Researchers at Yale School of Medicine have successfully treated patients with moderate to severe eczema using a rheumatoid arthritis drug recently shown to reverse two other disfiguring skin conditions, vitiligo and alopecia areata. The study is evidence of a potential new era in eczema treatment, they report.

Eczema (atopic dermatitis) is a chronic condition that causes severe itching and leaves the skin red and thickened. It can adversely affect sleep and quality of life. Standard treatments, such as steroid creams and oral medicines, commonly fail to relieve symptoms in patients with moderate to severe eczema.

Based on current scientific models of eczema biology, assistant professor of dermatology Dr. Brett King hypothesized that a drug approved for rheumatoid arthritis, tofacitinib citrate, would interrupt the immune response that causes eczema.

In the new study, King and his colleagues report that treatment with the drug led to dramatic improvement in six patients with moderate to severe eczema who had previously tried conventional therapies without success.

During treatment all six patients reported significant reduction in itch as well as improved sleep. The redness and thickening of the skin diminished, also.

King and fellow Yale dermatologist Dr. Brittany Craiglow had previously shown that tofacitinib citrate regrows hair in patients with an autoimmune-related form of hair loss called alopecia areata. They also published findings reporting the successful treatment of a patient with vitiligo, which can leave widespread irregular white patches all over the body.

The new study suggests that a change in the standard of care for eczema

Carestream is partnering with leading orthopedic and sports medicine specialists to develop a new three-dimensional medical imaging system (not available for commercial sale) for capturing images of patient extremities (knees, legs, feet, arms and hands). Initial clinical studies will focus on the advantages of using cone beam CT (CBCT) technology in the diagnosis and treatment of knee injuries. This system is designed for use by orthopedic surgeons. Imaging systems based on CBCT technology for use in treating orthopedic conditions

Diabetic macular edema (DME) is a leading source of vision loss around the world, affecting about a fifth of people with long-term diabetes. Drugs that target a protein known as VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor) inside the eye have greatly improved the treatment options in recent years, but only about half of DME patients are fully responsive to these new therapies.

Edward P. Feener, Ph.D., Investigator in the Section on Vascular Cell Biology and Director of the Proteomics Core at Joslin Diabetes Center and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

Research in the lab of Edward P. Feener, Ph.D., Investigator in the Section on Vascular Cell Biology and Director of the Proteomics Core at Joslin Diabetes Center and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, now has shown that a substantial percentage of patients with DME do not have high levels of VEGF in the fluid inside their eyes but do have high levels of a protein called PKal (plasma kallikrein) and associated molecules that are key players in an inflammatory molecular pathway involved in the disease.

The scientists also have demonstrated in animals that the PKal molecular pathway can induce retinal edema through mechanisms that are independent of the VEGF pathway, which at normal levels helps to build and maintain blood vessels but at high concentrations can induce abnormal vessel growth and contribute to DME.

Outlined in a paper, the discoveries boost the evidence that agents targeting PKal eventually may be useful in treating DME that is not fully responsive to VEGF inhibitors.

In August 2014, KalVista Pharmaceuticals Ltd. launched an early phase clinical trial of a PKal inhibitor to treat DME, with Jennifer Sun, M.D., Ph.D., of Joslin

Cardiologists at The Mount Sinai Hospital have begun implanting tiny, state-of-the-art microchip sensors in patients with advanced heart failure to better monitor symptoms and reduce their chances of returning to the hospital. 

The implantable sensor, called the CardioMEMS HF System, developed by St. Jude Medical, is a battery-less, dime-sized device placed directly inside the heart to monitor its pulmonary artery. Implanted through a minimally invasive procedure, the sensor detects increases in pulmonary artery pressure, an early sign of worsening heart failure that can be detected before symptoms arise. Among the symptoms of advanced heart failure is shortness of breath, the kind of frightening experience that sends people racing to emergency rooms.

Once implanted, the device transmits daily pressure readings to a patient’s medical team, who can then proactively provide real-time, personalised feedback before symptoms worsen. The device has been shown in clinical trials to reduce hospital readmissions for advanced heart failure patients by up to 37 percent.

The new microchip technology is designed for advanced heart failure patients who have been hospitalised within the previous 12 months. The goal of Mount Sinai’s heart failure experts is to improve the quality of life in patients with heart failure and reduce the likelihood of hospital readmissions, a growing trend for this high-risk patient population which has become a national priority for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to reduce readmissions to curb growing healthcare costs.

‘This new device will enable heart failure patients to live more comfortably, easing their worries as we closely monitor them for the earliest signs of fluid retention, a major cause of the symptoms of breathlessness and tiredness heart failure patients experience,’ says Raymond Bietry, MD, Assistant Professor of Cardiology who was the first cardiologist at Mount Sinai to implant the device. Mount Sinai Hospital