Minnesota - February 2014 Archives

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Feb. 27, 2014 — Here are highlights from the February issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter. You may cite this publication as often as you wish. Reprinting is allowed for a fee. Mayo Clinic Health Letter attribution is required. Include the following subscription information as your editorial policies permit: Visit www.HealthLetter.MayoClinic.com or call toll-free for subscription information, 1-800-333-9037, extension 9771. Full newsletter text: Mayo Clinic Health Letter February 2014 (for journalists only). Full special report text: Mayo Clinic Health Letter Special Report February 2014 (for journalists only).   Better Sleep Without Pills Older adults often report a good night’s sleep is hard to come by. In an eight-page Special Report on sleep, the February issue of Mayo Clinic Health Letter covers changes in sleep that can occur with aging and how to get better sleep without taking pills. Poor sleep isn’t an inevitable part of aging. Yet, older adults are twice as likely to be prescribed a sedative medication for insomnia as are young adults. These medications ― zolpidem (Ambien, others), eszopiclone (Lunesta) or zaleplon (Sonata) ― aren’t meant to be used beyond four to eight weeks. Many older adults use them for months or years even though these medications can cause unwanted side effects including residual sleepiness during the day, dizziness, lightheadedness and mental impairment. Mayo Clinic Health Letter covers several nondrug approaches and strategies that have proved to help relieve insomnia. Strategies include: Exercise: Evidence shows that incorporating regular exercise into the daily routine improves sleep. Exercise increases the amount of energy expended, and the amounts of “feel-good” hormones (endorphins) the body produces. Both are likely to lead to better sleep.

Patients with dental extractions before cardiac surgery still at risk for poor outcomes, study finds   Rochester, Minn. — Feb. 27, 2014 — To pull or ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Feb. 26, 2014 — As Mayo Clinic recognizes its Sesquicentennial year, the not-for-profit organization reached a record 63 million people in 2013. The strong performance was bolstered by successful implementation of new care delivery models — such as the Mayo Clinic Care Network — that provide knowledge to patients, physicians and consumers in traditional and new ways. “Expanding our reach is not a new goal for us,” says John Noseworthy, M.D., Mayo Clinic president and CEO. “In fact, as we consider our history, growth has been a constant for 150 years.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTaWpTnZopg

MEDIA ADVISORY WHAT:An opportunity to ask questions about Mayo Clinic’s 2013 performance. WHO: John Noseworthy, M.D. President and CEO, Mayo Clinic Jeff Bolton Vice President, Administration and CAO, Mayo Clinic WHEN: Noon CST/1 p.m. EST Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2014 WHERE: Audio news conference

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Feb. 24, 2014 — Mayo Clinic researchers have fashioned a new key to unlocking the secrets of the human genome. The Binary Indexing Mapping Algorithm, version 3 (BIMA V3) is a freely available computer algorithm that identifies alterations in tumor genomes up to 20 times faster and with 25 percent greater accuracy than other popular genomic alignment programs. BIMA results are published this month in the journal Bioinformatics. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uFyCYtoFck Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Vasmatzis are available in the downloads. BIMA is a next-generation sequencing mapping and alignment algorithm, customized to process mate pair library sequencing. Mate pair sequencing is a comprehensive and cost-effective method for detecting changes throughout the entire genome. “BIMA allows us to evaluate tumor genomes in a fraction of the time it takes many popular technologies,” says George Vasmatzis, Ph.D., a Mayo Clinic molecular biologist, director of the Biomarker Discovery Program in the Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, and senior author of the paper. “We believe this tool will lead to a better understanding of tumor genomics, and ultimately better therapy for patients with cancer.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT_rwTM6TVQ ROCHESTER, Minn. — Feb. 24, 2014 — Blacks may be twice as likely as whites to develop multiple myeloma because they are more likely to have a precursor condition known as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), a Mayo Clinic study has found. Not only is MGUS more common in blacks, but the type seen in the black population is also more apt to have features associated with a higher risk of progression to full-blown multiple myeloma, a cancer of a type of white blood cell in bone marrow.

PHOENIX — Feb. 21, 2014 — The Mayo Clinic Board of Trustees welcomed Samuel A. Di Piazza, Jr. as the new board chair and George Halvorson as a new member, recognized five retiring public members and three internal members who completed their tenure, and elected four new internal trustees. Di Piazza replaces Marilyn Carlson Nelson, who is retiring from the board. Di Piazza recently announced that he was leaving Citi as vice chairman and a member of the Senior Client Executive Group to serve as Mayo Clinic’s Board of Trustees chair. Di Piazza joined the Mayo board in 2010. He joined Citi in May 2011 after a long career at PricewaterhouseCoopers as a partner and, ultimately, CEO from 2002 through 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jwdHjAnJCM ROCHESTER, Minn. — Feb. 18, 2014 — Newly-diagnosed patients with diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who do not experience any cancer-related outcome events for two years after diagnosis have essentially the same life expectancy as they did prior to diagnosis, a Mayo Clinic study has found. Cancer related outcome events include disease progression or relapse, need for re-treatment or death. Journalists: Sound bites with lead author Matthew Maurer are available in the downloads.  Results of the study appear in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. The findings indicate that the 24-month mark is a significant milestone that can be used both as an effective way to counsel patients on their long-term prognosis and as an earlier endpoint for future studies of newly diagnosed DLBCL.

