Mixed Bag

Obstructive Sleep Apnea Linked to Pneumonia Risk
Using insurance databases, researchers in Taiwan matched nearly 7000 adults with newly diagnosed sleep apnea to 27,000 controls without apnea. Over 4.5 years of follow-up, patients with sleep apnea had a 19% increased risk for a pneumonia diagnosis, compared with controls. Patients who required use of continuous positive airway pressure had a higher pneumonia risk than apnea patients who didn't use CPAP. Journal Watch

Quality of life improves with minimally invasive surgery for low back pain
Beaumont research findings published in the February online issue of Spine shows that patients who have a low back surgery called minimally invasive transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion, end up better off in many ways than patients who have more invasive surgery to alleviate debilitating pain. Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine

Study points to new biological mechanisms, treatment paradigm for kidney disease
New research led by Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai investigators has uncovered abnormal molecular signaling pathways from disease initiation to irreversible kidney damage, kidney failure, and death. Results from their preclinical and human research are published online March 3 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Initially, key cells of the glomerular filtration barrier, also called podocytes, cause alterations in endothelin-1, a vasoconstrictor, activating the endothelin receptor A. The activated endothelin receptor A triggered disturbances manifested as endothelial mitochondrial oxidative stress.

Antioxidants that target the mitochondria and endothelin antagonists would alter the paradigm for preventing cell depletion and scarring of the filtration part of the kidney. "There is a pressing unmet medical need to prevent or reverse chronic kidney disease," Dr. Bottinger stressed. "The renin angiotensin inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers that are now widely used have not been proven effective in preventing end stage kidney failure. We need more effective drugs to treat the millions of Americans suffering from chronic kidney disease with the goal to eliminate its progression to end- stage kidney failure and with it the need for chronic dialysis and kidney transplantation." MedicalXpress

Immunotherapy Best for Chronic Rhinitis
Treatment for those conditions was three-fold more likely to decline in the 18 months after immunotherapy than in matched patients treated for rhinitis pharmacologically or otherwise (down 6% versus 2%, P<0.0001), Cheryl Hankin, PhD, of the health research company BioMedEcon in Moss Beach, Calif., and colleagues found. MedPage Today

New markers for acute kidney injury reported
Saeed A. Jortani, Ph.D., associate clinical professor in the University of Louisville's Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, headed up one of three labs in the United States involved in determining two new markers for acute kidney injury (AKI). The research group's paper, "Validation of Cell-Cycle Arrest Biomarkers for Acute Kidney Injury Using Clinical Adjudication," was posted online Feb. 25 by the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Eurekalert!

Mistakes may be common in prescribing antibiotics in US
The report was based on data from 183 US hospitals in 2011. More than half (55.7 percent) of the 11,282 hospital patients studied received an antibiotic to treat an active infection, said the CDC.

When experts reviewed two common scenarios, including patients being treated for urinary tract infections and patients being treated with vancomycin, they found that "antibiotic use could potentially have been improved" in 37 percent of cases. The most common potential errors were prescribing antibiotics without proper testing and prescribing them for too long, the CDC said. MedicalXpress