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Read the latest articles relevant to your clinical practice, including exclusive insights from Healthed surveys and polls.

By reading selected clinical articles, you earn CPD in the Educational Activities (EA) category whenever you click the “Claim CPD” button and follow the prompts. 

reversing antibiotic resistance
Dr Mina Bakhit, Prof Chris Del Mar, & Helena Kornfält Isberg, MD
  • Clinical Articles

Reversing antibiotic resistance? Here’s how Sweden is doing it

The antibiotic resistance threat is real. In the years to come, we will no longer be able to treat and cure many infections we once could. We’ve had no new classes of antibiotics in decades, and the development pipeline is largely dry. Each time we use antibiotics, the bacteria in our bodies become more resistant to the few antibiotics we still have. The problem seems clear and the solution obvious: to prescribe our precious antibiotics only when absolutely needed. Implementing this nationally is not an easy task. But Australia could take cues from other countries making significant progress in this area, such as Sweden.

By Dr Mina Bakhit, Prof Chris Del Mar, & Helena Kornfält Isberg, MD
addiction relapse
University of Washington Health Sciences/UW Medicine
  • Clinical Articles

Researchers find clue to preventing addiction relapse

It takes a supreme effort of will to overcome an addiction, but even more so to avoid relapse. The effect of relapse can hugely effect quality of life or even prove fatal. To help give recovering addicts a fighting chance, researchers at University of Washington have been studying whether changing the activity of neurons in the nucleus accumbens, the region of the brain that regulates addictive behaviour, can help to prevent relapse. They achieved this targeted change in brain activity using chemogenetic receptors in a study conducted on rats who had been exposed to heroin.

By University of Washington Health Sciences/UW Medicine
concussion in kids
University of Queensland
  • Clinical Articles

Concussion recovery not clear cut for children

Most children will recover fully from concussion, but one in ten has persistent symptoms. University of Queensland researchers have just completed a study between these symptoms and long-term disability risk, and the results are striking. Poor sleep post-concussion in particular was linked to reduced brain function and decreased grey matter, with fatigue and attention difficulties also being potential indicators. Using information on reductions in brain function, researchers were able to predict with 86 percent accuracy how children would recover two months from sustaining a concussion. “Generally, children with persistent concussion symptoms will have alterations to their visual, motor and cognitive brain regions but we don’t have a clear understanding of how this develops and how it relates to future recovery,” said study author and UQ Child Health Research Centre Research Fellow, Dr Kartik Iyer.

By University of Queensland
Guidelines for treating SCCs and BCCs
Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

Guidelines for treating SCCs and BCCs

The latest updated version of the clinical practice guidelines for keratinocyte cancer are now available and worth checking out, especially if you do a lot of skin work. Keratinocyte cancer is the new way to talk about non-melanoma skin cancer and basically refers to basal cell carcinomas and squamous cell carcinomas. The new guidelines, which were developed by an Australian ‘non-remunerated working group’, incorporate a number of recent developments in the non-surgical treatment of these cancers. They provide suitable options for treating more advanced and metastatic cancers, and give guidance on how to manage patients who are believed to be at greater risk of developing these cancers, eg those who are on immunosuppression therapy.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
Discussing MDMA
Jarryd Bartle, Nicole Lee & Paula Ross
  • Clinical Articles

Discussing MDMA

We all want to reduce drug-related harm and ensure young people don’t take unnecessary risks. But decades of research shows fear isn’t an effective way to do this. This week, Newscorp Australia released The Ripple Effect, a series of articles and accompanying videos about party drugs, aimed at parents of young people. Rather than drawing on the science about reducing harm, the series overstates the nation’s drug problem and the likelihood of problems from taking MDMA (ecstasy). And it’s likely to scare the wits out of parents of teens. So, what do parents really need to know about party drugs?

By Jarryd Bartle, Nicole Lee & Paula Ross
Simple blood test a mortality predictor
Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

Simple blood test a mortality predictor

Low lymphocyte levels can used as an indicator of an increased risk of mortality, US researchers say. Lymphopaenia, readily measured through the common full blood count, has been shown to be associated with an increased likelihood of death from conditions such as heart disease, cancer and respiratory infections, according to a retrospective study published in JAMA Network Open. This relationship was found to be consistent, independent of age, other serum immune markers and traditional clinical risk factors. However, when patients with lymphopaenia also had other abnormal immune markers, namely elevated red cell distribution width (RDW) and a raised C-reactive protein (CRP), they ‘had a strikingly high risk of mortality’, the study authors said.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
The dementia ‘tsunami’ is coming – but two potential medications offer hope
Sophie Scott
  • Clinical Articles

The dementia ‘tsunami’ is coming – but two potential medications offer hope

As our population continues to age, the number of people with dementia is set to skyrocket, a situation that geriatric medicine researcher A/Prof Michael Woodward has likened to a ‘tsunami that’s sadly almost bearing down on us’. Dementia already affects more than 400,000 Australians and is the second-biggest cause of death, but it’s predicted that this will grow to 589,000 by 2028 and more than one million by 2058. The debilitating condition causes a decline in memory, cognition and day-to-day functioning, a distressing process both for sufferers and their loved ones. Two new medications for dementia are currently being trialled, giving hope for more effective treatment. One is a monoclonal antibody gantenerumab, designed to remove the toxic protein amyloid from the brains of people with dementia. Although earlier trials have been disappointing, a higher dose is now being trialled in several thousand participants, including at Melbourne’s Austin Hospital.

