One of the two most common drugs used to treat age-related macular degeneration (AMD) appears better than the other, a new, small study suggests. Among 106 patients with “wet” age-related macular degeneration, 50% of those treated with aflibercept (Eylea) could be weaned off the drug after one year, compared with only 17% of those treated with bevacizumab (Avastin), researchers found. “The results from this study point to an additional, previously unappreciated advantage of aflibercept over bevacizumab,” said lead researcher Dr. Akrit Sodhi, an associate professor of ophthalmology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. “The improved ability to wean patients off therapy will need to be considered when choosing between these two medications.” The findings suggest that aflibercept’s much higher price tag — it costs about $2,000 per treatment while bevacizumab costs only $100 per treatment — might be worth it. The study was funded by the U.S. National Eye Institute. AMD is the most common cause of vision loss among people 50 and older, affecting more than 7 million Americans. Of these, nearly 2 million who suffer from advanced AMD will lose their vision, the researchers noted. These patients include those who have wet AMD, which is characterized by the growth of abnormal blood vessels in the retina that can bleed or leak damaging fluids into light-sensing tissue. Treatment of wet AMD…  read on >  read on >

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 7, 2022 (HealthDay News) – How singers use their voices, including the genre of music they perform, has an impact on vocal injury, new research finds. Dr. Lesley Childs, medical director of the Voice Center at University of Texas Southwestern in Dallas, led a two-part study of more than 1,000 patient records. The study looked at phonotraumatic lesions in patients’ vocal folds, including benign nodules, pseudocysts and hemorrhagic polyps. All of these can lead to hoarseness and are typically caused by overuse or straining of the voice. Researchers found that nodules were almost equally found across all singing genres. Opera singers had a significantly higher proportion of pseudocysts. People who sang in the praise/worship genre had significantly more hemorrhagic polyps. “These findings, combined with clinical observations, suggest that nodules may be related more to the speaking voice than the singing voice since they were more or less equally distributed across genres,” Childs said in a news release. “At the same time, the style of singing, acoustic environment and vocal demands unique to each genre clearly impact both the frequency and type of injuries that develop, with opera singers presenting with more chronic injury patterns and praise/worship singers presenting with more acute injuries.” In the first part of the study, researchers looked at 712 singers who had voice disorders between June 2017 and December…  read on >  read on >

Researchers may have sniffed out why colds are more likely in wintertime: The answer may lie within the nose. A previously unidentified immune response inside the nose is responsible for fighting off the viruses that cause upper respiratory infections, according to researchers at Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Northeastern University in Boston. Unfortunately, cold weather inhibits this protective response, making it more likely that a person will come down with anything from a cold to COVID-19. The new study offers the first biological explanation why respiratory virus infections are more likely to spike in colder seasons, researchers said. “Conventionally, it was thought that cold and flu season occurred in cooler months because people are stuck indoors more where airborne viruses could spread more easily,” said senior researcher Dr. Benjamin Bleier, director of Otolaryngology Translational Research at Mass Eye and Ear. “Our study, however, points to a biological root cause for the seasonal variation in upper respiratory viral infections we see each year, most recently demonstrated throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said in a hospital news release. The nose is a prime entry point for viruses or bacteria, which can either be inhaled or directly deposited if a person does something like rub their nose. Once inside the nose, germs work their way backward up the airway and into the body, infecting the cells along the…  read on >  read on >

Shehzin Tietjen was 27 years old when she felt a lump in one of her breasts while in the shower. That discovery led to a confirmation of breast cancer, an unexpected jolt at her age. “I was really shocked,” said Tietjen, who lives in Atlanta. Though breast cancer is more common in postmenopausal women, about 9% of new breast cancer cases occur in women under 45. Many breast cancer treatments, including chemotherapy, can affect fertility. While Tietjen soon began talking with doctors about preserving her fertility, that’s not a conversation all young women with a similar diagnosis have, according to a survey of more than 700 breast cancer patients by Living Beyond Breast Cancer (LBBC), a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit. Only 49% of survey respondents reported discussing fertility issues with their health care providers, just slightly higher than eight years earlier. Two-thirds of women whose breast cancer was diagnosed before age 45 said it had significant impacts on their sexual health. But 86% said their health care provider was unable to address these issues. Study leader Arin Ahlum Hanson, director of outreach for LBBC, said addressing these fertility and sexual health issues is a critical need. “What is really important is that those conversations are had early on at that point of diagnosis to help young women make those decisions to pursue fertility preservation or just be…  read on >  read on >

While people’s immune system T-cells can still target the spike proteins of the COVID coronavirus, their power to do so is waning over time, researchers report. As the virus continues to mutate, T-cell recognition of newer variants may be lost, the researchers cautioned. That could lead to decreasing overall protection by the immune system. Despite the fact that T-cells were still able to recognize parts of the spike protein, called epitopes, including those in the omicron variant, recognition was worse in seven of 10 epitopes that were mutated in different variants, the study found. “Our paper shows that although most people have a diverse T-cell response against the virus, some responses are less effective against omicron. As further variants of concern are identified we will need to consider carefully how new viral mutations affect T-cell recognition,” said lead study author Heather Long, an associate professor in the Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy at the University of Birmingham in England. “The vaccines currently in use are still vital to protect us from COVID-19,” Graham Taylor, an associate professor in the institute, added in a university news release. “Should SARS-CoV-2 continue to mutate to evade the immune system, our findings will help researchers to develop new vaccines better suited to those variants.” As part of the study, researchers tested CD4+ T-cells collected early in the pandemic from…  read on >  read on >

Getting toys for some of the tots in your life this holiday season? Experts at Penn State Health offer tips on making safe choices. Each year, about 200,000 U.S. children end up in the emergency room with a toy-related injury, ranging from poisoning to choking hazards, according to Jen Lau, program manager of Pediatric Trauma and Injury Prevention at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital in Hershey, Pa. “Not all toys are safe,” said Dr. Mary Catherine Santos, a pediatric surgeon at the hospital. “We see problems with children requiring surgery or having traumatic injuries from toys where the child isn’t supervised or the toy is given to a child of the wrong age.” Among the biggest concerns are button batteries or magnets. If ingested, magnets may be attracted to each other internally, causing perforation, twisting or blocking of the intestines and infection. Surgery may be required. “Toddlers instinctively explore by putting things in their mouth,” Lau said. “It’s developmentally what they do. And button batteries are literally life-threatening.” Danger also lurks in holiday cards that play music and have moving parts. They can be easily taken apart, exposing dangerous batteries. “We’ve seen death because of it,” Lau said in a Penn State news release. Here are more ways to keep your child safe: Inspect all new toys. Pay attention to labels ― including age guidelines,…  read on >  read on >