The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, in collaboration with researchers across multiple institutions, has published a new study that challenges the long-held belief that high cholesterol correlates and even directly causes coronary artery disease, or plaque buildup in the arteries in metabolically healthy individuals. The study, published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Advances, recruited 100 metabolically healthy individuals following a long-term low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet who developed elevated levels of LDL cholesterol–dubbed Lean Mass Hyper-Responders (LMHRs). The researchers found that traditional cholesterol markers (ApoB and LDL-C) were not associated with baseline heart disease or progression in this population, calling for investments in further research and personalized treatment strategies. Cardiovascular disease is the world's leading cause of death, making diagnosis and risk assessment a high priority. The prevailing theory of cardiovascular disease risk is the lipid hypothesis, which posits that elevations in apolipoprotein B (ApoB) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) are significant risk factors that should be primary treatment targets. However, this new research questions the relevance of the lipid hypothesis in metabolically healthy individuals whose cholesterol levels rise in response to a low-carb ketogenic diet–often adopted to address significant mental or physical health challenges. As evidence accumulates for the efficacy of therapeutic carbohydrate reduction to improve chronic conditions ranging from diabetes to inflammatory bowel disease to bipolar disorder, investigating the cardiovascular risk of diet-induced high cholesterol is becoming increasingly critical. Despite the striking beneficial effects that are seen following this therapy, adoption is often discouraged by medical doctors because of the presumed increased risk of heart disease. The study investigated the relationship between LDL-C, ApoB, and heart plaque progression in a subpopulation of people who adopt low carbohydrate diets and fit the LMHR phenotype. This unique metabolic profile includes elevated LDL-C and ApoB levels despite otherwise healthy metabolic marker levels including low triglycerides, high HDL, low blood pressure, low insulin resistance, and low body mass index. The researchers found no association between plaque progression and total exposure to, changes in, or baseline levels of ApoB and LDL-C. Rather, baseline plaque burden was identified as the strongest predictor of future plaque progression. These findings suggest that high cholesterol is not always a marker of cardiovascular plaque progression and that individuals with the LMHR phenotype may benefit from cardiac imaging to further assess their cardiovascular risk. The findings build on previous work from the research team demonstrating that LMHR individuals have similar levels of coronary plaque to a carefully-matched comparison group with normal LDL levels, underscoring that ketogenic diet-induced LDL increases may not indicate a higher risk of coronary plaque. The research was co-led by senior author Dr. Matthew Budoff, MD, Investigator and Program Director and Director of Cardiac CT, and the endowed chair of preventative cardiology at The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. The study leaders included independent researchers Nick Norwitz, PhD, Dr. Adrian Soto-Mota, MD, and Dave Feldman, founder of the Citizen Science Foundation, which, uniquely, crowd-sourced funding for the study. "It is important that clinicians, along with the general public, are made aware that personalized, data-driven approaches to assessing risk should be considered based on individual conditions," said Dr. Budoff, who is also a Professor of Medicine at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "The existence of this phenotype suggests that alternative markers or tests should be used to establish metabolic health in some cases." The study points to a clear need to expand cardiovascular disease risk assessment to include a personalized approach that can prioritize cardiac imaging. The researchers also call for an open-minded multidisciplinary approach to better understanding the heart disease risk of individuals with the LMHR phenotype, who often rely on low carbohydrate and ketogenic diets to keep chronic disease at bay. The Lundquist Institute Soto-Mota, A., et al. (2025) Plaque Begets Plaque, ApoB Does Not: Longitudinal Data From the KETO-CTA Trial. Journal of the American College of Cardiology. https://www.jacc.org/doi/10.1016/j.jacadv.2025.101686. Posted in: Medical Research News | Medical Condition News Cancel reply to comment Dr. Allotey Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Jian Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. Mohammad Aklaq Automation and machine learning are transforming antibody discovery at LabGenius, with the EVA™ platform enabling rapid, high-throughput experimental processes. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Tuesday 8 Apr 2025 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. 