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Treatment with the investigational anti-IgE biologic ligelizumab was generally effective in patients with H1 antihistamine-unresponsive chronic spontaneous urticaria (CSU) who did not achieve complete symptom control with omalizumab (Xolair), an exploratory analysis of a phase IIb extension study showed. In a subset of omalizumab-treated patients with a score greater than 0 on the 7-day urticaria

It’s been more than 12 years since a reporter from Allure magazine sounded alarms about the Brazilian Blowout hair treatment, a salon product that offered frizz-free hair straightening that would last for two to three months. The technique worked really well if you wanted shiny, pin-straight hair—but it also had terrible fumes that many stylists

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Several dozen Secret Service officers have tested positive for the coronavirus or are in self-isolation after coming into close contact with someone who has tested positive. Several news outlets have reported different numbers — with potentially more than 130 officers infected

For a cyber criminal, healthcare records are one-stop shopping. Sell a Social Security number? Of course. Credit card numbers: They’re good on the black market, too. And for those criminals who love scams, there are phone numbers, email addresses, birthdays.  And of course there is always blackmail, which is what happened to psychotherapy patients in Finland whose

The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA’s) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has recommended approval of the fixed-dose combination of latanoprost and netarsudil (Roclanda). The ophthalmic solution is indicated to decrease elevated intraocular pressure (IOP) in adults with primary open-angle glaucoma or ocular hypertension for whom monotherapy with a prostaglandin or netarsudil fails, according

Welcome to Telehealth Roundup, highlighting news and features about emerging trends in telemedicine and telehealth. What Doctors Need From Telemedicine Well before the telehealth explosion, doctors were experiencing what “neuroscientist Adam Gazzaley called a ‘cognition crisis,’ with excess screen time and corresponding information overload leading to digital fatigue and stress,” said radiologist Ashwini Zenooz, MD,

It isn’t just what food makers say, it’s also how, and where, they say it. A new study has found that when manufacturers adopted a “Facts Up Front” style label, the food’s healthiness improved.  With a “Facts Up Front” label, the food manufacturer advertises the number of calories and the amounts of saturated fat, sugar, and salt per

Omega-3 fatty acids on top of standard care did not reduce major cardiovascular events or death in elderly survivors of an acute myocardial infarction (MI) in the randomized OMEMI trial. In addition to the lack of benefit observed at 2 years, there was a nonsignificant increase in new-onset atrial fibrillation in those taking 1.8 g

With Thanksgiving arriving in two weeks, families are making holiday plans. While some will share Thanksgiving dinner with their household, others hope to travel out of state to be with friends and loved ones. In the pre-pandemic world, it’s likely most didn’t think twice about flying long distances for the holidays. But in 2020, many have decided not to fly

About one-third of patients with chronic hepatitis B maintained a profile consistent with inactive disease 1 year after withdrawal from treatment in the randomized HBRN trial, which compared tenofovir with and without pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN). The two treatment groups, however, had similarly low rates of hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) loss, the trial’s primary end point. The successful

Suicide researchers, like the 2012 and 2016 political polling industry, really need to rethink their methods. Not only do an assortment of biases in medicine make people look stupid, but they also cost people their lives. These result in colossal and catastrophic errors. For example, in what is termed representative bias, people frequently make the

For many, Thanksgiving means gathering around the dinner table with people they love, sharing food and friendship, maybe some politics, while filling and refilling plates and glasses. This year, however, to no one’s surprise, public health officials are suggesting caution-saturated contact. After enduring months of isolation, how can people manage to stay safe and be together on the holiday? (If

Ticagrelor failed to unseat clopidogrel as the guideline-recommended P2Y12 inhibitor of choice in patients undergoing elective percutaneous coronary intervention for stable CAD in the randomized ALPHEUS trial. “The higher level of platelet inhibition obtained with ticagrelor does not translate into a reduction of periprocedural MI or myocardial injury within 48 hours of high-risk PCI performed

