Will Fitness Devices (like your phone) Help?

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A recent NY Times article reviewed a JAMA study looking at the 10 new devices geared at measuring activity. Better Fitness Through Your Phone

N of 1: As a personal aside, since I know that big brother (ie. my phone) is watching and I want to compare favorably to my wife, I definitely am taking more steps and using the stairs a bit more.

Here’s an excerpt:

The pedometer and the accelerometers were generally quite accurate, but one of the wristbands, the Fuelband, underreported the number of steps the volunteers had taken by more than 20 percent.

Others of the monitors were more accurate but, by and large, no more so than the smartphone apps, which cost much less and would likely be more convenient for many people.

The upshot, said Dr. Mitesh S. Patel, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania who oversaw the study, is that smartphones could offer “an easy, less expensive, but still accurate” means for people to track their activity.

But the broader issue, as Dr. Patel and his colleagues pointed out in a related commentary published recently in JAMA, is that no fitness tracker of any kind has yet proved able to motivate people disinclined to exercise to start moving

Changing Story Regarding Dietary Cholesterol

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From USA Today: Limiting Dietary Cholesterol May Not Be Needed

Here’s an excerpt:

In a draft report issued in December, an influential federal panel — the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee — scrapped longstanding guidelines about avoiding high-cholesterol food…The committee will send its final recommendations to the Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which issue the dietary advice. Those departments are expected to issue Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2015 later this year…

“It’s the right decision,” said Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the famed Cleveland Clinic. “We got the dietary guidelines wrong. They’ve been wrong for decades.”

He noted that only 20% of a person’s blood cholesterol — the levels measured with standard cholesterol tests — comes from diet. The rest comes from genes, he said.

“We told people not to eat eggs. It was never based on good science,” Nissen said.

Advice to avoid foods high in fat and cholesterol led many Americans to switch to foods high in sugar and carbohydrates, which often had more calories. “We got fatter and fatter,” Nissen says. “We got more and more diabetes.”

Related blog posts:

Good News for Starbucks & Coffee Vendors

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This blog has posted a number of favorable reports on coffee, even though I’m not a coffee enthusiast.  In general, coffee has favorable health effects when it is not paired with alcohol or tobacco.

A recent coffee study (Gastroenterol 2015; 148: 118-25) shows an association between coffee intake and reduced incidence of liver cancer and death from chronic liver disease in the U.S.

Here’s a link to a summary of the article: GastroHepNews Coffee and Liver Disease

  • During an 18-year follow-up period, there were 451 incident cases of hepatocellular carcinoma and 654 deaths from chronic liver disease.
  • Compared with non-coffee drinkers, the researchers noted that those who drank 2–3 cups per day had a 38% reduction in risk for hepatocellular carcinoma.
  • Those who drank ≥4 cups per day had a 41% reduction in hepatocellular carcinoma risk.
  • Compared with non-coffee drinkers, participants who consumed 2–3 cups coffee per day had a 46% reduction in risk of death from chronic liver disease, and those who drank ≥4 cups per day had a 71% reduction.
  • The inverse associations were similar regardless of the participants’ ethnicity, sex, body mass index, smoking status, alcohol intake, or diabetes status.

Related blog posts:

More liver-related news: Man with infected hepatitis C sentenced to 3 years for spitting in officer’s face (from The Republic/AP News)

Does Anyone Know Why This Toilet is in our Parking Garage?

Does Anyone Know Why This Toilet is in our Office Parking Garage?

More Evidence to Support Ethanol Locks

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For many years, ethanol locks have been promoted as a way to reduce central catheter-associated bloodstream infections (CCABSI).  A recent study (Ardura M I, et al. JAMA Pediatr.doi.10.1001/jamapediatrics.2014.3291 -published online Feb 2, 2015, thanks to Ben Gold for this reference) showed a dramatic reduction in CCABSI among 24 children with intestinal failure.

This study examined outcomes from January 2011-Jan 2012 with the outcomes from February 2012-December 2013.  In the latter period, ethanol lock prophylaxis was added to the CCABSI “prevention bundle” both in inpatient and outpatient settings.

Key finding: Rates of CCABSI decreased from 6.99 per 1000 catheter days to 0.42 per 1000 catheter days.

One aspect of this study that is very important is that the QI team included a specialized CVC nurse who evaluated and performed all CVC care and teaching.