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Twins—smaller at birth, on average, than singletons—start out smaller in pregnancy than was previously known, according to a study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The ultrasound study revealed that twins have less fat tissue and less muscle mass than singletons beginning at 15 weeks of pregnancy. If results are confirmed by additional research, the findings could provide information to guide physicians in monitoring and managing twin pregnancies. Researchers analyzed data from previous ultrasound studies of fetal development in the uterus. Included in the analysis were 3D ultrasound scans of 2,604 singleton pregnancies and 315 twins. All twin pairs had individual placentas. Twin pairs who shared a placenta were not included in the analysis.r Beginning at 15 weeks, thigh volumes were significantly smaller for twins than singletons. Twins had smaller fat and lean thigh volumes than singletons. They also had a lower thigh fat to lean ratio than singletons, having proportionately 2.7 to 4.2% less fat from 15 to 37 weeks. Previous studies of twin growth in the womb involved 2D ultrasound scans and had documented decreased twin growth relative to singletons only in the early 3rd trimester (28 to 40 weeks). Scientists do not think the twins early small size resulted from increased competition for nutrients as their placentas should have been developed enough to supply needed resources until the third trimester. Rather, they hypothesize that twins' small size early in pregnancy could be an adaptation to accommodate the need for increased resources of two fetuses later in pregnancy. The study was conducted by Jessica Gleason, Ph.D. and Katherine Grantz, M.D., of NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and their colleagues. It appears in JAMA Pediatrics. National Institutes of Health Gleason, J. L., et al. (2025). Fetal Body Composition in Twins and Singletons. JAMA Pediatrics. doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.0116. Posted in: Child Health News | Medical Research News Cancel reply to comment Dr. Allotey Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Jian Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. Mohammad Aklaq Automation and machine learning are transforming antibody discovery at LabGenius, with the EVA™ platform enabling rapid, high-throughput experimental processes. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Monday 7 Apr 2025 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback

More than 7 million American adolescent girls ages 13 to 17 live in states with abortion bans, restrictive gestational limits or parental involvement requirements, according to Rutgers Health researchers. Their study, published in JAMA Pediatrics, is the first to examine in detail the experiences of adolescent girls after states enacted restrictions on abortion access following the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization Supreme Court decision. As a result of Dobbs, two-thirds of girls ages 13 to 17 now live in states that ban or severely restrict their abortion access. Minors are often targeted by restrictive policies and less able to use routes to abortion care common for adults – traveling to another state or using telehealth – leaving them disproportionately impacted. Without access to abortion, these girls have lost the ability to control their lives and their futures." Laura Lindberg, professor at the Rutgers School of Public Health and author of the study As of December, 12 states have banned abortion entirely and 10 states have restrictive gestational limits. As of Sept. 1, 2023, parental involvement in a minor's decision to have an abortion is required in the 10 states with restrictive gestational limits and 14 of 29 states (as well as Washington, D.C.) without bans or without restrictive gestational limits. New Jersey is a protective state for minors and does not require parental involvement. The researchers relied on population estimates from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, numbers that reflected the U.S. 2020 Census. They found that 66% (7,080,485 of 10,666,913) of adolescent girls live in states with an abortion ban, restrictive gestational limits (six to 22 weeks), parental involvement requirements or a combination of the three. In addition, the researchers found that 42% of adolescent girls live in the 24 states where abortion isn't banned but that require parental consent or notification. Lindberg said, "twenty-four states protect abortion access for adults but don't afford the same rights to minors forcing them by law to involve a parent, adding an unnecessary and harmful barrier to care." Rutgers University Lindberg, L. D., et al. (2025). Implications of Abortion Restrictions for Adolescents. JAMA Pediatrics. doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2025.0226. Posted in: Child Health News | Medical Research News | Women's Health News Cancel reply to comment Dr. Allotey Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Jian Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. Mohammad Aklaq Automation and machine learning are transforming antibody discovery at LabGenius, with the EVA™ platform enabling rapid, high-throughput experimental processes. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Monday 7 Apr 2025 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback

