Healthcare & Laboratory News

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GI & Hepatology News (12/18, Crist) reported, “Among patients with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), both those who are responsive to proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) and those who are unresponsive to PPI treatment share similar esophageal protein profiles, which are distinct from those without EoE, according to comparative proteomic analyses.” Researchers found that “after PPI therapy, the protein profiles of responsive patients reverted and appeared similar to non-EoE patients, whereas the profiles of nonresponsive patients remained largely unchanged.” The findings were published in Gastroenterology.

Cystic Fibrosis News Today (12/19, Bryson) reports, “Infants with cystic fibrosis (CF) have alterations to the nasal microbiome – the community of microbes that live in the nose – in the first year of life, a new study has discovered.” These changes, “seen in newborns with CF but not in infants without the genetic disease, may make these children more likely to develop respiratory tract infections, or RTIs, the researchers noted.” Investigators observed additional changes in the infants with CF “after their first antibiotic treatment and/or infection.” The findings were published in Communications Medicine.

Kaiser Health News (12/19, Appleby, Beard) reports, “It’s open enrollment season for the Affordable Care Act – and there are ongoing challenges.” Returning and new “sign-ups through healthcare.gov – the federal marketplace that serves 31 states – are well below last year’s rate.” According to the Post, “new enrollments were just over 730,000 in early December, compared with 1.5 million at the same time last year.” In order “to give consumers in those states more time to enroll, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services extended the deadline to Wednesday to sign up for coverage that starts Jan. 1.”

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Modern Healthcare (12/18, Early, Subscription Publication) says, “The U.S. spent $4.9 trillion on healthcare in 2023, a 7.5% increase from the prior year, according to a report the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary published in the journal Health Affairs on Wednesday.” National health expenditures “constituted 17.6% of gross domestic product last year.” That is “slightly higher than 17.4% in 2022 and 17.5% in 2019 – prior to the COVID-19 pandemic – but lower than 19.5% in 2020 and 18.3% in 2021 amid the public health crisis.” The Office of the Actuary “mainly attributes the growth in 2023 to greater utilization and intensity.” The actuaries found that “hospital care, physician and clinical services, and retail prescription drugs were the three biggest categories of higher spending.”

The Washington Post (12/18, Y. Johnson) reports that “an international team studied ancient DNA harvested from lesion-ridden bones or teeth of five people who lived in Peru, Chile, Argentina and Mexico either before or around the time of” explorer Christopher Columbus. The researchers “found that early versions of the microbe, Treponema pallidum, that causes syphilis and related diseases were already diverse and widespread.” The findings suggest “that syphilis emerged in the Americas within the last 8,000 years and spread across the globe fueled by European colonization.” The findings were published in Nature.

Infectious Disease Advisor (12/18, Kuhns) reports, “Children aged younger than 2 with respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-acute lower respiratory infection (ALRI) vs other ALRIs had more severe symptoms, received more antibiotics, and had longer hospital stays, according to study results.” Researchers found that “children who were positive vs negative for RSV were more likely be hospitalized for more than 2 days...and require any respiratory support...require nonoral hydration...undergo a chest x-ray...and receive an antibiotic.” The findings were published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases.