EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - News by Subject: Medicine & Health

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 13-May-2025 01:10 ET (13-May-2025 05:10 GMT/UTC)

New AEM study explores patient perceptions of behavioral flags in the emergency department

Society for Academic Emergency Medicine

A new study that investigates patient perceptions and the perceived benefits and harms associated with the use of behavioral flags has been published in a recent issue of Academic Emergency Medicine (AEM), the peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM).

Journal: Academic Emergency Medicine

Cholesterol is not the only lipid involved in trans fat-driven cardiovascular disease

Salk Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Salk scientists have tracked the flow of trans fats using mouse models to describe the molecular mechanisms that cause trans fats to promote atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), explaining how industrially produced trans-unsaturated fatty acids in our food significantly promote ASCVD and encouraging lawmakers to impose regulations on the use of these fats in food. This new insight into the flow of fats through the body points to new therapeutic targets for mitigating diseases like ASCVD, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, obesity, diabetes, peripheral neuropathy, and neurodegeneration.

Journal: Cell Metabolism

Smarter blood tests from MSU researchers deliver faster diagnoses, improved outcomes

Michigan State University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

MSU researchers now can identify more proteins, or biomarkers, in blood plasma, including those linked to specific diseases like cancer. By identifying these biomarkers earlier, medical researchers can create better diagnostic tests and drugs that target diseases sooner, improving patient outcomes.

Journal: Nature Communications

New nasal vaccine shows promise in curbing whooping cough spread

Tulane University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new nasal whooping cough vaccine showed an ability to prevent both infection and transmission of the disease in mice. Current vaccines offer treatment but fail to halt transmission of the bacteria that cause the disease.

Journal: npj Vaccines
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health

Oral muvalaplin for lowering of lipoprotein(a)

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: Muvalaplin, an oral small molecule lipoprotein(a) inhibitor, reduced lipoprotein(a) measured using intact lipoprotein(a) and apolipoprotein(a)-based assays and was well tolerated. The effect of muvalaplin on cardiovascular events requires further investigation.

Journal: JAMA

Anti-obesity drugs, lifestyle interventions show cardiovascular benefits beyond weight loss

American College of Cardiology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Popular anti-obesity drugs continue to show cardiovascular benefits beyond weight loss, according to several new papers published in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology, that are being simultaneously presented at the American Heart Association’s 2024 Scientific Sessions. JACC is publishing two secondary analyses on the impact of GLP-1 medications in improving cardiac structure and function in heart failure patients and cardiovascular outcomes in those who previously had cardiac bypass surgery, plus a new analysis of a lifestyle intervention trial showing that cardiac risk biomarkers change with weight loss.

Journal: Journal of the American College of Cardiology
Meeting: AHA Scientific Sessions 2024

Zerlasiran—A small-interfering RNA targeting lipoprotein(a)

JAMA Network
Peer-Reviewed Publication

About The Study: Zerlasiran, a small-interfering RNA targeting hepatic synthesis of apolipoprotein(a), was well-tolerated and reduced time-averaged lipoprotein(a) concentration by more than 80% during 36 weeks of treatment in patients with atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.

Journal: JAMA