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Second-trimester ultrasound receipt mediates a considerable portion of the association between public insurance and prenatal diagnosis of congenital heart disease (CHD), according to a study published online Sept. 23 in Prenatal Diagnosis. Joyce L. Woo, MD, from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, and colleagues conducted a retrospective analysis of electronic health records of pregnant women whose infants received CHD surgery between 2019 and 2020 to examine the mechanism underlying insurance-related disparities in prenatal diagnosis of CHD. A total of 496 pregnant women met the inclusion criteria: 43.3 percent were publicly insured and 61.5 percent had prenatal diagnosis. Public insurance was associated with a 12.6 percent lower probability of prenatal diagnosis in bivariate regressions. Public insurance was associated with a 13.2 percent lower probability of second-trimester ultrasound receipt in multivariable models, but was no longer associated with prenatal diagnosis after adjustment for second-trimester ultrasound receipt. Second-trimester ultrasound receipt mediated 39 percent of the association between public insurance and prenatal diagnosis in a mediation analysis. “Understanding the reasons behind insurance-related disparities in getting prenatal diagnosis — such as getting the second-trimester ultrasound — allows for the development of policies and programs that could lessen these disparities,” Woo said in a statement.

Hair loss may seem like a losing battle, but with the right products, it’s totally possible to regain and regrow thinning hair. Hair loss is common in men, and many men would naturally rather keep their youthful strands and slow down or even reverse thinning and balding. If you’re tired of dealing with the embarrassment, why not take matters into your own hands and try a few new products? Amy Forman Taub, MD, FAAD, a dermatologist and an assistant professor at Northwestern University Medical School, tells Yahoo Life, “You can effectively stop genetic hair loss to a large degree.” But it can be harder to reverse prolonged genetic hair loss and grow back the hair you’ve lost, she adds, so early intervention is important. Whether your hair loss is due to genetics, COVID, stress, poor diet or illness, you can restore hair health with the right products and a little patience. There are two FDA-approved ingredients used to target hereditary hair loss, which is the most common form of hair loss in men: minoxidil and finasteride. You’ll also want to choose a hair loss product you know you can continue to use. “If your loss is due to genetics, you must remain on medication or treatments indefinitely, otherwise your hair loss will revert to the point where it would be without treatment,” Taub says.

By studying long COVID patients with abnormal lung CT scans, Northwestern Medicine researchers may have found a cellular commonality in many types of pulmonary fibrosis, which could lead to breakthroughs in preventing and treating PF. The study of long COVID remains in its infancy, with no FDA-approved treatment available, but the pandemic may be spawning new research into other medical areas, says the head of Northwestern’s long COVID center. A study released this morning in the journal Nature Immunology describes how pulmonologists at the Northwestern Medicine Comprehensive COVID-19 Center noticed many of their long COVID patients had persistently abnormal CT scans of their lungs. Researchers wanted to know why. Specifically, what was it about the virus responsible for COVID-19 that was acting on some patients’ lungs to create a kind of pulmonary fibrosis that wouldn’t go away? “As we put together imaging of patients, a lot of them over three, six, nine months or more had CT scans that showed pretty clear fibrosis,” said Marc Sala, MD, assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and co-director of the center. “People had this way too far out than what most viral infections are going to do.”

Researchers at Northwestern University who have studying the lasting effects of long COVID made a significant discovery that could lead to a potential treatment for thousands of patients. Long COVID impacts about a third of COVID-19 survivors. The researchers hope their discovery will lead to a potential treatment, down the road, to help those with pulmonary issues. “I was coughing like every day for a year,” said Kevin Tenney, a Palatine resident who experienced long COVID. It was through lung CT scans that Tenney’s doctor, Marc Sala, MD, would learn scar tissue was forming in Tenney’s lungs as well as the lungs of others participating in the study. Lab tests showed a certain cell type was the driving force behind the scarring. “The implication here is that if you can find a drug to target these cells specifically, it might help prevent all of that downstream injury and irreversible scar tissue,” said Sala, the co-director of the Comprehensive COVID Center at Northwestern. Sala said what was also surprising is the research showed some participants still had the cells present in their lungs that were responsible for scarring, even up to a year after their COVID diagnosis.

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday declared an end to the two-year shortage of tirzepatide, the substance in the popular weight-loss medication Zepbound and the diabetes drug Mounjaro. The end of the shortage means that far more people could soon be able to access the brand-name drugs. It is also certain to disrupt the big business of copycat weight-loss drugs, compounded medications that have been cheaper and more available — and are only allowed to be manufactured when brand-name drugs are in short supply. Many people have not been able to get their hands on the brand-name medications since 2022, shortly after Mounjaro was first introduced in the United States. Demand for the drug was so great that it quickly went into short supply. That drove patients to seek out alternatives from compounding pharmacies, which, during shortages, can create their own versions of medications that do not have to be approved by the F.D.A. By some estimates, millions of Americans have taken compounded weight-loss and diabetes drugs. Now that the shortage is resolved, pharmacies must immediately stop preparing compounded copies of Mounjaro and Zepbound, said Scott Brunner, the chief executive of the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding. While the end of the shortage means the drugs will be more widely available, many patients had turned to compounded options because they cost less than the brand-name drugs. Some still may not be able to afford brand-name Mounjaro or Zepbound. “I don’t think this announcement is going to equal immediate access for people,” said Lindsay Allen, PhD,a health economist, policy researcher, and assistant professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.

