Patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valve implant may need a pacemaker after the TAVR device, but a new study suggests that right bundle branch block may predict the need for pacing. The data may have implications for device selection as some devices are seen as less likely to trigger the need for a pacemaker, a development that may move the needle in the robust but increasingly competitive market for TAVR.
BOSTON – For diagnosing nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), liver biopsy is "the reference standard," Dean Hum, president of Genfit Corp., told BioWorld. "I'm not going to call it the gold standard." Some of the reasons for denying biopsies a gold sticker are obvious. Biopsies are invasive, which makes them risky, expensive and loathed by patients and doctors alike. "In the real world, doctors don't always do biopsies – many say they very rarely do biopsies unless other data points in several directions and they need that for clarity," Gail Cawkwell told BioWorld.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School and The Banner Alzheimer's Institute have identified a potential protective variant that appears to have delayed the onset of clinical symptoms by several decades in one individual with a presenilin mutation. Presenilin mutations cause an autosomal dominant, early onset form of AD that usually leads to clinically noticeable cognitive impairments in one's 40s.
Preclinical animal and cellular models are notoriously bad at predicting drug candidate toxicity in humans. Animal biology is often fundamentally different on this front than in humans, while cells in the lab can't be counted on routinely to replicate the bodily response.
A subtype of schizophrenia is related to abnormally high brain levels of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which has important implications for the development of new treatments, according to a study by researchers at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science (CBS) in Japan.
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