Cells throughout the body work together like singers in a choir to keep us healthy, as long as they work in perfect harmony. If any cells are off key, that harmony can be disrupted, with far-reaching effects across the body. By pinpointing the discordant cells, scientists may be able to learn how to get them back in tune and restore health. Taking inspiration from that musical metaphor, a team of researchers at Gladstone Institutes has released a novel computational tool called CHOIR that can improve the detection of off-key cells. CHOIR, short for "cluster hierarchy optimization by iterative random forests," categorizes thousands or even millions of cells into separate, biologically distinct groups, helping home in on specific cell types or conditions that may underlie disease. "What's exciting about CHOIR is that it solves some of the key limitations of existing tools," says Gladstone Investigator Ryan Corces, PhD, senior author of a new study published in Nature Genetics that introduces CHOIR. "It can more accurately identify rare cell types, while also avoiding the tendency of other tools to 'hallucinate' cell types that aren't actually biologically distinct from each other." Using this new tool, we can pinpoint cells that promote health or disease and that may not have been revealed otherwise. This deep insight allows us to focus investigations and therapeutic interventions on the most promising targets." Lennart Mucke, MD, director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease and co-author of the study CHOIR arose from necessity. Cathrine Sant, PhD, now a postdoctoral scholar at Gladstone, began work on this project as a graduate student in Mucke's lab. At the time, she was studying Alzheimer's disease and learning how to analyze data generated by single-cell sequencing technologies. Such methods capture the distinct biological identities or states of cells in any given tissue sample-revealing, for instance, which genes are turned on or off, or which proteins are present on cell surfaces. Sant wanted to explore the different cell types or states potentially involved in Alzheimer's. To do so, she needed a statistical method to help her sort through her single-cell data by grouping the cells into biologically distinct clusters-just as singers in a choir might be grouped into sopranos, altos, or baritones. She considered a variety of existing tools designed for projects like hers. But none seemed quite right. "I was struck by the number of arbitrary decisions some of the tools require scientists to make, and by how these decisions can introduce personal bias or limit you to existing biological knowledge-reducing the potential for novel discovery," says Sant, who led the development of CHOIR and is first author of the new study. "It felt more like a choose-your-own-adventure than actually getting to the biological truth in the dataset." So, Sant set out to find a better way of revealing that truth. She turned to Corces, who had just started his lab at Gladstone, to leverage his expertise in computational methods, while also tapping into Mucke's extensive knowledge of neurodegenerative diseases. Together, the scientists developed a user-friendly method that relies on an unbiased statistical framework rather than intuition. The result is CHOIR, a freely available tool that can be applied across different tissue types from humans and experimental models to identify biologically meaningful groups of cells or cell conditions. "Hundreds of people have downloaded CHOIR since we first made it available online in a preliminary format about a year ago," Sant says. "It has been gratifying to see the many creative ways in which scientists are already using the tool across diverse fields, including neuroscience and immunology, as well as cardiovascular and cancer research." As a key component of its design, CHOIR incorporates a machine learning method that lets scientists use it for data produced by any single-cell analysis method, including those focused on RNA, DNA, or proteins. CHOIR also has built-in guardrails to avoid pitfalls of other tools. For example, it safeguards against underclustering, in which biologically distinct cell types are mistakenly grouped together, and also prevents overclustering, which could send a researcher on a wild goose chase by identifying cell types as distinct when they're not. Additionally, unlike other tools that assume different cell types occur in similarly sized clusters, CHOIR takes into account what actually happens in the body, which is made up of cell populations whose sizes range from abundant to rare. "CHOIR excels at grouping common cell types into large, cohesive clusters while simultaneously pinpointing rare cell populations-the needles in a haystack," Sant says. Together, these features allow CHOIR to reliably detect and discover cell types or states that might be important for diagnosing, treating and preventing disease. To confirm CHOIR's prowess, Sant and her colleagues tested it across a variety of single-cell data types-including combinations of multiple data types-and a variety of biological samples, including brain, blood, and cancer cells. When pitted against other tools for analyzing single-cell data, CHOIR outperformed 15 of the most popular ones, identifying distinct cell types that other tools missed. "Regardless of the type of tissue we tested, CHOIR performed better than other methods, even without any tweaks to its default settings," Corces says. "Being able to rely on those defaults avoids potential biases that can be introduced when researchers are required to tweak settings based on their personal intuition. That's really important for standardization and ensuring research findings are rigorous and reproducible across labs." Now, equipped with CHOIR, Sant is taking a fresh approach to Alzheimer's research. She and her colleagues are using it to zoom in on specific types of brain cells after reducing levels of the protein tau-a strategy being explored as a potential treatment for the disease. They're also using CHOIR to analyze an Alzheimer's dataset involving single-cell data from millions of cells from human tissue samples. Meanwhile, other labs at Gladstone are already applying CHOIR to study the brain, the heart, and the immune system. "Many researchers are using single-cell data these days and CHOIR is applicable across many studies," Mucke says. "We hope this powerful new research tool will advance diverse areas of science and biomedicine." Gladstone Institutes Sant, C., et al. (2025). CHOIR improves significance-based detection of cell types and states from single-cell data. Nature Genetics. doi.org/10.1038/s41588-025-02148-8. Posted in: Cell Biology | Genomics | Device / Technology News Cancel reply to comment Dr. Allotey Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Jian Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. Mohammad Aklaq Automation and machine learning are transforming antibody discovery at LabGenius, with the EVA™ platform enabling rapid, high-throughput experimental processes. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Monday 7 Apr 2025 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. 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A new study presented today at the European Psychiatric Association Congress 2025 reveals that gender plays a significant role in excessive and problematic (psychological or behavioral dependence) smartphone use, with young females more likely to experience higher social anxiety than other genders. In the study, it was also found that gender was significantly linked to the amount of time spent using smartphones and the fear of being judged negatively by others online. The researchers set out to investigate problematic smartphone use, mental well-being, emotional regulation and social anxiety differences between genders, so that a stronger understanding can be built of the smartphone addiction process. The study involved 400 young adults (average age 25.9): 104 men, 293 women and three of another gender. Key findings from the study include: Gender accounts for significant differences in the mediating factors (time of use per day, Mental Health Continuum Scale (MHC), Assessing Emotions Scale (AES), Fear of Negative Perception Questionnaire (FNPQ)), that affect problematic smartphone use Young females experience higher fear of negative perception online Gender is significantly related to the time spent with smartphones, with higher use in young females than other genders These results point to serious differences between genders in that females are much more likely to suffer mental ill health at the hands of a smartphone. Our study also reveals the influence of social interactivity, low emotional understanding and variations in perceived social support that could be caused by problematic smartphone use. It is important that these areas are further researched so we can work to build our understanding of these behavior differences between genders and what methods need to be put in place to support these individuals." Dr. Csibi Sándor, George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Romania, and Lead Investigator Co-author Ms. Neha Pirwani, Eotvos Lorand University, Hungary, added: "Our findings add to previous studies showing that females can face increased suffering and therefore need additional attention, guidance and help compared with other genders, to identify problematic smartphone use and what this may lead to. Our continued work to further understand the causes and effects of this is key to addressing these issues amongst the younger generation." Professor Geert Dom, EPA President, said: "Nearly 100% of Generation Z own and use a smartphone. There is already evidence from a variety of cross-sectional, longitudinal and empirical studies implicating smartphone and social media use being factors in the increase in mental distress, self-injurious behaviour and suicidality among this age group. This is an area that must be given further attention so that any detrimental areas can be addressed quickly." The European Congress of Psychiatry takes place from 5-8 April 2025 in Madrid, Spain, and represents Europe's largest congress dedicated to psychiatry, with around 1,500 attendees: epa-congress.org. Full abstract: Gender differences regarding problematic smartphone use, mediating by mental well-being, emotional regulation, and social anxiety in young adult sample [EPA2025-LB-4869] Csibi Sándor, Neha Pirwani, Mónika Csibi, Attila Szabo Introduction: Research underlay various results concerning the differences focusing on gender in smartphone use and mental issues. Some find no difference, but assessing mental factors reveals the influence of social interactivity, low emotional understanding, and perceived social support variations according to problematic smartphone use. Objectives: Our research aims to investigate problematic smartphone use, mental well-being, emotional regulation, and social anxiety as a function of gender to explore specific ways of functioning in the addiction process. Methods: The study