Brandon Clabough noticed shortness of breath while running and working out at the gym. The symptoms didn’t make sense for the young and fit police officer looking forward to his first child’s birth, so Clabough saw a cardiologist. “He seemed kind of alarmed with what he was seeing and he wanted to call an ambulance and send me to the emergency room,” Clabough said. Northwestern Medicine cardiologist and assistant professor of Cardiac Surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine Stephen Chiu, MD,recalled: “Basically, almost every vessel in his lungs has an aspect of this blockage in it.” Acute blood clots — one or two at a time — are more common and one of the leading causes of hospitalization in the United States. But Clabough had clots in 18 of the 20 branches of his lungs. The condition is called chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension — or CTEPH — a rare complication of the acute clotting process that impacts just two to five percent of patients. “It’s a disease where old or chronic blood clots make the pressures in the lungs go up and that’s what the pulmonary hypertension means, which can ultimately impact the right side of the heart and cause right heart failure,” said Ruben Mylvaganam, MD, a Northwestern Medicine pulmonologist and assistant professor of Medicine at Feinberg.

Depending on the procedure, some patients will have minimal pain and discomfort after their procedure, while others will experience significant pain. Therefore, it’s important to think about pain management before undergoing surgery. “Pain after surgery is something that a lot of patients fear. Knowing how to make good decisions about your options, especially nonopioid ones, will help you feel better and make the best progress,” says Sterling Elliott, PharmD, BCMTMS, clinical pharmacist lead at Northwestern Medicine and assistant professor of orthopedic surgery at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. Patients should also become educated on the dangers of using opioids, which are painkillers associated with misuse and dependence. “There’s power in understanding how and when to use opioids,” Elliott says. “There’s power in knowing when another option is best. Ultimately, thoughtful decision-making will be best for your recovery.”

It’s impossible to eliminate all your stress, but science shows you can learn to manage it better. Over the last 20 years, Judith Moskowitz, PhD, MPH, a research psychologist at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine, has been researching a set of eight skills and practices to help people increase positive emotions and decrease anxiety, even amid hard times. And she’s developed an online course to teach these skills, a kind of master class in managing stress. “People can absolutely be taught to have positive emotions, even when things seem pretty bleak,” says Moskowitz. One thing Moskowitz realized early on in her research is that even when they’re going through hardship, people still want to talk about positive things, like seeing a lovely sunset or sharing a meal with a friend. And the people who notice more of these bright spots tend to cope better. Moskowitz says practicing these skills can help you build a “reservoir” of positive energy that you can draw on when it’s time to cope with challenges or annoyances.

Monosodium glutamate, or MSG — a food additive that is often found in Asian cuisine — has had something of a negative reputation over the last 60 years. Some food experts insist that’s unfair. The change in view on MSG is typical of “our world of nutrition research and trying to understand exactly how our diet influences our health,” Linda Van Horn, PhD, RDN, a professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. It is added to foods in recipes much like salt and other spices, and MSG is naturally found in many foods, including tomatoes and mushrooms. MSG has considerably less sodium than table salt, noted Van Horn, something the food industry is “very interested in” amid a push to “reduce the amount of sodium in the diet and look for ways to enhance flavor,” she said. “We eat far too much sodium in our diet, which relates to the No. 1 burden of disease, which is hypertension,” she said. Van Horn stopped short of giving MSG a green light, saying that “it’s really not clear at this point” if the additive is safe for humans in unlimited amounts.” There really isn’t a definitive answer when it comes to, ‘Is it or is it not something that should be regulated, reduced and otherwise prevented in terms of our overall diet,'” she said.

Doctors in the DREAM program, housed in Northwestern Medicine’s Canning Thoracic Institute, treat cancer patients who have no other options by performing double lung transplants. Surgeons have done more than 40 lung transplants. They track the patients’ progress in a registry. Ankit Bharat, MD, chief of thoracic surgery and director of the Northwestern Medicine Canning Thoracic Institute, did Wilk’s surgery. He said the DREAM program typically treats three types of patients: (1) patients who have stage 4 lung cancer, (2) patients whose cancer originated in organs outside the lungs but spread to the lungs and (3) patients who have cancer and were undergoing chemotherapy or immunotherapy leading to damage to their lungs. The goal, he said, is to replace both lungs and rid them of any type of cancer. Where it gets even more complicated is the fact that many types of cancer can develop in the lungs. “Every drop of blood in our human body has to pass through the lung, and that’s one of the biggest reasons why they’re the most common organs for cancer metastasis,” he said. Bharat said a double lung replacement is an extensive procedure for any patient because it requires doctors to remove two of the body’s biggest organs. “For anybody to go through that process is a very big operation,” he said. “Someone who has phase 4 disease, who has gone through chemotherapy and immunotherapy, is somewhat compromised.” Bharat said DREAM program doctors first performed a double lung transplant on COVID-19 patients. “We had developed that and the lessons that we learned in taking out these heavily infected COVID lungs,” he said. “We had to take all of these heavily infected lungs out without trying to disseminate the organisms in the body.” Bharat stressed the need for more opinions on treatment. In Wilk’s case, one doctor told her there wasn’t much that could be done, but her persistence led to treatment that changed her life.