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Category: health

Age does not appear to drive cardiovascular risk in pregnancy

Underlying cardiovascular risk, rather than older age, drives complications such as venous thromboembolism, cardiomyopathy and heart failure during pregnancy, according to new Weill Cornell Medicine research. The findings may encourage doctors to more actively address cardiovascular health in patients before they become pregnant.

The study, published in Nature Communications, suggests that instead of pregnancy becoming inherently riskier as people get older, it amplifies a person’s baseline cardiovascular risk, regardless of age.

“Pregnancy seems to be a uniform stress test, so to speak,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Hooman Kamel, vice chair of clinical research and chief of neurocritical care in the Department of Neurology and the Helen and Albert Moon Professor of Neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Battery-free skin-conformal wearable system can measure electrocardiogram signals

A research team led by Prof. Jerald Yoo from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University (SNU) has developed a skin-conformal wearable health care system, “SkinECG,” capable of measuring electrocardiogram (ECG) signals without a battery. By combining energy harvesting with human body–coupled power transfer, the study presents a new solution to one of the most critical challenges in wearable devices: power supply.

The findings are published in Science Advances.

Wearable health care systems are emerging as next-generation medical technologies that enable real-time monitoring of physiological signals through body-worn sensors, allowing early detection of disease-related abnormalities.

Designing in situ power stations for future Mars missions

You’re in the lab analyzing Martian regolith samples within your cozy Mars habitat serving on the fifth human mission to Mars. The power within the habitat has been flowing flawlessly thanks to the MARS-MES (Mars Atmospheric Resource & Multimodal Energy System), including the general habitat lighting, science lab, sleeping quarters, exercise equipment, the virtual reality headsets the crew use for rest & relaxation, oxygen and fuel generation, and water. All this from converting the Martian atmosphere into workable electricity.

While this scenario might be decades away, scientists on Earth are working hard to make this concept a reality today. This includes a team of scientists from China who propose using a novel concept for converting the thin Martian atmosphere into heat and electricity. Their findings were recently published in National Science Review and could help revolutionize how electricity is produced on Mars through a process called in situ resource utilization (ISRU) without the need for power or power supplies being shipped from Earth.

For the study, the researchers propose several concepts for producing power and electricity on a future human Mars mission, including Martian air capture, in situ power generation and storage, and life support resources transformation. The team notes all these methods carry their own benefits and challenges while emphasizing the importance of using ISRU for powering future human Mars missions.

Single-molecule RNA mapping may reveal how shape shifts steer health and disease

Researchers from A*STAR Genome Institute of Singapore (A*STAR GIS) have developed a new method to study individual RNA molecules and reveal how their structures influence gene regulation, a fundamental process that affects how cells function in health and disease. Their work was published in Nature Methods.

RNA is best known for carrying genetic instructions from DNA to make proteins. However, RNA does more than act as a messenger. Like a string that can bend, fold and interact with other molecules, RNA can adopt different shapes that affect how it behaves in the cell. These shapes can influence how efficiently proteins are produced, how long RNA molecules last, and how diseases such as viral infections progress.

Until now, studying these structures in detail has been difficult because RNA is highly flexible and dynamic. Most existing methods only provide an average picture across many RNA molecules, making it harder to see how individual RNA molecules may fold differently, even when they come from the same gene.

MYH9 gene may help explain heart artery plaques more often seen in women

Researchers at UCLA Health have identified a key gene that may help explain why women are more likely than men to develop a certain type of artery plaque linked to heart disease.

In a study published in Circulation Research, investigators found that a gene known as MYH9 plays an important role in the formation of fibrous plaques. These buildups in the arteries are generally more stable than those more prone to rupture, but they can still lead to heart attacks and other serious cardiac events through plaque erosion.

Atherosclerosis, the buildup of plaque in the arteries, is the underlying cause of most heart disease. Research has mainly focused on unstable plaques, which can rupture and trigger heart attacks. Fibrous, scar-like plaques tend to have thicker caps and different biological characteristics.

Brain histamine map connects genes to brain function and mental health

New research from King’s College London and the University of Porto has mapped the histamine system in the brain. Histamine, a molecule more commonly associated with allergies, plays a separate but poorly understood role in brain function. This study addresses this gap, building the first multiscale map of the histamine system that spans from genetics to behavior and related mental health conditions.

The findings provide a new framework for understanding how this often-overlooked chemical system contributes to brain function and could point toward new treatment strategies for histamine-related conditions such as depression, ADHD, and schizophrenia. The study is published in Nature Mental Health.

Histamine is a neurotransmitter, a molecule crucial for neurons to communicate with one another. Neuroscience research has classically focused on understanding other neurotransmitter systems such as dopamine and serotonin.

Telemedicine use grew without boosting medical visits or spending, analysis shows

New UCLA-led research finds that the use of telemedicine has not significantly increased visits and medical spending across all payer types. The findings, published in JAMA Network Open, could ease concerns among lawmakers that the telemedicine expansion that occurred during the COVID pandemic would result in large utilization and spending increases.

With the declaration of the COVID pandemic in 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) changed key policies regarding telemedicine flexibility, such as introducing payment parity with in-person visits, waiving geographic restrictions, and eliminating out-of-pocket cost sharing.

Once the pandemic was declared over, however, lawmakers extended these changes to analyze how telemedicine impacted health care use and spending. Those CMS flexibilities are due to expire in 2027, and lawmakers continue to debate whether to permanently extend or modify them.

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