People suffering from sciatica gain lasting relief from a procedure that uses a fine needle to heat nerve roots near the spine, a new clinical trial shows. The minimally invasive procedure, called pulsed radiofrequency (RF), provided superior pain reduction and disability improvement out to one year for patients with sciatica, according to findings published March 28 in the journal Radiology. The procedure could help people with sciatica avoid or delay back surgery, said lead researcher Dr. Alessandro Napoli, an associate professor of radiology with the Policlinico Umberto I – Sapienza University of Rome in Italy. “Pulsed radiofrequency with this method can relieve pain in 10 minutes, with no surgery, no hospitalization, and faster recovery and return to daily activities. It is an important card to play,” Napoli said. People with sciatica have a sharp pain that shoots through their hips and buttocks and down one leg. The condition is typically caused by a herniated or slipped spinal disc that’s putting pressure on the sciatic nerve, the largest nerve on the body. The standard of care is a steroid injection aimed at calming the nerve down, said Dr. Jack Jennings, a professor of radiology and orthopedic surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “The steroids are basically to fool the nerve, to say nothing’s wrong,” said Jennings, who wrote an editorial accompanying…  read on >  read on >

People who are blind are better at sensing their own heartbeats, according to a new study that found blindness appears to heighten one’s ability to feel signals from the inner body. Researchers from Sweden and Poland tested this in a study of 36 blind individuals and the same number of sighted people. Each was asked to count their heartbeats without checking their pulse or touching their body. Using a pulse oximeter, the researchers simultaneously recorded participants’ actual heartbeats. Then, they compared the reported numbers with those actually recorded. Among participants who were blind, average accuracy was 0.78, while the sighted group averaged 0.63 on a scale where 1.0 represented a perfect score. “The blind participants were much better at counting their own heartbeats than the sighted participants in our study and in several previous studies,” said lead researcher Dominika Radziun, a doctoral student in neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden. “It gives us important information about the brain’s plasticity and how the loss of one sense can enhance others, in this case the ability to feel what happens inside your own body,” Radziun explained in an institute news release. This ability to sense heartbeats may provide an advantage when it comes to emotional processing, the study authors said. Prior studies have linked people’s ability to sense the body’s internal state to how well they…  read on >  read on >

Sen. Mitch McConnell is back home more than two weeks after he fell at a private dinner and was hospitalized with a concussion and broken rib. The Senate Minority Leader spent five days in the hospital and the remainder of the 2-1/2 weeks following his fall in inpatient physical therapy. “I’m in frequent touch with my Senate colleagues and my staff,” McConnell said in a statement released Saturday. “I look forward to returning in person to the Senate soon.” McConnell said he resumed talking directly with his team leadership last Tuesday, saying he was “eager” to return. McConnell, 81, was injured March 8 at a private dinner at a Washington hotel. He’s not the only senator currently out for illness. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is recovering from shingles, while Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) is receiving inpatient treatment for clinical depression. Although it’s not clear exactly when McConnell will return to his office, he said he will be working from home for now. The Senate starts an Easter recess Thursday and won’t reconvene until April 17, the Washington Post reported. More information The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on concussion. SOURCE: Washington Post  read on >

Boys born to women who had COVID-19 during pregnancy may be at risk for developmental delays, a new study suggests. Delays in speech and motor function were the most commonly diagnosed conditions in these children at 12 months. They were seen in boys but not in girls, the study authors said. “These findings suggest that male offspring exposed to SARS-CoV-2 in utero may be at increased risk for neurodevelopmental disorders,” said lead researcher Dr. Andrea Edlow. She is an associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive biology at Harvard Medical School, in Boston. However, she added, “The motor and speech delays noted in our study do not, per se, reveal anything about risk for autism, ADHD [attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder], or other diagnoses, which are made later in life. Our study cannot yet answer those questions, and only points to the need for longer-term follow-up of these children, given that increased neurodevelopmental risk has already been noted.” It’s not uncommon that infections during pregnancy affect infants, Edlow pointed out. “Multiple viral and bacterial infections in pregnancy have been associated with increased risk for neurodevelopmental diagnoses in offspring. The common thread is maternal immune activation during infection in pregnancy, rather than a specific pathogen,” she explained. As to why boys but not girls are affected, Edlow said that is also seen with other infections. “Boys are known to…  read on >  read on >

There’s nothing like the comfort and security of home. For many, a home is a place filled with fond memories of happy times. It’s no wonder older adults choose to extend their independence by trying to stay in their homes as they get older, an experience called aging in place. But as a person ages, what used to be ordinary in the home can be challenging or even a hazard. Almost one-third of older adults experience a fall. Among them, 55% fall inside the home and 23% fall outside the home, according to AARP. As a caregiver, it’s important to consider what you can do to make the home safe and accessible for an older loved one. “We’re hearing more from the caregivers that are modifying their home so their older relative can move in with them,” Sandy Markwood, chief executive of USAging, a national association of local Area Agencies on Aging, noted in a recent AARP article. Here are some ideas on what changes to the home could make a big difference. Hallway and stair safety AARP suggests checking the stairs to make sure they’re in good condition. Stairwells should be well-lit and there should be secure handrails on both sides. Remove throw rugs in the home. You should also declutter hallways, walkways and stair areas. To improve visibility inside the home at night,…  read on >  read on >

Children with autism are less likely than their peers to receive important vision screening despite a high risk for serious eye disorders, researchers report. Only about 36% of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) completed vision screenings during their health checkups, a new study found. That was far fewer than the 59% rate for children without ASD. In addition, the screening rate for Black children with ASD was just under 28%, compared with nearly 40% for white and multiracial kids, the findings showed. “I noticed that many of our patients with autism have never had vision screening, even though it’s recommended for all young children,” said senior author Dr. Brittany Perry, a pediatrician at the Nemours Swank Autism Center in Wilmington, Del. “So, I wanted to study whether this might be a broader disparity — whether kids with autism receive vision screening less often than other kids,” she added in a Nemours news release. Early childhood is crucial for vision development, as well as for early detection and treatment of eye problems, the study authors noted. For the study, Perry’s team examined data for more than 63,800 well visits across a primary care network in Delaware, Pennsylvania and Florida. Children were 3 to 5 years of age. In Florida, nearly 46% of kids with ASD had vision screening, compared to 28% each in Delaware and…  read on >  read on >