Media Coverage

With only about one in five donated lungs actually getting transplanted and the shortage of donor lungs exacerbated by COVID-19 Northwestern Medicine is employing a new device that lets transplant surgeons prepare lungs outside of the body and increase the likelihood they’ll be usable. Dr. Ankit Bharat
, Northwestern Medicine’s chief of thoracic surgery and executive director of the Canning Thoracic Institute said “Because we were the first health system in the U.S. to offer lung transplants for COVID-19 patients, our patient volume continues to increase, and we need every tool to help us get more transplanted.”

In a new study, taking erectile dysfunction medications regularly translated into a higher risk for three vision-damaging conditions. Dr. Nicholas Volpe, a professor of ophthalmology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said it’s important to acknowledge that any medication has the potential for side effects. None of these conditions happen only in the presence of these medications, Volpe said. SRD (serious retinal detachment), for example, is often diagnosed in patients who have diabetic retinopathy.

Scientists at Northwestern Medicine said they used a new CRISPR gene-editing approach to identify human genes that were important for HIV infection in the blood, finding 86 genes that may play a role in the way HIV replicates and causes disease, including over 40 that have never been looked at in the context of HIV infection.

A new Israeli study said a fourth dose of the Pfizer vaccine improves protection against COVID, but wanes quickly. The need for a second booster has been up for debate among scientists, leaving patients confused and their doctors trying to sort it out. According to Dr. Michael Angarone with Northwestern Medicine Infectious Diseases advises his older and high-risk patients to get the extra dose now. For others, he said a wait-and-see approach may work as well, as drug companies are in the process of testing variant-specific vaccines that may be used seasonally, similar to the flu.

Studies are linking the pandemic to higher rates of fatal heart disease and stroke, deaths from addiction-related problems and more. With heart health, part of the problem is that people often avoided or delayed treatment because of COVID-19 fears, said Dr. Donald Lloyd-Jones, a cardiologist, epidemiologist and chair of preventive medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.

Researchers at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago studied 1,149 women who received at least one dose of a vaccine from Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech or Johnson & Johnson between 30 days of contraception and 14 weeks into gestation, which is when the fetus is most vulnerable to developing birth defects due to medications taken by the mother. Women vaccinated shortly before or early in pregnancy were not at a higher risk for having an abnormality in the fetus detected.

Some Illinois providers may have to cut back on COVID-19 testing and vaccination clinics for vulnerable groups as federal funding dries up – a situation that healthcare leaders fear could leave the state ill-prepared for another COVID-19 surge. For now, many major Chicago-area providers say they’re continuing to give people without health insurance free COVID-19 tests and vaccines, including Walgreens, CVS Health, Northwestern Medicine, Duly Health and Care and Sinai Chicago, among others.

Doctors have been urging their pregnant patients to get as much protection as possible against COVID-19. A new study published by Epic Research showed that pregnancy doubles the risk of breakthrough COVID-19 infections. According to Dr. Melissa Simon, a Northwestern Medicine OB/GYN, “Their immune system is working hard to protect the baby and sometimes makes the pregnant person more vulnerable to infections.”

MIS-C, or multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, is a rare but serious condition that typically shows up several weeks after COVID-19 infection. The syndrome can involve inflammation of the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes or gastrointestinal organs. Ami Patel, assistant professor of pediatrics in infectious diseases, says she saw an increase in MIS-C cases from late December into January and early February. According to Patel, “It was not nearly the volume of cases that we saw in late 2020.”

A clinical psychologist shares the importance of getting direct natural light as soon as possible after waking up. The psychologist’s simple life hack reflects a growing body of scientific evidence linking ample exposure to bright light early in the day to everything from better sleep and clearer thinking to improved mental health and reduced risk of obesity and diabetes. Researchers at Northwestern University found that people who got most of their bright light exposure before noon weighed a little less – 1.4 pounds, on average – than those exposed to bright light in the evening.