Medical Bulletin 28/September/2026 - Video

Here are the top medical news for today:

Study Finds Nutritional Deficiencies in Nearly 1 in 6 Children on GLP-1 Drugs

Nearly one in six children taking GLP-1 medications developed a nutritional deficiency within one year, with vitamin D deficiency being the most common, according to a study published in Childhood Obesity.

Researchers analysed national administrative claims data collected between 2017 and 2022 to examine nutritional outcomes among children receiving GLP-1 treatment. From a database covering more than 100 million patients, they identified 2,031 children aged 10 to 17 who had received GLP-1 medications, had continuous health coverage and had no previous diagnosis of nutritional deficiency.

Within one year of starting treatment, 16.8% of the children were diagnosed with a nutritional deficiency. Vitamin D deficiency was the most frequently identified problem, affecting 12.4% of children.

Researchers said the findings are important because adolescence is a period of rapid growth and development, when the body needs sufficient nutrients to support bone health and other biological changes. Vitamin D, iron and calcium are particularly important during these years.

GLP-1 medications can reduce appetite and food intake, which may make it harder for some children to obtain enough essential nutrients. The researchers therefore highlighted the importance of nutritional monitoring when these medicines are prescribed to young patients.

However, nutritional counselling was uncommon among the children studied. Only 5% received nutritional counselling within 30 days of starting GLP-1 treatment, while fewer than 25% received such counselling within six months.

The study suggests that nutritional support may need to begin when GLP-1 treatment starts rather than after a deficiency develops. Researchers said proactive monitoring could help identify nutritional problems earlier and potentially prevent deficiencies.

Further research is needed to understand how GLP-1 treatment affects nutrition during childhood and adolescence and how best to monitor and prevent deficiencies.

REFERENCE: Kirk W. Kerr, et al.; Nutritional Deficiencies, Complications, and Nutrition Therapy/Counseling in Pediatric Patients Using GLP-1 Receptor Agonists. Childhood Obesity, 2026; DOI: 10.1177/21532176261486979

Rare Pregnancy Infections Linked to Threefold Higher Autism Risk in Children: Study

Children born with rare infections acquired before birth were about three times more likely to be diagnosed with autism and more than seven times more likely to have intellectual disability, according to a large Swedish study published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Researchers from Karolinska Institutet studied TORCH infections, a group of infections that can sometimes pass from a pregnant woman to the developing fetus. These include cytomegalovirus, rubella, toxoplasma and herpesvirus.

The study analysed health and education records of 3.7 million people born in Sweden between 1987 and 2021. Among them, 975 had been diagnosed with a congenital TORCH infection. Participants were followed for up to 30 years.

Children with a congenital TORCH infection had about three times the risk of later autism compared with those without an infection. Their risk of intellectual disability was more than seven times higher. For severe to profound intellectual disability, the increase was as high as 30-fold.

Despite these large relative increases, congenital TORCH infections were rare and accounted for only a small proportion of cases across the population. Researchers estimated that they were associated with about 1.2% of severe intellectual disability cases in Sweden and around 0.034% of autism cases.

The researchers also compared affected children with their siblings who did not have a congenital TORCH infection. The association remained similar, suggesting that shared family factors alone were unlikely to explain the findings.

No clear association was found between congenital TORCH infections and conditions such as ADHD or obsessive-compulsive disorder. However, children with these infections had lower average school grades, even when they did not have autism or intellectual disability.

The findings suggest that certain infections acquired before birth may affect brain development over the long term. Researchers highlighted prevention as an important public health measure, noting that some congenital infections, including rubella, can be prevented through vaccination.

REFERENCE: Hugo Sjöqvist, Christina Dalman, David Mataix-Cols, Reneé M. Gardner, Håkan Karlsson. Congenital TORCH Infections and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes. JAMA Pediatrics, 2026; DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2026.4229

Scientists Develop Artificial Intelligence That Predicts Pancreatic Cancer Risk Three Years Before Diagnosis

An artificial intelligence model developed by Mayo Clinic could help identify people at higher risk of pancreatic cancer up to three years before diagnosis, according to research to be presented at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2026.

Pancreatic cancer is relatively uncommon but highly deadly. Although it accounts for around 3% of new cancer cases, it causes about 8% of cancer deaths.

Because pancreatic cancer often develops over several years but produces few noticeable signs early on, universal screening is not currently practical. Researchers therefore developed an AI model to identify subtle signs of increased risk before diagnosis.

The model analysed patients’ long-term electronic health records along with results from routine laboratory tests. The study included 6,066 people who developed pancreatic cancer and 33,396 people without the disease. Their medical histories covered between 7.5 and 19 years.

When tested for its ability to predict pancreatic cancer three years before diagnosis, the model achieved an AUROC of 0.853, where 0.5 represents chance and 1.0 represents perfect discrimination. Its precision-recall score was 0.712, indicating an ability to identify people at higher risk while limiting false-positive results.

