@debniv The study, called BP Track, collated electronic medical data on almost 1.8 million patients with hypertension from 2017 through 2020. Up until the end of 2019 and prior to the pandemic, slightly less than 60% of these patients had blood pressure control, defined as less than 140/90 mm Hg.

@shreemoyee In a study published in the BMJ, the researchers reviewed data from eight observational cohort studies across seven countries (Australia, China, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States). The participants were part of the InterLACE (International Collaboration for a Life Course Approach to Reproductive Health and Chronic Disease Events) consortium established in 2021. Most observational studies included in the analysis began between 1990 and 2000.

A high focus on self-presentation was associated with female gender, higher extraversion, lower emotional stability, more frequent alcohol consumption, and having tried tobacco. Given the association of aspects of self-presentation with negative mental health outcomes shown in previous research, efforts to reduce focus on self-presentation could be warranted. Further work is needed to assess how focus on self-presentation is related to important outcomes for adolescents, such as mental health, satisfaction with life, and educational attainment.

Prostate cancer risk stratification is challenging in men who have had a previous negative biopsy. The diagnostic value of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is limited because most men had an initial biopsy because of a PSA elevation. The investigators previously showed that in biopsy-naive men, MyProstateScore (LynxDx) can rule out GG ≥ 2 cancer with a 98% negative predictive value and 97% sensitivity. The new study validates the test's use in men with a previous negative biopsy, adding confidence to the decision of whether to be biopsied again.

What would you do if you believed you had a serious health issue, but the best way to find out for sure might kill you? That's the reality for patients who wish to confirm or rule out a food allergy, says Sindy Tang, PhD, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Stanford University in California. And it's the reason Tang and her colleagues are developing a food allergy test that's not only safer, but also more reliable than today's tests. In a article in the journal Lab on a Chip, Tang and her colleagues outline the basis for this future test, which isolates a food allergy marker from the blood using a magnetic field.

@md-aslam NIH researchers never checked to see how their diet changed over time, as this was a study meant to observe changes in health status starting from a baseline point. The researchers assumed that the level of fish intake recorded at the beginning of the study remained steady.

@mina-s Everything' is the key word here. The increasingly rapid rate of evidence production offers the opportunity to know more, but it's also a challenge in collecting all that knowledge in a reliable way. Automation offers one solution to that problem, but many are justifiably concerned it would bias the science produced by human judgement, making systematic-review conclusions less reliable instead of more reliable

@arif-bhatt The test, called Path SpermQT (Inherent Biosciences) detects unstable gene promotors, which are the epigenetic markers for gene expression. In previous work with more than 1300 gene samples, expression of the specific genes regulated by these promoters were linked to a wide variety of functions relevant to fertilization, such as spermatogenesis.

@anjali-1 Investigators found long-term clozapine use of more than 5 years was linked to a 2.7-fold increased risk of hematological malignancies in a dose-dependent manner compared with other antipsychotics. Study results suggest long-term clozapine use is associated with increased risk of hematological malignancy, but the absolute risk is small compared with the absolute risk reduction in all-cause mortality associated with clozapine treatment compared with other antipsychotics. The study was published online March 22 in Lancet Psychiatry.
An Unresolved Issue
Clozapine is more effective than other antipsychotics for managing symptoms and suicidal behavior in schizophrenia, with the lowest mortality compared with other antipsychotics, but its use is restricted in many countries, the researchers note. Reports of nine deaths associated with clozapine use — eight due to agranulocytosis and one due to leukemia — in southwestern Finland in 1975 resulted in worldwide withdrawal of the drug. In 1990, clozapine was relaunched with stipulations for strict blood count control. The cumulative incidence of clozapine-induced agranulocytosis or severe neutropenia is estimated at about 0.9%.
Several small studies from Australia, Denmark, and the United States, and a large pharmacovigilance study suggest that clozapine treatment might be associated with an increased risk of hematological malignancies. Previous studies have suggested a possible risk of hematological malignancies associated with clozapine, but due to methodological issues, the question had remained unsettled.