Medical imaging for thinking and memory issues happens much later in Black patients than in their white and Hispanic counterparts, new research shows. A study to be presented Thursday at a meeting of radiologists also revealed that Black patients were less often tested with MRIs, a preferred way to identify brain abnormalities that can cause cognitive issues. Other research has found that Black people have a greater risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia and they are more likely to be diagnosed later than white patients. “If disparity in obtaining access to neuroimaging is one possible barrier that delays diagnosis, it is important to identify this and figure out possible solutions to benefit these patients and prevent a delayed diagnosis,” said lead author Dr. Joshua Wibecan, a radiology resident at Boston Medical Center. Increasingly, imaging with MRI plays a big part in diagnosing thinking impairments. But it has been unclear how differences in access to imaging may lead to delayed diagnoses. Wibecan’s team studied four years of imaging data at Boston Medical Center. As a safety net medical center, it cares for people regardless of their ability to pay or insurance status. Researchers identified all outpatient CTs and CT angiographies of the head, as well as MRI brain exams done for mental impairment.  Self-identified Black patients were older when they received imaging and…  read on >  read on >

In a disease cluster last year, one infected but asymptomatic man spread a rare form of syphilis that affects the eyes to five Michigan women, a new report finds. Since ocular syphilis remains very rare, researchers believe the strain of T. pallidum  — the syphilis bacterium — that the man carried might have raised the risk for eye complications in his sex partners. The man and the five middle-aged white women he infected eventually all received penicillin treatment and were cured. So the researchers say it’s possible that the strain “ceased to circulate after these patients and their common partner were treated,” although no one can know that for sure.  The study was led by Dr. William Nettleton of the Kalamazoo County Health and Community Services Department in Kalamazoo, Mich. His team reported the findings in the Nov. 24 issue of Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a journal of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Syphilis is making an unwelcome comeback among sexually active Americans everywhere. According to Nettleton’s group, in Michigan cases-per-100,000-people rose from 3.8 in 2016 to 9.7 by 2022.   Most of the rise in cases was concentrated in southwest Michigan (the area around Kalamazoo). Syphilis is an insidious infection, because in many cases it does not cause symptoms although the bacterium can still be transmitted to others.  Over time, syphilis…  read on >  read on >

People with long COVID exhibit brain changes that are different from the brains of fully recovered COVID-19 patients, a new brain scan study reports. COVID-19 induced a specific pattern of microscopic structural changes in various brain regions of people with long COVID, researchers will report at the upcoming annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study comparing patients with long COVID to both a group without history of COVID-19 and a group that went through a COVID-19 infection but is subjectively unimpaired,” lead researcher Dr. Alexander Rau, a neuroradiology resident at University Hospital Freiburg in Freiburg, Germany, said in an RSNA news release. Between 10% and 25% of patients with a COVID infection wind up developing long COVID, researchers estimate. Long COVID involves a collection of different symptoms that can last for weeks, months or even years after a person gets over their initial illness, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Symptoms can include “brain fog,” fatigue, joint or muscle pain, shortness of breath, GI disturbances, heart palpitations, and changes in sense of smell or taste. For this study, researchers scanned participants’ brains using a novel MRI technique that analyzes the movement of water molecules in tissues. This method can provide detailed information on the brain’s microstructure, and can detect even very small…  read on >  read on >

Robert Fleetwood, 73, needed joint replacements in both knees, both to relieve his arthritis pain and to continue competing in athletic activities. And thanks to medical advances, Fleetwood was able to go home the same he had each knee replaced, in procedures spaced several months apart. A knee replacement “changes your perspective on life. It makes you feel so much more alive and dynamic when you’re not living with chronic pain that becomes debilitating,” Fleetwood, of Stuart, Fla., said in a news release. “I’m very happy now.” People used to have to spend a night in the hospital following a knee replacement, but improvements in technology, surgery and pain management have made it possible to undergo the procedure in the morning and be back home by the evening, Dr. Martin Roche, director of joint replacement at Hospital for Special Surgery Florida in West Palm Beach, said in a hospital news release. “We’ve come a long way in terms of being able to get people up and out of the hospital quickly, and that motivates them mentally, as well,” Roche said. Advances over the past five years that have led to outpatient knee replacements include: 3D CT scans that allow surgeons to plan highly personalized procedures beforehand. Surgical robotics and sensors that allow a high degree of precision and accuracy. Less invasive surgery that spares muscles…  read on >  read on >

Four of every 10 American seniors who suffer a fall and end up in the ER with head trauma get no follow-up care once they go home, a new study finds. “Only 59 percent of our study subjects had follow-up with their [health care] provider,” study senior author Dr. Richard Shih said. He’s professor of emergency medicine at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Even if patients do manage to see a doctor after their ER discharge, they often get no guidance on how to prevent another fall, Shih and his colleagues said. “Of the patients in our study that had primary care physician follow-up, 28 percent reported that there was no fall-risk assessment and 44 percent did not receive fall prevention interventions,” he said in a university news release. Falls can be highly injurious and often fatal for older Americans. According to data supplied by the university, in a given year 1 in every 4 Americans aged 65 or older will suffer a fall, resulting in 8 million emergency department visits annually, 800,000 hospitalizations and more than 27,000 deaths. Seeing your family doctor after you’ve recovered from a serious fall is crucial to helping prevent subsequent falls, the Florida team said. Unfortunately, that kind of follow-up often doesn’t happen. In their study, Shih’s team tracked levels of follow-up care for more than 1,500 seniors…  read on >  read on >