Morning MEDtalks with Dr KK Aggarwal 12th November 2018

On Thursday, the ILO agreed not to renew a contract with JapanTobacco International next month, a decision that ended, for now, the influence of the tobacco industry in the last UN institution to which it had links.

Public AEDs cost-effective for saving lives and improving cardiac arrest outcomes: Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) accessible in public places are cost-effective health tools for saving lives and improving cardiac arrest survival, according to two separate research studies from the US and Japan to be presented in Chicago at the American Heart Association’s Resuscitation Science Symposium 2018.

New AHA/ACC cholesterol treatment guideline recommends PCSK9 inhibitors, whose randomized trial underpinnings were established after 2013, primarily for patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH), and for patients at very high ASCVD risk with elevated LDL-C despite maximal statins and ezetimibe. In that latter group, initiation of nonstatin lipid-lowering therapy should be considered for anyone with an LDL-C that hasnt fallen below 70 mg/dL.

The US FDA will issue a ban on the sale of fruit and candy flavored electronic cigarettes in convenience stores and gas stations, an agency official said, in a move to counter a surge in teenage use of e-cigarettes. The ban means only tobacco, mint and menthol flavors can be sold at these outlets, the agency official said, potentially dealing a major blow to Juul Labs Inc, the San Francisco-based market leader in vape devices.

Superbugs to “kill millions” by 2050 unless countries act, warn experts. Paris: Millions of people in Europe, North America and Australia will die from superbug infections unless countries prioritise fighting the growing threat posed by bacteria immune to most known drugs, experts predicted Wednesday.The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) warned of "disastrous consequences" for public healthcare and spending unless basic hospital hygiene is boosted and unnecessary antibiotic use slashed.In a landmark report titled “Stemming the Superbug Tide Just A Few Dollars More”, the OECD said 2.4 million people could die from superbugs by 2050 and said the cost of treating such infections would balloon to an average of $3.5 billion (three billion Euros) a year in each country included in its analysis... (NDTV)

FDA authorizes emergency use of first Ebola fingerstick test with portable battery-operatedreader: DPP Ebola Antigen System, a rapid single-use test for the detection of Ebola virus (Zaire ebolavirus) has been granted emergency use authorization. The test is used with blood specimens, including capillary “fingerstick” whole blood, from individuals with signs and symptoms of Ebola virus disease in addition to other risk factors, such as living in an area with large numbers of Ebola virus disease cases and/or having contact with other individuals exhibiting signs and symptoms of Ebola virus disease.

Patients perceived physicians using electronic medical record (EMRs) during office visits to have poorer communication skills, and be less professional and compassionate, while they preferred and perceived the face to face clinic visit as more compassionate and professional and as having better communication skill, reported Eduardo Bruera, MD, and colleagues from MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas (JAMA Oncology, June 2018).

Back when AIDS was dominating the news, 33 states in the US passed laws making it illegal for HIV-infected people to have sex without their partners knowledge of the individuals HIV status. Efforts to repeal or reform these laws have been gaining momentum in recent years, now that HIV infection is no longer considered a fatal disease. But in a surprising twist, some states are now broadening the scope of criminalization laws to include viral hepatitis and other infections, leaving some physicians dismayed and advocates deeply divided on the best path toward reform. One of those states is Iowa, which in 2014 became one of the first states to repeal and replace its HIV criminalization law. However, the revised law now includes viral hepatitis, tuberculosis, and meningitis. Earlier this year, South Dakota lawmakers considered a bill that would have created a hepatitis C-specific statute in addition to the states existing HIV criminal law, though this bill failed... (Medpage Today)

Anew treatment option for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma. The FDA has expanded the indications for pembrolizumab (Keytruda) to include advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in patients previously treated with sorafenib (Nexavar).

People with the highest levels of chronic noise exposure – such as highway and airport noise – had an increased risk of suffering cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes, regardless of other risk factors known to increase cardiovascular risk in a study to be presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2018 in Chicago. High levels of environmental noise — such as highway and airport noise may fuel cardiac risk by stimulating activity of the amygdala, a brain region involved in stress response which in turn triggers inflammation of the arteries.

Video to watch:TEDx Video:Doctor-patient relationshipwww.youtube(dot)com/ watch?v=i9ml1vKK2DQ

Dr KK Aggarwal

Padma Shri Awardee

President Elect CMAAO

President Heart Care Foundation of India