Study Links Mental Health Conditions to Greater Acute Care Use Among People With Lupus - Lupus Foundation of America

A photo of processed food. (CHCH News Stock Photo) A Canada-wide study led by researchers at McMaster University found a new possible link between brain damage and ultra-processed foods.

What can more than 100,000 medical scans reveal about the fat that burns energy, and why are researchers examining an everyday blood pressure medication? Study: Artificial intelligence-enabled clinical phenotyping of human brown fat. Image Credit: Love Employee / Shutterstock

In a recent study involving nearly 3,000 brain MRI examinations, researchers found a significant association between residing in socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods and deteriorating brain health indicators. The findings were published in Radiology. John-Paul J. Yu, MD, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, highlighted the study's implications, noting, "We’ve shown very robust, measurable metrics that our living environment has an outsized impact on the brain at the molecular and cellular level. "This retrospective analysis examined whether individuals living in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods showed higher brain age gaps and decreased total brain volume. The brain age gap reflects the difference between a person's actual age and their brain's apparent age as estimated from MRI data. The researchers evaluated brain MRIs from 2,826 patients—1,094 men and 1,732 women—aged 18 to 96. The imaging data was collected from consecutive clinical MRI examinations at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics from January to June 2024. Patients with imaging evidence of existing disease were excluded from the study

Bioengineer.org news storyFor people living with HIV, modern antiretroviral therapy can suppress the virus to levels below what standard laboratory tests can detect. Yet some patients on long-term treatment experience a curious phenomenon: a single test result showing a small, transient amount of virus in the blood, followed by an immediate return to undetectable levels. These events, known as viral blips, have puzzled clinicians and researchers for years, raising questions about whether they represent harmless statistical noise, brief bursts of viral production from hidden reservoirs, or early warnings of impending treatment failure. A new nationwide Swedish study, published in BMC Infectious Diseases, offers one of the most comprehensive answers to date. Drawing on the Swedish national InfCareHIV cohort, researchers analyzed data from 4,210 treatment-naïve adults who began antiretroviral therapy from 1 January 2007 onward, with follow-up data extracted through 30 September 2020. The median observation time was 5.5 years, with some individuals followed for as long as 13.7 years.

European Medical Journal news storyPeople living with HIV may experience subtle changes in heart muscle function even when conventional measures of cardiac performance remain normal, according to findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis. Researchers identified significantly impaired global longitudinal strain (GLS) among people with HIV compared with HIV-uninfected individuals, despite preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in both groups. The findings suggest that speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) could provide additional information about early myocardial dysfunction in this population. Read the full news story here.