By Sophie Scott, Brooke Wylie
HIV Overwhelming the enemy from the start
University of Montreal
  • Clinical Articles

HIV: Overwhelming the enemy from the start

Great strides have been made in terms of public health campaigns to reduce the spread of HIV, and the development of antiretrovirals to stop people living with the condition from developing AIDS. However, medical interventions to cure or vaccinate against the condition have so far proved elusive. Researchers from the Montreal Clinical Research Institute may have made a crucial first step in this direction. Their recent research, outlined recently in the journal Cell Reports, focuses on boosting the levels of ‘plasmacytoid dendritic cells’ (PDCs) in the earliest stages of HIV infection.

By University of Montreal
CancerAid
Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

CancerAid

CancerAid is a free app designed by two Australian oncologists for people affected by cancer and their carers. The motivation behind this app’s development was to improve cancer care outcomes by engaging patients in their own care. Patients using the app can monitor treatments, find resources, manage side-effects and read others’ experiences, thereby developing an effective support network. The technology also allows patients to share information (if they want to) with family and friends as well as relevant health professionals The information on the CancerAid app is both evidence-based and constantly updated, so doctors can be very comfortable recommending it to their patients.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
Value of pre-implantation genetic testing questioned
Dr Karin Hammarberg
  • Clinical Articles

Value of pre-implantation genetic testing questioned

If you’re going through IVF, you may be offered a test to look at your embryos’ chromosomes. Pre-implantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (chromosome abnormalities), known as PGT-A, is an “add on” used to help choose embryos with the right number of chromosomes. It’s promoted by IVF clinics as a way to increase the chance of success, especially for women over 35. But the evidence shows that in most cases, PGT-A doesn’t improve the chance of a baby. What is aneuploidy? Human cells usually contain 46 chromosomes. Aneuploidy is a term that describes a chromosome number that is different from 46 – either too many or too few chromosomes. In human embryos, most aneuploidies are lethal, resulting in miscarriage, or do not result in pregnancy at all. The chance of aneuploidy increases with the age of the woman; by the time a woman reaches age 40, approximately 80% of her embryos are aneuploid.

By Dr Karin Hammarberg, David Amor
Understanding urticaria and angioedema
Dr Karl Baumgart
  • Clinical Articles

Understanding urticaria and angioedema

Urticarial lesions are usually intensely pruritic welts that can be generalised or localised. They normally last less than 24 hours in the one place, being migratory, and leave no residual marks on the skin. Angioedema lesions may be uncomfortable or sometimes painful and occur in the deeper dermis or mucosa and may take 72 hours to resolve. Acute urticaria may be allergic, mediated by inappropriate IgE responses to food allergens. It usually occurs rapidly after exposure to the causative allergen: within 30-60 minutes, up to six hours and rarely eight hours. The most common allergens are either ingested (food or oral drugs) or parenteral (bee or wasp stings or drugs, for example, penicillin). Aeroallergens are not usually the cause of allergic urticaria except when due to grains (in bakers) and latex. However, people who are allergic to grass pollen may develop localised urticaria on contact, for example, when sitting on the grass.

By Dr Karl Baumgart
The secret powers of soup
Dr Linda Calabresi
  • Clinical Articles

The secret powers of soup

In one of the more unusual studies seen in the medical journals of late, UK researchers have determined that some home cooked, family recipe broths actually have antimalarial properties. The study, published in the Archives of Diseases of Childhood, involved the testing of 56 samples of broths which had been made from recipes passed down as a tradition in families of diverse ethnic origin. These broths were believed to confer health benefits in times of illness, commonly helping to reduce fever. And before you start getting the mental image of these scientists deciphering these recipes and cooking up a storm, in fact these researchers asked school children at an ethnically-diverse UK primary school to simply bring in a sample of their family anti-fever soup. Of the 56 soup samples, five were found to significantly inhibit the growth of the asexual blood stage of Plasmodium falciparum in vitro. In fact, the inhibition seen with two of the broths was comparable to that seen with one of the leading antimalarial agents, dihydroartemisinin

By Dr Linda Calabresi

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