Research

Middle-aged women were most common cat bite victims Rochester, Minn. — Feb. 5, 2014 — Dogs  aren’t the only pets who sometimes bite the hands that feed them. Cats do too, and when they strike a hand, can inject bacteria deep into joints and tissue, perfect breeding grounds for infection. Cat bites to the hand are so dangerous, 1 in 3 patients with such wounds had to be hospitalized, a Mayo Clinic study covering three years showed. Two-third of those hospitalized needed surgery. Middle-aged women were the most common bite victims, according to the research, published in the Journal of Hand Surgery. Journalists:  sound bites with Dr. Carlsen are available in the downloads. Why are cat bites to the hand so dangerous? It’s not that their mouths have more germs than dogs’ mouths — or people’s, for that matter. Actually, it’s all in the fangs.

ROCHESTER, Minn — Feb. 4, 2014 — A new Mayo Clinic study found that among middle-aged men and women, 40 to 60 years old, the overall incidence of skin cancer increased nearly eightfold between 1970 and 2009, according to a study published in the January issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RHRoO-YJqs Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Brewer are available in the downloads. “The most striking finding was among women in that age group,” says dermatologist Jerry Brewer, M.D., principal investigator of the study. “Women between 40 and 50 showed the highest rates of increase we’ve seen in any group so far.” There has been widespread concern in recent years about the rising incidence of melanoma, which affects 75,000 Americans annually and results in nearly 9,000 deaths. Few studies, however, have investigated which age brackets of adults are most at risk. Dr. Brewer’s team conducted a population-based study using records from the Rochester Epidemiology Project, a collaboration between healthcare providers in southeastern Minnesota that allows researchers to study health and illnesses in the community. They found that among white, non-Hispanic adults in the 40 to 60 age group the incidence of skin cancer increased 4.5-fold among men and 24-fold among women.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Feb. 4, 2014 — Clinicians and patients should use shared decision-making to select individualized treatments based on the new guidelines to prevent cardiovascular disease, according to a commentary by three Mayo Clinic physicians published in this week’s Journal of the American Medical Association. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrtbNWvRnO4 Journalists:  Sound bites with Dr. Montori are available in the downloads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwVjAKAjo7w ROCHESTER, Minn. ― Jan. 27, 2014 ― Mayo Clinic has opened the Mayo Clinic Department of Defense (DOD) Medical Research Office. The office, in Rochester, MN., is designed to be an easy to use single point of contact, linking the research needs of the DOD with Mayo Clinic investigators capable of addressing those needs, and to improve access to funding to serve DOD research and development priorities. The office oversees Mayo Clinic's portfolio of DOD-funded research, which has evolved over Mayo’s long and successful partnership with the U.S. government. Today, dozens of Mayo Clinic researchers receive funding for special projects that use new technologies and innovative solutions to support military readiness, functional restoration and rehabilitation after complex injuries, restore health and improve wellness of military populations. “This is a continuation of Mayo Clinic’s 150-year legacy with the DOD,” says Peter Amadio, M.D., director of the office, and an orthopedic surgeon at Mayo Clinic. “The office and website are designed to strengthen this long-standing relationship and to not only match DOD research needs with the expertise of Mayo Clinic, but also accelerate the entire process from proposal development to funding to delivery of a completed project.

U.S. FDA Approves Phase III Cardiopoietic Stem Cell Trial for Heart Failure Patients Based on a Mayo Discovery Cardio3 BioSciences, an international Mayo Clinic collaborator, has received FDA approval for a phase III pivotal clinical trial of its stem cell therapy. The trial will test the Mayo Clinic discovery of cardiopoietic (cardiogenically-instructed) stem cells designed to improve heart health in people suffering from heart failure. The multisite U.S. trial, called CHART-2, will aim to recruit 240 patients with chronic advanced symptomatic heart failure. Cardio3 BioSciences is a bioscience company in Mont-Saint-Guibert, Belgium. "Regenerative medicine is poised to transform the way we treat patients," says Andre Terzic, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Mayo Clinic Center for Regenerative Medicine. Watch the video below to see how stem cells are being used to treat people with heart failure. Journalists: Video b-roll of today's news conference, plus sound bites with Dr. Terzic and Christian Homsy, M.D., CEO of Cardio3 BioSciences, are available in the downloads. The video pkg. is also available in the downloads in MOV format. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vumB_FW_fTA

Research Features from Mayo Clinic Rochester, Minn. — January  8, 2014 — Here are highlights from the latest online issue of Discovery's Edge, Mayo Clinic's research magazine. You may cite and link to this publication as often as you wish. Republication is allowed with proper attribution. Please include the following subscription information as your editorial policies permit: Visit Discovery's Edge for subscription information.  Reducing the Panic of Fecal Incontinence Fecal incontinence is an embarrassing and common problem, especially for women. A Mayo Clinic researcher's institution-wide collaboration into its causes has led to new ways to better identify this seldom-discussed problem. Genomics: The Dawn of a New Medical Era Using a person's genes to prescribe the right medications once seemed like science fiction. Building on decades of research, Mayo Clinic researchers are now exploring how deeper genetic knowledge can be used for early detection of and better treatment for such pressing medical problems as heart disease, Alzheimers disease and cancer.

