Medical Bulletin 11/May/2023

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Overweight boys more likely to develop into infertile men: Study

A new paper in the European Journal of Endocrinology indicates that overweight boys tend to have lower testicular volume, putting them at risk for infertility in adulthood.Infertility weighs on both the psychological health and the economic and social lives of people of childbearing age. Infertility affected 48 million couples in 2010.

The impact of obesity and obesity-related metabolic disorders on testicular growth in childhood is unknown. Researchers here performed a retrospective, cross-sectional study on children and adolescents aged 2 to 18 years, referred to the Unit of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of Catania, in Sicily, for body weight control.

Reference:

Testicular volume in 268 children and adolescents followed-up for childhood obesity - a retrospective cross-sectional study,European Journal of Endocrinology, DOI: 10.1093/ejendo/lvad033

Most antidepressants prescribed for chronic pain lack reliable safety and efficacy evidence

Most antidepressants used for chronic pain are being prescribed with “insufficient” evidence of their effectiveness, scientists have warned. A major investigation into medications used to manage long-term pain found that harms of many of the commonly recommended drugs have not been well studied.

The Cochrane review, led by scientists from several UK universities including Southampton and Newcastle, examined 176 trials consisting of nearly 30,000 patients involved in assessments which prescribed antidepressants for chronic pain.

Among the drugs studied were amitriptyline, fluoxetine, citalopram, paroxetine, sertraline, and duloxetine - with only the latter showing reliable evidence for pain relief.

Reference:

Antidepressants for pain management in adults with chronic pain: a network meta-analysis,Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, DOI 10.1002/14651858

Air pollution worsens movement disorder after stroke: Study

Air pollution has been shown to have a negative effect on the prognosis of ischemic stroke, or stroke caused by reduced blood flow to the brain, but the exact mechanism is unknown. A team of researchers recently conducted a study to determine whether or not increased inflammation of the brain, also known as neuroinflammation, is the main culprit.

Mice exposed intranasally to urban aerosols from Beijing, China, for one week demonstrated increased neuroinflammation and worsening movement disorder after ischemic stroke, compared to control mice that were not exposed to air pollution. The group went one step further by identifying specific components of air pollution that may directly contribute to lower prognoses in ischemic stroke.

Reference:

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in urban particle matter exacerbate movement disorder after ischemic stroke via potentiation of neuroinflammation,Particle and Fibre Toxicology, DOI 10.1186/s12989-023-00517-x