Medical Bulletin 12/July/2023

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Fibromyalgia associated with increased mortality risk

Fibromyalgia, a condition that causes persistent widespread pain and fatigue, may be linked to a heightened risk of death as a result of vulnerability to accidents, infections, and especially suicide, suggests a pooled data analysis of the available evidence.

Given the extent of the pain they experience and the likelihood of other painful and debilitating conditions in these patients, it is thought that they are probably at heightened risk of dying before their time.

To strengthen this hypothesis, the researchers reviewed the findings of 8 relevant studies, published between 1999 and 2020, out of an initial haul of 33. They pooled the results from 6 of them, involving a total of 188,751 adults, all of whom had other coexisting conditions.

Reference: Fibromyalgia and mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis, RMD Open, DOI 10.1136/reopen-2023-003005

Simple oxygen therapy may enhance recovery for patients with brain injuries 

Scientists studying the impact of oxygen supplementation on motor learning have found a promising treatment that could help patients who have experienced neurological trauma recover old skills.

The researchers recruited 40 participants, 20 of whom received 100% oxygen at normobaric pressure and 20 of whom received medical air (21% oxygen) through a nasal cannula during the ‘adaptation’ or learning phase of a task. They selected a simple visuomotor task that involved drawing lines between different targets on a digital tablet with a stylus: the task was designed to test how quickly the participants were able to integrate information from the eye and hand, a crucial part of motor learning. After the task had been learned, the alignment of the cursor and the stylus was altered to see how effectively the participants adapted to the inconsistency and then realigned for a final session to see how they adapted to the realignment.

Reference: Boost your brain: A simple 100% normobaric oxygen treatment improves human motor learning processes, Frontiers in Neuroscience, DOI 10.3389/fnins.2023.1175649 

Rare and missed cause of hereditary cancer 

New research from Cedars-Sinai Cancer investigators could warrant reconsideration of current screening guidelines to include a poorly recognized cause of Lynch syndrome, the most common cause of hereditary colorectal and endometrial cancers. Their study concluded that the guidelines leave a significant number of patients undiagnosed.

In most cases of Lynch syndrome, mismatch repair deficiency is caused by an inherited mutation in a DNA mismatch repair gene. But mismatch repair deficiency can also be caused by something called methylation. This is a change to a gene called MLH1.

MLH1 methylation is present in as many as 75% of tumors with mismatch repair deficiency, Hitchins said. It is usually present only in the tumor, meaning the defect is not inherited and the patient does not have Lynch syndrome.

Reference: Constitutional MLH1 Methylation Is a Major Contributor to Mismatch Repair–Deficient, MLH1-Methylated Colorectal Cancer in Patients Aged 55 Years and Younger, Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, DOI 10.6004/jnccn.2023.7020