participants were 400 young adults, of whom 104 were men (26%), 293 were women (73.2%), and three individuals (0.8%) were of another gender. The mean age of the participants was 25.9 years (SD 10.9). Registered answers refer to demographic data (gender, age, smartphone usage habits) as well as psychological measures: a Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (SABAS), a Mental Health Continuum Scale (MHC), an Assessing Emotions Scale (AES), and Fear of Negative Perception Questionnaire (FNPQ). Results: The results showed that gender showed significant differences in the mediating factors that affect problematic smartphone use. In the mediation model, gender relates significantly related to time spent with smartphones (p=.001) and fear of negative perception (p=.001). The statistical mediation model highlighted the gender-depending significant role of the mediating factors (time of use per day, MHC, AES, FNPQ) in problematic smartphone use. Conclusions: Our research highlights gender differences in excessive smartphone use, such as higher social anxiety, which is a higher predisposing factor in women than in men. Gender is a significant indirect determinant of problematic smartphone use. European Psychiatric Association Posted in: Medical Research News | Medical Condition News | Women's Health News Cancel reply to comment Dr. Allotey Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Jian Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. Mohammad Aklaq Automation and machine learning are transforming antibody discovery at LabGenius, with the EVA™ platform enabling rapid, high-throughput experimental processes. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Monday 7 Apr 2025 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback

The Chinese Medical Association has released new guidelines for diagnosing and treating Mycoplasma pneumoniae in children. Addressing challenges like variable symptoms and rising antibiotic resistance (81% for macrolides in China), experts recommend PCR testing for accurate diagnosis, macrolides for mild cases, and tetracyclines for severe infections in older children. Corticosteroids are also advised for severe cases, and judicious antibiotic use is stressed to combat resistance and improve treatment outcomes. Mycoplasma pneumoniae pneumonia (MPP) is a bacterial pathogen that causes pneumonia in school-aged children and adolescents. It spreads through respiratory droplets, leading to prolonged cough, fever, and breathing difficulties. While most cases resolve without complications, some become severe and require advanced medical care. Due to variations in disease presentation and rising antibiotic resistance, standardized diagnostic and treatment approaches are essential. To address these challenges, the Chinese Medical Association has released new guidelines in Pediatric Investigation, led by Professor Baoping Xu, from the Department of Respiratory at Beijing Children's Hospital, on 11 March 2025. These guidelines provide clear recommendations on diagnosis, treatment, and managing complications, ensuring healthcare professionals have access to standardized, evidence-based strategies. Given the overlap of clinical symptoms with other respiratory infections, the guidelines emphasize a multi-faceted diagnostic approach that integrates clinical observations, laboratory findings, and imaging studies. "Accurate and timely diagnosis is crucial in preventing unnecessary antibiotic use and ensuring appropriate treatment," said Prof. Xu. "By combining Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, antibody detection, and imaging, we can improve diagnostic precision and reduce misdiagnosis." PCR, particularly fluorescence quantitative PCR targeting MP-DNA, is highlighted as the gold standard for confirming MPP due to its high sensitivity and specificity. Antibody tests like enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and latex agglutination may help identify infections but have limitations, including false positives or negatives depending on infection timing and immune responses. Chest imaging, primarily X-rays, assesses lung involvement and distinguishes MPP from other pneumonias. In severe cases, computed tomography (CT) scans may provide additional insights into lung inflammation and complications. Treatment strategies depend on infection severity. For mild MPP, macrolide antibiotics like azithromycin remain the first-line therapy due to their effectiveness against M. pneumoniae. However, increasing macrolide resistance, particularly in China, necessitates alternative antibiotics for severe or refractory cases. For children aged 8 and older, tetracyclines such as minocycline or doxycycline are preferred due to their effectiveness against resistant strains. However, these are generally avoided in younger children due to potential effects on developing teeth. In such cases, macrolides are still used despite resistance concerns. Quinolones, including levofloxacin, are an alternative but require careful monitoring due to potential adverse effects, particularly in younger patients. Physicians must weigh risks against benefits and obtain informed consent before prescribing quinolones. Severe MPP often involves significant lung inflammation, requiring additional treatments. Corticosteroids, particularly methylprednisolone, are recommended to reduce inflammation and improve respiratory function. However, they