Study targets EGFR and FGFR cellular pathways to treat rare disease SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Feb. 13, 2014 — Physicians at Mayo Clinic’s Center for Individualized Medicine and ...

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have shed light on a new mechanism by which prostate cancer develops in men. Central to development of nearly all prostate cancer cases are malfunctions in the androgen receptor — the cellular component that binds to male hormones. The research team has shown that SPOP, a protein that is most frequently mutated in human prostate cancers, is a key regulator of androgen receptor activity that prevents uncontrolled growth of cells in the prostate and thus helps prevent cancer. The findings appear in the journal Cell Reports. “By uncovering this new and important pathway of androgen receptor destruction, we may one day be able to develop more effective treatments for a substantial proportion of prostate cancer patients who have developed resistance to standard antiandrogen therapy,” says Haojie Huang, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic biochemist and senior author of the paper. SPOP mutations have been detected in approximately 15 percent of prostate cancer cases. In addition, it has been shown that in about 35 percent of prostate cancers, the SPOP protein is expressed at abnormally low levels. Despite its prevalence in prostate cancer, it was not known whether or how SPOP defects contributed to tumor development. What the research team discovered is that SPOP is an enzyme that selectively destroys androgen receptor protein. Failure to do so due to alterations in SPOP results in overabundance of androgen receptor, a master regulator of prostate cancer cell growth.   The Mayo Clinic research team made four major discoveries: The antiandrogen receptor is a bona fide degradation substrate of SPOP. Androgen receptor splicing variants are resistant to SPOP-mediated degradation. Prostate cancer-associated SPOP mutants cannot bind to and promote androgen receptor degradation. Androgens antagonize, but antiandrogens promote SPOP-mediated degradation of androgen receptor.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Feb. 7, 2014 — Most people are at least familiar with the name "Moonlight" Graham as a character in the book Shoeless Joe and the film “Field of Dreams," but fewer people know that "Moonlight” Graham was an actual person, not a fictional character. And long-time residents of the Chisholm, Minn., area who remember Dr. Archibald Graham as their beloved hometown doctor will have an opportunity to provide photos, film and other information as part of an upcoming documentary film on this remarkable man. Mayo Clinic is producing a film about Dr. Graham and his professional association with Mayo Clinic. As a right fielder for the New York Giants, "Moonlight" Graham had one of the shortest careers in major league history. As a beloved physician in Chisholm, "Doc" Graham had a long career of exceptional dedication and service. An intriguing character in “Field of Dreams,” he is an exemplar of professionalism and ethics in support of Mayo Clinic values. He was inspired by and contributed to the work of Mayo Clinic as a solo practitioner far from Rochester. His little-known story shows that professionalism, ethics and values resonate with community practices as well as large referral centers. Dr. Graham's career spanned World War I, the influenza epidemic, the Great Depression, World War II and the Space Age. Over the course of his career, "Doc" Graham visited Mayo Clinic more than 90 times to attend continuing education courses, observe surgery and confer with colleagues. His 15-year study of blood pressure in children was co-authored by Mayo researchers and the published work set the standard in the medical profession. Dr. Graham completed his medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1905. While there, he also played on the school's 1904 and 1905 baseball teams. He obtained his medical license the following year and began practicing medicine in Chisholm, Minn. and served the people of Chisholm for 50 years. Dr. Graham died Aug. 25, 1965. He was 85 years old. He is buried in Rochester, Minn.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Feb. 6, 2014 — More people who have known coronary heart disease die from other causes — such as cancer, and lung and neurological diseases — than heart disease, compared with 20 years ago, according to a Mayo Clinic study published online Feb. 10 in Circulation, an American Heart Association journal. Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Gulati and b-roll of a cath lab are available in the downloads. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2-4t_sAN9A The researchers evaluated the trends in cause-specific, long-term mortality from 1991 to 2008 in patients at Mayo Clinic in Rochester who underwent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), a procedure used to open clogged heart arteries. They broke the study population into three eras: 1991 to 1996, 1997 to 2002, and 2003 to 2008. Cardiac deaths predominated in the first era and were about equal with non-cardiac deaths in the middle era. In the final era — the modern-era (2003 to 2008) — non-cardiac deaths dominated.