Their protocol is detailed in their methods section.  Some of the details:

  • Their ethanol lock utilized a 70% solution on a daily basis.
  • The CVC nurse verified that the catheter was silicone prior to initial lock.
  • CVC nurse used Alteplase prior to initial dwell.
  • Dwell volume was determined by CVC nurse by withdrawing flush until blood return and then adding 0.1 mL for children <15 kg and adding 0.2 mL for children >15 kg (max volume 3 mL).
  • Dwell times were minimum of 2 hours and maximum of 24 hours.
  • At the end of the dwell time, twice the amount of the predetermined ethanol volume was withdrawn and then 5 to 10 mL of normal saline was used as a flush.

Bottomline: Ethanol locks have the potential to reduce CCABSI by 90%; this can reduce hospitalizations, prevent complications, and possibly improve survival.

Related blog posts:

Heart-Shaped Polyp (from ACG twitter feed -recommends screening colonoscopy)

Heart-Shaped Polyp (from ACG twitter feed -recommends screening colonoscopy)

How Commonly Does Cystic Fibrosis Present as Rectal Prolapse?

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Since residency, I have understood that patients with cystic fibrosis patients could present with rectal prolapse.  Yet, I can recollect only one instance in which a family told me that rectal prolapse was a presenting feature in the diagnosis of their child.  It turns out that rectal prolapse is a little less common as a presenting feature, at least these days, and that the majority of cases occur in individuals with cystic fibrosis who have already been diagnosed (JPGN 2015; 60: 110-12).

In this retrospective study (2000-2010), there were 262 patients with rectal prolapse identified: 65% were male and mean age was 4 years 8 months.  Newborn screening for cystic fibrosis(1994 in Wisconsin) had preceded the study period.

The most common reason for rectal prolapse was constipation (52.1%), and then acute diarrhea (12%).  Only 3.6% had cystic fibrosis. Two patients were diagnosed with cystic fibrosis based on testing performed due to rectal prolapse; the remaining five had already been diagnosed.

The authors note that among their cystic fibrosis population that 3.5% also had rectal prolapse.

Take-home message: In patients with rectal prolapse, testing for cystic fibrosis has a low yield in the era of newborn screening but is probably still necessary.

Boat in Chicago Marina

Boat in Chicago Marina –Like the Name?

Do We Still Need PPI-REE?

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“It is on shaky ground that one defines a disease by a response to therapy rather than by its clinical and mechanistic characteristics.” This is noted in a recent editorial (Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2014; 12: 2023-25, study: 2015-22).

The editorial makes this comment because the related study finds that the esophageal tissue from eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) patients with proton-pump responsive EoE (PPI-REE) was indistinguishable from patients with EoE who do not respond to PPIs.

The study examined 196 consecutive patients and performed immunohistochemistry to examine major basic protein (MP), eotaxin-3, and tryptase.  Key finding: none of these markers were able to distinguish EoE from PPI-REE; however, these 3 assays did identify EoE with 100% accuracy compared with controls.

From the editorial: “We can approach EoE as a disease in which use of PPIs is the first step in treatment, and diet and steroids represent step-up therapy…We may not understand why some patients with EoE respond to PPIs yet others do not.”  It is possible that genetic testing in the future will allow us to distinguish which patients will benefit from PPIs, topical steroids or diets.

Bottomline: Now that it is well-recognized that a substantial portion of EoE patients benefit from PPIs, is it necessary to try to use a separate label for this subset? Probably not.

Related blog posts:

Current Mortality from Being Born Premature

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A recent study (Patel RM et al. NEJM 2015; 372: 331-40) provides prospectively collected data on 6075 deaths among 22,248 live births with gestational ages 22-29 weeks from the U.S NICHD Neonatal Research Network. between 2000 thru 2011:

Key findings:

  • Improved death rate in most recent period of study:  number of deaths per 1000 live births was 275  (2000-2003), 285 (2004-2007), 258 (2008-2011)
  • While there were fewer pulmonary deaths with time, the deaths attributed to necrotizing enterocolitis increased: number of deaths per 1000 live births was 23 (2000-2003), 29 (2004-2007), 30 (2008-2011).  Necrotizing enterocolitis was the leading cause of death between 15-60 days of life (Figure 1).
  • Overall, 40.4% of deaths occurred within 12 hours after birth.  Only 17.3% occurred after 28 days of life.
  • For the entire study period, the rate of death (per thousand) was associated with gestational age: 949 (22 weeks), 730 (23 weeks), 427 (24 weeks), 258 (25 weeks), 157 (26 weeks), 115 (27 weeks), 78 (28 weeks)
  • The authors speculate that the overall reduction in death rate is likely related to more aggressive respiratory care (for bronchopulmonary dysplasia); one marker of this was increased usage of high-frequency ventilation.