should always be used alongside antibiotics, as they do not directly target the infection. The routine use of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is not supported due to insufficient evidence of its effectiveness for MPP. Refractory MPP, which does not respond to initial antibiotics, is managed similarly to severe MPP, with alternative antibiotics and corticosteroids when necessary. The guidelines acknowledge the lack of consensus on the optimal duration of corticosteroid therapy, highlighting the need for further clinical research. Beyond medications, the guidelines address managing complications in severe cases. Some children with MPP develop increased D-dimer levels, indicating a higher risk of blood clot formation. To mitigate this, low molecular weight heparin is recommended. In cases of mucus accumulation causing airway blockage, bronchoscopic lavage therapy may be necessary. This procedure, which removes mucus and debris from the airway, is most effective when performed 7 to 14 days after symptom onset, though its use should be based on individual patient needs. "Antibiotic overuse and misuse are driving resistance, making infections harder to treat. These guidelines emphasize responsible antibiotic use—choosing the right drug, dose, and duration for each case," emphasizes Prof. Xu. The authors acknowledge that some recommendations rely on expert opinion due to limited high-quality clinical trials. Additionally, while the guidelines primarily focus on diagnosis and treatment, they provide limited information on complications and long-term effects of MPP. Future updates will incorporate new research findings to address these gaps, ensuring healthcare professionals have the most up-to-date strategies for diagnosing and treating MPP, ultimately improving outcomes for affected children. Cactus Communications The Subspecialty Group of Respiratory., et al. (2025) Evidence‐based guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of Mycoplasma Pneumoniae pneumonia in children (2023). Pediatric Investigation. doi.org/10.1002/ped4.12469. Posted in: Child Health News | Healthcare News Dr. Allotey Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Jian Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. Mohammad Aklaq Automation and machine learning are transforming antibody discovery at LabGenius, with the EVA™ platform enabling rapid, high-throughput experimental processes. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Last Updated: Monday 7 Apr 2025 News-Medical.net - An AZoNetwork Site Owned and operated by AZoNetwork, © 2000-2025 Your AI Powered Scientific Assistant Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please read and accept to continue. Please check the box above to proceed. Great. Ask your question. Azthena may occasionally provide inaccurate responses. Read the full terms. Terms While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information. Read the full Terms & Conditions. Provide Feedback

Recent research published in Nature Medicine highlights the rapid impact that dietary changes can have on immune and metabolic health. Urbanization and increased availability of processed foods in Africa are shifting dietary patterns, with many people abandoning traditional diets for Western-style diets. To explore the effects of this dietary shift, researchers from Radboud University Medical Center and Kilimanjaro Christian Medical University College investigated the health impacts at the cellular level. Their findings indicate that just 2 weeks of adopting a Western diet over a traditional African diet can lead to increased inflammation, weakened immune responses, and disrupted metabolic pathways tied to lifestyle-related diseases. In contrast, switching from a Western diet to a traditional African diet or consuming traditional fermented beverages may have anti-inflammatory benefits. While more research is needed, these results support the idea that largely plant-based heritage diets — like traditional African, Mediterranean, and Latin American diets — can improve health and lower the risk of lifestyle-related diseases. This randomized controlled trial involved 77 healthy young men, with a median age of 26, residing in the Kilimanjaro region in Northern Tanzania. Researchers assessed initial eating habits through three 24-hour food diaries recorded on nonconsecutive days, with one diary specifically collected during a festival or weekend. They conducted the trial with three groups, providing daily meals: Researchers had five participants in each of the first two groups stick to their usual diets to eliminate any external factors affecting the results. Blood samples were taken at three key points: at the start of the study, right after the 2-week dietary intervention or the 1-week fermented beverage intervention, and again 4 weeks after the intervention ended. The main goal was to investigate changes in the participants' immune and metabolic health, focusing on immune system function, blood inflammation markers, and various metabolic processes. The researchers' final analysis included only high-quality samples that met specific standards. Results were adjusted for factors including age, body mass index, and physical activity levels. Their results showed that switching from a traditional African diet to a Western diet for 2 weeks disrupted key metabolic pathways linked to lifestyle-related diseases. It also