The model also showed good calibration, meaning its predicted risks were reasonably close to the outcomes observed. Among people given a predicted pancreatic cancer risk of more than 50%, 88% were diagnosed with the disease within one year.

Researchers are now testing the model prospectively to determine whether it works reliably in real-world clinical settings. They also plan to validate it outside the Mayo Clinic system and are developing newer machine-learning approaches.

However, the model is still a research tool and has not been established as a routine screening test. Further prospective and external validation will be needed to determine whether it can accurately identify high-risk patients and ultimately improve early pancreatic cancer detection and outcomes.

REFERENCE: Varghese C, et al. Enabling Digital Screening for Pancreatic Cancer using Artificial Intelligence Analysis of Disease Trajectories. Scientific Forum, American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress 2026.

Maternal Hepatitis B Associated With Higher Preterm Birth Risk in IVF Pregnancies: Study

Maternal hepatitis B infection did not appear to reduce pregnancy or live-birth rates after IVF or ICSI, but women with hepatitis B had a higher rate of preterm birth, according to a new study.

Researchers retrospectively analysed 3,455 first-time fresh IVF or ICSI embryo-transfer cycles at a reproductive medicine centre in China between 2018 and 2020. The study included 811 cycles involving women with hepatitis B and 2,644 cycles in which neither partner had hepatitis B surface antigen.

After matching the groups to account for differences in their baseline characteristics, researchers compared 810 closely matched pairs. They assessed outcomes at different stages, including egg maturation, fertilisation, embryo development, implantation, pregnancy, delivery and newborn health.

The analysis found no significant differences in egg maturation, normal fertilisation, development of high-quality embryos or formation of blastocysts between the two groups.

Pregnancy rates were also similar. Clinical pregnancy occurred in 44.44% of women with hepatitis B compared with 45.43% of women without the infection. Live-birth rates were 32.59% and 32.96%, respectively.

There were also no significant differences in implantation, miscarriage, stillbirth or ectopic pregnancy. Pregnancy-related complications, including gestational hypertension, gestational diabetes and premature rupture of membranes, were also similar between groups.

However, preterm birth was more common among women with hepatitis B. After matching, 15.73% of births in the hepatitis B group were preterm, compared with 7.78% in the control group.

Researchers said the reason for this association is unclear. Chronic inflammation, changes in the immune system and effects on the placenta may play a role. However, the study did not have detailed information about viral load, antiviral treatment or liver function.

The study was retrospective and conducted at a single centre, so it cannot prove that hepatitis B causes preterm birth.

The findings suggest that maternal hepatitis B may not substantially affect IVF or ICSI success, but the higher preterm-birth rate may warrant closer monitoring during pregnancy.

REFERENCE: Jiang W et al. The impact of maternal hepatitis B virus infection on IVF/ICSI-assisted pregnancy outcomes: a propensity score-matched cohort study. Front Med. 2026;13:1925066.

Scientists Identify Five Different Brain Activity Patterns Linked to Depression

Depression may involve five distinct patterns of brain activity, despite people receiving the same diagnosis, according to a study from the University of Helsinki.

Researchers analysed brain activity in 263 people with major depressive disorder and 75 healthy participants. Using magnetoencephalography (MEG), they examined functional connectivity, which describes how strongly different brain regions work together and communicate.

The analysis identified five groups of people with depression based on differences in the strength and frequency of connections between brain regions. All five groups differed from healthy participants, but the patterns were not the same.

One group had fairly strong connectivity and showed more severe depression, anxiety, repetitive negative thinking and reduced ability to function. Another group had generally weak connectivity but milder symptoms.

A third group showed weak connectivity across large areas of the brain and had more prominent symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. A fourth group had a mixture of weak and strong connections and was characterised by depression severity, substance abuse and poor wellbeing.

The fifth group had the strongest connectivity among the depression groups. Substance abuse was more prominent in this group, while traumatic symptoms were less pronounced.

Researchers said these differences may help explain why earlier studies of depression have produced conflicting findings. People with the same diagnosis may have very different changes in brain activity.

MEG allowed researchers to measure brain activity with millisecond-level precision, providing a detailed view of how brain regions communicate over time.

The findings suggest that depression may not be biologically identical in everyone. However, brain measurements cannot currently be used to select the best treatment for an individual patient.

Researchers said future studies could explore whether combining brain activity patterns with symptoms may help doctors identify suitable treatments more quickly and reduce reliance on trial and error.

REFERENCE: Liu, W., et al. (2026) Magnetoencephalography oscillation-based functional connectivity identifies clinically relevant depression phenotypes. Nature Mental Health. DOI: 10.1038/s44220-026-00723-4. https://www.nature.com/articles/s44220-026-00723-4