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Jan. 7, 2014 — Broken bones may seem like a normal part of an active childhood. About 1 in 3 otherwise healthy children suffers a bone fracture. Breakage of the bone running from the elbow to the thumb side of the wrist (distal forearm fracture) is the most common. It occurs most often during the growth spurt that children typically undergo in early adolescence. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrbYhTKrOvQ But a recent study at Mayo Clinic, published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, indicates that certain types of fractures may have implications for a child's long-term bone health. The study found evidence that children and adolescents whose forearm fractures occurred due to mild trauma had lower bone strength compared to other children. Lower bone strength may predispose children to factures resulting from weakened bone (osteoporotic fracture) later in life.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Thomas G. Brott, M.D., a neurologist and director for research at Mayo Clinic in Florida, has been named the recipient of the American Heart Association's 2013 Clinical Research Prize. The award recognizes and rewards an individual who is making outstanding contributions to the advancement of cardiovascular science and who currently heads an outstanding cardiovascular clinical research laboratory, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). Dr. Brott will be honored on stage during the opening ceremony of the American Heart Association's 2013 annual meeting in Dallas. He is the first Mayo Clinic investigator to receive the prestigious prize, which has been awarded annually by the American Heart Association since 2005. "This award is well deserved. Dr. Brott is a pioneer in the field of stroke and cerebrovascular disease research, and his mission to find the best therapies possible for patients has certainly saved lives," says William C. Rupp, M.D., chief executive officer at Mayo Clinic in Florida. Dr. Brott was a leading investigator in the studies that identified tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) as an effective acute treatment for ischemic stroke. He and his team treated the very first patients using this therapy. Along with his colleagues, Dr. Brott defined the evolution of spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage during the first hours after onset. In 1998, Dr. Brott came to Mayo Clinic's campus in Florida where he and his colleagues initiated the first NIH-funded genome-wide screen for stroke susceptibility. Dr. Brott has led federally funded national clinical trials that aim to discover best treatment for stroke and uncover risk factors for the disorder. For example, he is principal investigator for the Carotid Revascularization Endarterectomy versus Stenting Trial (CREST), a study that compares two different treatments for their ability to reduce risk for stroke. The study was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. He also played a key role in designing the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), a tool used internationally that measures stroke-related neurologic deficits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxYweB-9Z7Y&feature=youtu.be&hd=1 The list of complications from type 2 diabetes is long: vascular and heart disease, eye problems, nerve damage, kidney disease, hearing problems and Alzheimer’s disease. Physicians have long thought of osteoporosis as another outcome. Based on a Mayo Clinic study published in Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, that’s confirmed: You can definitely add skeletal problems to that list. Mayo Clinic endocrinologist and senior author of the study Sundeep Khosla, M.D., says, “This is the first demonstration — using direct measurement of bone strength in the body — of compromised bone material in patients with type 2 diabetes. Clearly, the skeleton needs to be recognized as another important target of diabetes complications.” Click here for news release. Journalists: B-roll of and sound bites with Dr. Khosla are available in the downloads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsmTRjwTfgo&feature=youtu.be&hd=1 It's an epidemic spreading steadily and painfully, joint by joint. Arthritis now afflicts nearly 1 in 4 American adults, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported Thursday. [CDC news release] It found that 22.7 percent of U.S. adults -  52.5 million people - have arthritis, and that 22.7 million of them say arthritis is limiting their daily activities. In all, the number of adults with arthritis rose 2.5 million during the 2010-12 period studied, compared with the previous analysis, covering 2007-09. Mayo Clinic rheumatologist Shreyasee Amin, M.D., offers these comments on the CDC statistics: “The aging population in general is increasing, and osteoarthritis, which is the most common form for arthritis and which doesn’t get a lot of attention in the media, is probably one of the things that’s contributing to that increase.” “The fact that obesity is certainly an increasing problem in the country and obesity contributes to a higher risk of osteoarthritis in the knees in particular, that might be one of the reasons that we’re seeing this increase.” “It’s sort of a catch-22 or a vicious circle that people run into: If you’re in pain you aren’t physically active, it puts you at risk for other conditions like osteoporosis, it may make you more prone to falling and breaking a bone. If you’re overweight because you’re not active enough anymore, you’re more likely to get diabetes and its complications maybe further aggravate heart disease, and some forms of obesity have been linked to cancer. So I think it really is important for us to recognize arthritis, do what we can and study it better so that we can improve the health of people before they get to that point where they’re into that level of pain and injury.” “I think because arthritis is so linked to other diseases, and physical inactivity that can result from arthritis can contribute to other complications like obesity, leading to diabetes and  further problems with heart disease, I think more attention needs to be drawn to preventing arthritis, understanding the mechanisms that contribute to osteoarthrtis in particular, which is so common, and I hope that helps spur our research dollars to better understand this condition and prevent it.” Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Amin are available in the downloads. To interview Dr. Amin, Dr. Krych or other Mayo Clinic experts on arthritis, please contact Sharon Theimer in Mayo Clinic Public Affairs at newsbureau@mayo.edu or 507-284-5005. There are more than 100 forms of arthritis: Osteoarthritis, also known as wear-and-tear arthritis, is the most common.

Fibroids found to be a public health issue for African-American women who have more symptoms, longer time to diagnosis and greater need for information ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOyKwyVTulc Physical activity is associated with a reduced risk of esophageal cancer, according to a new study presented by Mayo Clinic researchers at the American College of Gastroenterology’s Annual Scientific Meeting, Oct. 11–16, in San Diego. “Although the incidence of esophageal squamous cell cancer is declining worldwide, the incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma has been rapidly rising. This increase may be partly attributable to the obesity epidemic,” says Siddharth Singh, M.B.B.S., the study’s lead author and researcher at Mayo Clinic. Click here to see the news release. Journalists: Sound bites with Dr. Siddarth Singh are available in the downloads.