appeared to trigger a pro-inflammatory state involving white blood cells, inflammatory proteins in the blood, and changes in gene expression. Additionally, their immune cells became less effective at responding to pathogens. Conversely, transitioning from a Western diet to a mostly plant-based traditional African diet or consuming the fermented beverage resulted in mostly anti-inflammatory effects, including reduced inflammatory markers. Certain immune and metabolic changes remained four weeks after the intervention, suggesting that even short-term dietary modifications might have some lasting effects. This study may be the first thorough investigation of the health effects linked to a traditional African diet. “Previous research has focused on other traditional diets, such as the Japanese or Mediterranean diet,” study author Quirijn de Mast, MD, PhD, internist-infectious disease specialist from Radboud University Medical Center, said in a press release. “However, there is just as much to learn from traditional African diets, especially now, as lifestyles in many African regions are rapidly changing and lifestyle diseases are increasing. Africa's rich diversity in traditional diets offers unique opportunities to gain valuable insights into how food influences health.” – Quirijn de Mast, MD, PhD Medical News Today spoke with Thomas M. Holland, MD, MS, a physician-scientist and assistant professor at the RUSH Institute for Healthy Aging, RUSH University, College of Health Sciences, who was not involved in the study. He explained that “the shift from a traditional African diet to a Western-style diet resulted in increased inflammation and weakened immune responses, likely due to differences in nutrient composition and microbial exposure.” The traditional African diet in this study was rich in: These foods are high in dietary fiber and bioactive compounds, such as polyphenols, which help reduce inflammation and promote metabolic health. They also encourage a healthy gut microbiome and the production of beneficial metabolites that enhance overall health and well-being. In addition, Holland emphasized the potential advantages of traditional African fermented foods and beverages, like Mbege, which “play a critical role by enriching the gut microbiome with beneficial microbes and bioactive metabolites that enhance immune function.” He noted that specific compounds present in Mbege, such as flavonoids, also likely contributed to improved immune responses and vascular health in the individuals who consumed the fermented beverage. In contrast to the nutrient-rich traditional African diet, the Western diet in the study lacked whole foods and included items such as: Holland pointed out that “Western diets are typically high in refined sugars, saturated fats, and processed foods, which can promote inflammation and oxidative stress and disrupt immune regulation.” This likely results from the direct impact of cholesterol, saturated fats, and sugars on immune and metabolic health, as well as indirect effects through changes in gut bacteria and weight gain, according to the researchers. “Given that Westernized diets promote chronic diseases, this study's results are unsurprising—processed foods drive inflammation, whereas healthy traditional diets rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds help mitigate metabolic and immune dysfunction.” – Thomas M. Holland, MD, MS While the study showed promising results, the authors acknowledge a few limitations. These include the short duration of the research, a small sample size consisting only of men, and unrestricted food intake, which may have led to weight changes affecting immune and metabolic profiles. Despite these limitations, Mast emphasized the significant impact of dietary changes, even over just two weeks. He stated that the “study highlights the benefits of these traditional food products for inflammation and metabolic processes in the body.” “At the same time,” he said, “we show how harmful an unhealthy Western diet can be.” “Inflammation is at the root of many chronic conditions, which makes this study highly relevant for Western countries as well,” Mast noted. Holland agreed, saying that “these findings reinforce the idea that diet has a rapid and lasting impact on immune and metabolic health.” “Even short-term dietary changes can have long-lasting effects, suggesting that integrating more traditional, whole-food-based eating patterns could be a key strategy in disease prevention,” he added. In conclusion, Holland noted that “by preserving and adapting traditional plant-rich dietary patterns, individuals can enhance long-term health while maintaining cultural and regional food heritage.” Share this article There are claims that anti-inflammatory diets could help reduce the risk of some chronic conditions, but are these claims supported by scientific… Can we use food and diet as medicine? If so, to what extent? What are the pros and cons of this approach to healthcare? We investigate. Many people take supplements to strengthen their immune systems. But what is the evidence for this, and what are the limits? A 4:3 model of intermittent fasting may be more effective at lowering a person's weight over 12 months than a diet following daily calorie restriction, A whole food diet contains minimally processed foods close to their natural state. Learn about the health benefits of eating whole foods and how to… OUR BRANDS

