Medical Bulletin 14/ June/2023

Here are the top medical news for the day:

New diagnostic approach for identifying diabetic kidney disease emerges with the utilization of 23Na MRI technique.

The gold standard test for predicting the onset of diabetic kidney disease is albuminuria. However, detecting albuminuria alone has limited sensitivity and specificity in end-stage renal failure with a decreased estimated glomerular filtration rate. This is supported by several reports, which state that about half of the type 2 diabetes patients who developed kidney dysfunction showed no preceding albuminuria.

In this study, the authors propose the possibility of diagnosing tubular abnormalities in diabetic kidney disease at an early stage and connecting them to treatment by combining the evaluation of sodium concentration using 23Na MRI with the measurement of urinary albumin, commonly used in diabetic testing

Reference::“Sodium magnetic resonance imaging shows impairment of the countercurrent multiplication system in diabetic mice kidney” was published on March 23, 2023, in the scientific journal “Kidney360” of the American Society of Nephrology, and the DOI is 10.34067/KID.0000000000000072.

New research shows that high levels of Lipoprotein(a), raise the risk of recurring coronary heart disease.

Increased levels of Lipoprotein(a), a variant of ‘bad cholesterol’, in the bloodstream are a risk factor for recurrent coronary heart disease (CHD) in people aged 60 or over, according to the results of a new study that tracked the issue over the course of 16 years. The results, suggest that current cholesterol-lowering medications may not be effective at reducing the risk of recurrent CHD – such as a heart attack – due to elevated Lp(a).

While previous research has indicated that high levels of Lp(a) are also an important risk factor in the development of CHD, most of these studies have looked at Lp(a) levels and the risk of a first CHD event. The current study looked at whether elevated Lp(a) is predictive of a second or recurrent CHD event. It involved 607 Australians aged 60 years and over, all with prevalent CHD, who were followed for 16 years as part of the Dubbo study. There were 399 incident CHD cases

Refrence:Lipoprotein(A) and the risk of recurrent coronary heart disease: the Dubbo Study,Current Medical Research and Opinion, DOI 10.1080/03007995.2023.2214434

Unveiling the Improvement of Symptoms in Women with Multiple Sclerosis During Pregnancy 

Women suffering from the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis temporarily get much better when pregnant. Researchers have now identified the beneficial changes naturally occurring in the immune system during pregnancy. The findings, published in Journal of Neuroinflammation, can show the way to new treatments.

Pregnancy is a very special condition from an immunological point of view. The immune system serves to defend us against foreign substances. However, although half of the genetic material of the foetus comes from the father, it is not rejected by the mother’s immune system. One reason why this balancing act is almost always successful is that during pregnancy the mother’s immune system is adapted to become more tolerant.

Refrence:Prominent epigenetic and transcriptomic changes in CD4+ and CD8+ T cells during and after pregnancy in women with multiple sclerosis and controls, Alberto Zenere, Sandra Hellberg, Georgia Papapavlou Lingehed, Maria Svenvik, Johan Mellergård, Charlotte Dahle, Magnus Vrethem, Johanna Raffetseder, Mohsen Khademi, Tomas Olsson, Marie Blomberg, Maria C. Jenmalm, Claudio Altafini, Mika Gustafsson and Jan Ernerudh, (2023), Journal of Neuroinflammation, published online on 27 April 2023, doi: 10.1186/s12974-023-02781-2