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TOPLINE: In combination with methotrexate, both abatacept (Orencia) and certolizumab pegol (Cimzia), but not tocilizumab (Actemra), showed superiority over different combinations of active conventional disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) for promoting remission in patients with early, untreated rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODOLOGY: The study population included 812 adults from sites in six European countries who had treatment-naive early RA (less than 24 […]

Sleep is not a state in which we are completely isolated from our environment: while we sleep, we are capable of hearing and understanding words. These observations, the result of close collaboration between teams at Paris Brain Institute and the Sleep Pathology Department at Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital in Paris, call into question the very definition of sleep and the clinical […]

Researchers at Monash University have identified a new way of mapping ‘phosphenes’—the visual perception of the bright flashes we see when no light is entering the eye—to improve the outcome of surgery for patients receiving a cortical visual prosthesis (‘bionic eye’). Cortical visual prostheses are devices implanted onto the brain with the aim of restoring sight by directly stimulating the […]

The majority of research and public discourse on US maternal mortality focuses on pregnancy-related maternal deaths—deaths caused or accelerated by a pregnancy—rather than the broader category of pregnancy-associated maternal deaths, which are deaths from any cause during pregnancy or up to one year postpartum, including those that are pregnancy-related. As US maternal mortality continues to worsen at an alarming and […]

Reviewed A saline injection treatment widely used for calcific tendinopathy – a common, painful condition caused by a build-up of calcium in the rotator cuff tendons of the shoulder – provides no meaningful benefit over placebo, concludes a trial published by The BMJ today. The results show that benefits from ultrasound guided lavage (where saline is injected into the calcium […]

Located in the mucus layer that lines the gastrointestinal tract, mucins—proteins with attached sugar molecules—play a key role in combating bacterial infection and providing a safe haven to friendly gut bacteria through unknown mechanisms. Although mucin dysregulation leads to metabolic disease and intestinal inflammation, the associated mechanism remains largely unknown. To address this knowledge gap, a team of researchers in […]

Cigarette makers are using synthetic menthol substitutes in what appears to be an effort to skirt a looming federal menthol ban, researchers say. The menthol flavor appeals to younger and newer smokers, according to investigators at Duke Health in Durham, N.C., and Yale University in New Haven, Conn. These new “non-menthol” cigarettes are being introduced in states that have already […]

A new editorial explores the wide array of reasons why women who migrate to a new country are less like to attend screening for breast cancer than women born in that country. Health providers should ‘broaden their understanding’ of the range of experiences of women in order to increase breast cancer screening uptake, according to a new editorial. Published in […]

Positive results from the T2NOW Phase III trial demonstrated significant reduction in A1C, a marker of average blood sugar, for patients treated with Forxiga (dapagliflozin) compared with patients receiving placebo. Adjusted mean change in A1C was −0.62% for Forxiga versus +0.41% for placebo, a difference of −1.03% (95% CI: -1.57-0.49; p<0.001). Statistical significance was achieved in the primary endpoint and […]