shows Signs of Ebbing as U.S. Cases Fall, Hospitalizations Level Off
TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Weeks after omicron began ravaging the United States, experts are now seeing statistical signs that suggest the wildly contagious variant might be losing steam.More states have now reported they have passed t…
Learn MoreEU Eases COVID-19 Travel Rules Within the Bloc for Fully Vaccinated
TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) — European Union residents should be able to move freely between the 27 member nations if they have been vaccinated in the past nine months or have recently recovered from COVID-19 infection, bloc officials sai…
Learn MoreFree N95 Masks Begin Arriving in U.S. Pharmacies
TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) — The distribution of free N95 masks for Americans has begun, the Biden administration said Monday.”Last week, masks began shipping and arriving at pharmacies and grocers around [the] country. We expect that th…
Learn MoreAllopurinol Not Tied to Higher Mortality for Patients With Gout and CKD
TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) — For patients with gout and chronic kidney disease (CKD), no associations with increased mortality were seen for allopurinol initiation, achieving target serum urate (SU) levels, or allopurinol dose escalation, according to a study published online Jan. 25 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.
Jie Wei, Ph.D., from Xiangya Hospital in Changsha, China, and colleagues examined the relations of allopurinol initiation, allopurinol dose escalation, and achieving target SU level (
The researchers found that among 5,277 allopurinol initiators and 5,277 propensity score-matched noninitiators, mortality was 4.9 and 5.8 per 100 person-years, respectively (hazard ratio, 0.85; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.77 to 0.93). The hazard ratio of mortality for achieving the target SU level versus not achieving the target SU level was 0.87 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.75 to 1.01) in the target trial emulation analysis. In the dose escalation group versus the no dose escalation group, the hazard ratio of mortality for allopurinol was 0.88 (95 percent confidence interval, 0.73 to 1.07).
“Our findings are clinically relevant in gout care because CKD is a common comorbidity of gout, and allopurinol is most commonly used with escalating doses to achieve and maintain a SU target below a subsaturation point of urate crystals, which will eventually decrease gout flare frequency and tissue urate crystal burden,” the authors write.
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Learn MoreStable Body Mass Index Tied to Slower Cognitive Decline in Older Adults
TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Stability in body mass index (BMI) over time is associated with a better cognitive trajectory in older adults, according to a study published online Jan. 20 in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.Michal Schnaider Beeri, P…
Learn MoreFlu Vaccine Effective Against Life-Threatening Illness in Children
TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Influenza vaccine effectiveness was 75 percent against life-threatening influenza in children during the 2019 to 2020 season, when vaccine-mismatched viruses predominated, according to a study published onlin…
Learn MoreBlood Biomarkers May Help Assess Need for Lung Cancer Screening
TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) — A four-marker protein panel (4MP), including the precursor form of surfactant protein B, cancer antigen 125, carcinoembryonic antigen, and cytokeratin-19 fragment, combined with the prostate lung colorectal o…
Learn MoreManaging Pulmonary Embolism in Primary Care Feasible for Some Patients
TUESDAY, Jan. 25, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Comprehensive clinic-based care may be acceptable for carefully selected adults diagnosed with acute pulmonary embolism in the primary care setting, according to a study published online Jan. 12 in the Journa…
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