A Provo, Utah hospital has increased its security precautions after conspiracy theorists tried to sneak into the intensive care unit to see if it was full.   Kyle Hansen, administrator for Utah Valley Hospital, told the Provo City Council Thursday that five people, including a few with video cameras, have attempted to get inside the ICU

Patients can use an optical coherence tomography (OCT) device at home to accurately identify retinal fluid caused by neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), researchers say. Paired with artificial intelligence (AI), the home OCT device could allow clinicians to monitor the fluid more continuously while reducing the number of office visits needed, said Anat Loewenstein, MD,

Early in the pandemic, problems caused by regulatory roadblocks to mobility and professional practice for nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals became abundantly clear, with the realization that they could jeopardize diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 patients. Many states issued executive emergency orders allowing a more nimble response that included speeding up how to get

The raging opioid epidemic in the United States should prompt eye doctors to cast a suspicious gaze on patients seeking care for red and inflamed eyes, which could signal a problem far worse than a minor eye infection.  That’s the conclusion of ophthalmologists whose new research revealed a 400% increase in hospitalizations among drug users

Clinical trials of omega-3 fatty acid or vitamin D supplements have followed a long and winding road in search of benefits in cardiovascular (CV) disease, with wildly mixed results. But the journey may be in vain in one of cardiology’s frontier research areas, primary prevention of atrial fibrillation (AF), suggest primary results of the VITAL-Rhythm

Social media networks have become highly effective marketing platforms for many businesses, including medical and healthcare companies. Medical businesses use social media networks, such as Instagram, to promote their products and services to individual consumers. This makes it easy for them to accumulate thousands of Instagram followers.  People today use the internet to learn virtually

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. Dr. Megan Ranney has learned a lot about COVID-19 since she began treating patients with the disease in the emergency department in February. But there’s one question she still can’t answer: What makes some patients so much sicker than others? Advancing

Novel oral agent omecamtiv mecarbil modestly reduced heart failure events in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) atop usual therapies, according to the GALACTIC-HF trial. The primary endpoint of combined cardiovascular death and hospitalization or other urgent treatment for heart failure occurred in 37.0% of omecamtiv mecarbil recipients over a median 21.8 months, compared

A new app, designed for high-risk cancer patients, helps them and their physicians weigh the risks and benefits of delaying chemotherapy should the risk of contracting Covid-19 while getting their treatment is high.  According to STAT news, the app can show oncologists and patients whether immediate treatment could improve or hurt their chances of survival post-treatment. Developed by the University

“I would argue that the most important reason to care about climate change is because of our children,” Saul Hymes, MD, said at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, held virtually this year. “Being able to point out to people how climate change harms the health of their children and affects their

For many, Thanksgiving means gathering around the dinner table with people they love, sharing food and friendship, maybe some politics, while filling and refilling plates and glasses. This year, however, to no one’s surprise, public health officials are suggesting caution. After enduring months of isolation, how can people manage to stay safe and be together on the holiday? (If

Editor’s note: Find the latest COVID-19 news and guidance in Medscape’s Coronavirus Resource Center. A health worker injects a woman during clinical trials for a COVID-19 vaccine at Research Centers of America in Hollywood, Florida, on Sept. 9. Drugmaker Pfizer is expected to seek federal permission to release its COVID-19 vaccine by the end of

As many as 60% of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and sustained deep molecular response being treated with long-term tyrosine kinase inhibition remained in treatment-free remission (TFR) after treatment discontinuation, according to results of the LAST trial. Patients who discontinued treatment and remained in TFR reported improvements in fatigue, depression, gastrointestinal upset, sleep and

Lock downs during the pandemic have made life difficult for many. Aside from job loss, restrictions on movement prevent people from interacting personally. The result:  higher rates of social isolation, loneliness and even suicide. One especially vulnerable group is older adults, who may live alone and depend on others for company and support. To address an

Use of an automated predictive model to pinpoint hospitalized patients at the highest risk for clinical deterioration reduced mortality and intensive care unit admissions, and shortened hospital stays, investigators report in a study published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine. However, the study’s lead author was quick to point out that the