April 07, 2025 BOSTON — In the staging of liver fibrosis in the post-liver transplant setting, readings from noninvasive tests commonly have major discrepancies when compared with liver biopsy results, particularly in cases of severe steatosis, according to the results of a new study. Our findings support liver biopsy as “the gold standard for confirmation of allograft fibrosis that is predicted by transient elastography and assessment of its underlying cause,” said first study author Nazire Albayrak, MD, of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. Liver fibrosis is known to be the main driver of chronic liver disease as well as a key factor influencing post-liver transplant morbidity and mortality. While a liver biopsy is indeed considered the gold standard for diagnosing liver fibrosis, such biopsies have important drawbacks, including the involvement of invasive surgery, discomfort, the potential for complications, and the consumption of time. To help assist in the assessment of fibrosis, noninvasive tests, including serum biomarker indices and hepatic imaging techniques, have gained interest and have been validated in the detection and monitoring of chronic liver disease. Although these tests have been adopted for clinical use post-liver transplant, research is lacking on their reliability in this setting, the study authors noted here at the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology 2025 Annual Meeting. To compare the results of such tests with confirmed assessments on liver biopsy, Albayrak and colleagues evaluated results on the two most widely used noninvasive tests: FibroScan, which uses ultrasound to assess liver stiffness, and Fibrosis-4 (FIB-4), an index that calculates liver fibrosis with a score based on age, platelet count, and levels of aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase. They identified 108 liver transplant recipients who had received a liver biopsy between 2015 and 2024 and who had testing with FibroScan within 6 months of transplant and lab values within 1 month. Liver biopsies with < 7 portal tracts and/or < 1 cm in total core length were excluded. The median age of the study participants was 63 years, 54% were male, and the median graft age was 5.4 years. More than half had type 2 diabetes (60.1%) and/or obesity (58%). The most common post-transplant major liver biopsy diagnoses included recurrent and new steatotic liver disease (45.4% and 26.8%, respectively), recurrent hepatitis C (8.3%), and organ rejection (7.4%). All of the patients with recurrent steatotic liver disease had diabetes, while 82.7% of patients with new steatotic liver disease had diabetes and/or obesity. The patients had a median fibrosis stage of 1, as determined by trichrome stain. A median stiffness of 8.2 kPa and a FIB-4 of 2.032 were both predictors of stage 2 fibrosis. Importantly, for patients with no fibrosis, FibroScan and FIB-4 each overestimated the degree of fibrosis (P < .0001); FIB-4 also predicted more fibrosis than liver biopsy in stage 1 of disease (P < .0001). Overall, major discrepancies occurred in 25% of cases, and most were associated with severe stenosis, observed on 62.5% of biopsies and imaging. Specific over-assessments included 24% (21/88) of stage F0-2 cases that were wrongfully described as stage F3-4 on FibroScan. Conversely, 30% (6/20) of stage F3-4 cases on liver biopsy were undercalled as stage F0-2 on FibroScan. On FIB-4 scoring, 29.6% (26/88) that were stage F0-2 were called stage F3-4, while 45% (9/20) of patients that were stage F3-4 were undercalled as stage F0-2. Specific examples of cases involving discrepancies included: The high rate of discrepancies observed in the study could have been related to the fact that a higher proportion of patients had obesity, and as many as 40% had moderate to severe steatosis, Albayrak cautioned. “Also, one of the overcalls was due to amyloid infiltration,” she said. The bottom-line result remains, however, that “major discrepancies in fibrosis assessment occurred in more than 50% of cases,” in the study, she concluded. Further commenting on the issue, Nigar Anjuman Khurram, MD, of the UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh, added that various other factors are known to elevate estimations of fibrosis potentially falsely on FibroScan. “Physiological factors such as hepatic inflammation, cholestasis, and vascular congestion may [also] alter liver stiffness readings, compromising accuracy,” she told Medscape Medical News. “Additionally, technical considerations, including probe positioning, patient cooperation, and operator proficiency, can introduce measurement variability,” she said. Khurram presented separate research at the meeting showing that yet another factor — ferritin — may also not be as reliably predictive of liver fibrosis as expected. “Ferritin estimation alone, in the absence of liver biopsy, remains a key parameter in guiding hemochromatosis management,” she said. However, “in our study, we observed that despite normal serum ferritin levels, some patients exhibited fibrosis progression to advanced stages, as confirmed by histological examination.” These findings indicate that ferritin levels, “while useful clinically to guide therapy, cannot be used to replace liver biopsy as a gold standard,” said Khurram. Albayrak and Khurram had no disclosures to report. Send comments and news tips to news@medscape.net.