Bottomline: While there has been improvement, being born premature is associated with high mortality.

Is it Safe to Chew Gum Before Anesthesia?

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According to a recent study highlighted in Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News, gum chewing immediately prior to anesthesia is probably safe.

Here’s an excerpt:

Patients who are fasting before upper endoscopy can safely chew gum up until the time of the procedure, researchers have found…

The prospective randomized controlled study evaluated the effect of gum chewing on volume and pH of gastric contents in 67 patients scheduled to receive IV conscious sedation for upper endoscopy. The night before the procedure, patients were randomly assigned to chew gum until the start of sedation…—or to not chew gum, with no limit on the number of pieces or how long they could chew.

The median volume suctioned from the gum chewers was 13 mL, compared with 6 mL for non-gum chewers. Similarly, gastric fluid also was greater for gum chewers—0.35 versus 0.11 mL/kg for patients who did not chew gum. “The 0.35 mL/kg is still under 0.4 mL/kg, which is where the risk for aspiration comes into effect,” he noted…The pH also did not change.

Take-home message: While this study provides some reassurance, I suspect that asking families to give nothing before an endoscopy will be easier than trying to explain the nuances and risks for aspiration.  For those who have only had gum, though, it may not be necessary to cancel their case.

From Atul Gawande's Twitter Feed

From Atul Gawande’s Twitter Feed

 

 

 

Gut Microbiome, Crohn’s Disease and Effect of Diet

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At this past year’s NASPGHAN conference, Bob Baldassano indicated that a low-residue diet probably does not makes sense for the majority of patients with Crohn’s disease because it would not promote a ‘healthy’ gut microbiome.  Another article (Walter SS, Quiros A, et al. SOJ Microbiol Infect Dis 2014; 2: 1-13) supporting this argument has been published. (Thanks to Ben Gold for giving me this reference.)

In this study, the authors examined the gut microbiome from two healthy volunteers and compared them to six patients with Crohn’s disease (CD) (ages 16-50).  The CD cohort were in clinical remission and were not receiving probiotics.  Subjects were randomized to either a low-residue diet (LRD) or a specific carbohydrate diet (SCD).

Besides having some cool figures to explain their results, the key points:

  • The complexity of the gut microbiome was lower in IBD patients compared to healthy controls
  • Bacteroides fragilis was increased in fecal samples of IBD positive patients
  • There was a temporal response of gut microbiome to SCD with increased microbial diversity while the LRD diet was associated with a reduced diversity of the microbiome in patients with CD

While the number of patients participating in this study are low, the affects of these diets can still be measured due to the trillions of microbes in the gut microbiome.

Also noted: Church PC, Turner D, et al. Aliment Phamacol There 2015; 41: 153-66. “Systematic review with meta-analysis: magnetic resonance enterography for the detection of inflammation and intestinal damage in Crohn’s disease.”

How the gut micro biome may affect other diseases including Multiple Sclerosis: Study Hints Gut Microbiome Plays a Role in Multiple Sclerosis (Link to Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News)

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From NASPGHAN:  Introducing New Website for Teens with Inflammatory Bowel Diseases: JustLikeMeIBD.org  PRESS RELEASE

New York, NY- January 20, 2015 – The number of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients in the U.S. has now increased to an estimated 1.6 million, with approximately 5 percent of that patient population under the age of 18. In response to the growing number of kids with IBD, the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) along with the NASPGHAN Foundation for Children’s Digestive Health and Nutrition, has launched a new website called “Just Like Me” for teenagers with Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis.

The interactive site will feature stories and videos from teens with IBD as well as information on school, dating, stress, diet, and research.

 

 

How Bilingual Studies Reflect a Deeper Scientific Flaw

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A recent story on NPR explored the purported advantages of bilingual acquisition.  Previous reports have suggested that individuals with bilingual education attain other advantages in learning and “executive” function.  This may be a bunch of bunk and more related to scientific journals bias of reporting “positive” studies.  If you listen to the report (link below), consider how the problem of reporting bias affects so many fields in medicine and science.

Link: Bilingual Studies Reveal Flaw In How Info Reaches Mainstream

Somewhat related post: