Vaccines are highy unlikely to cause side effects long after getting the shot

National Geographic, 7/22/2021

… So, no vaccine has caused chronic conditions to emerge years or decades later, says Robert Jacobson, medical director of the population health science program at the Mayo Clinic. “Study after study have looked for this with all sorts of vaccines, and have not found it to be the case,” he says…

Washington Post, Suffering with hiccups that never seem to go away

…Less commonly, hiccups — when accompanied by nausea and vomiting — can signal a potentially serious condition, neuromyelitis optica.

…"People with this usually have been in otherwise perfect health," says Mayo Clinic neurologist Brian Weinshenker, who studies the disease. "It usually just comes out of the blue. Some people will have just hiccups. Some will have just vomiting. Many will have both. If the symptoms are persistent and don’t respond to standard treatment, consider this [as a possible diagnosis]. I think it’s a relatively rare condition. But it’s an important one that — if identified — will allow you to intervene early to prevent blindness and paralysis."

Yahoo! News, Physician discusses impact of COVID-19, vaccines on women's health 

…"Compared to non-pregnant women who have the same health and age, a COVID-infected woman is about 1.3 to 1.4 times more likely to end up in the hospital when she's pregnant," said Dr. Regan Theiler, a Mayo Clinic obstetrician, in a statement earlier this month.

Advisory Board, Young-onset dementia is more than twice as common as previously thought, study finds

A new study published in JAMA Neurology found that young-onset dementia—or dementia that occurs before the age of 65—may be more prevalent than previously believed, reports Judy George for MedPage Today.

…In an accompanying editorial, David Knopman, a physician at Mayo Clinic, wrote that dementia may be underdiagnosed at younger ages due to reliance on passive surveillance methods to identify cases. He wrote that using passive surveillance increases the odds of "undercounting or overcounting cases owing to misdiagnosis (e.g., young-onset dementia as a psychiatric disorder or vice versa) or of noncontact by the young patient with dementia with the medical system."

HuffPost, Delta Variant Will ‘Find Everybody Not Immune,’ Warns Mayo Clinic Vaccine Expert

“Don’t be deceived that ‘I got this far and I am OK.’ This is a very different variant. It will find you,” said Dr. Gregory Poland in a dire message.

NOTE: Full video interview with KARE 11, snippet from WCCO TV and written reprise.

KTTC, Mayo Clinic study links COVID-19 with acute kidney injury

Health experts are giving another reason why people should get their COVID-19 vaccine. A Mayo Clinic study is finding a link between COVID-19 and acute kidney injury (AKI). "The acute kidney injury is very common in COVID-19 patients," Mayo clinic transplant surgeon, immunologist and senior author in recent study, Dr. Taimucin Taner said. "We know 50 percent of patients of COVID-19 in the ICU have acute kidney injury. That means people who had a normal kidneys prior to COVID-19. Unfortunately, a lot of these people die." …

Med City Beat, New Rochester facility to offer support for people experiencing a mental health crisis

Adding a critical step to the emergency care continuum, the Southeast Regional Crisis Center will soon provide 24/7 immediate care for area individuals experiencing a mental health crisis.

… Dr. Bruce Sutor, a Mayo Clinic psychiatrist who serves as chair of the center's executive board, has been involved in the project since 2016 as a member of Governor Dayton’s mental health task force. During that time, the group determined the state had a shortage of mental health care facilities and Dr. Sutor worked with State Sen. David Senjem, of Rochester, to secure $5 million to pay for the center’s construction.  “I think it will connect people more efficiently with the services that they need and we hope that it will reduce stigma around mental illnesses,” said Sutor. “If you’re in crisis, it’s okay to seek help.” …

Fierce Healthcare, Google Cloud rolls out technology to map medical records data to FHIR standard 

… Mayo Clinic has been working with Google Cloud to bring data in from disparate sources, harmonize it to FHIR format, and analyze it in BigQuery. By automating this process, what used to take weeks can be done in an hour, enabling Mayo Clinic’s experts to now focus on solving critical problems in health rather than managing IT resources, health system executives said. “We were hitting a wall with our ability to innovate on-prem. By moving to the cloud we’re able to build tools more easily, at scale, in a way that takes advantage of technological advancements in security and privacy to remain at the forefront in data protection,” said Jim Buntrock, vice chair of information technology at Mayo Clinic in a statement.

VeryWell Health, Johnson & Johnson Vaccine to Include Warning About Guillain-Barré Syndrome 

… Scientists don't yet know the exact cause of GBS, but it has been shown to be triggered by various viral infections. P. James Dyck, MD, a neurologist at the Mayo Clinic, says that because of the association between viral infections and GBS, he expected some COVID-19 vaccines might increase the risk of the syndrome as well. "It's an autoimmune disease that is often induced by a viral infection. Your body gets confused and there's an autoimmune attack on nerves," Dyck tells Verywell. There have been reports of COVID-19 being associated with Guillan-Barré syndrome. So, the expectation was that you would have some association with Guillain-Barré Syndrome and vaccinations for COVID-19."

HealthDay, 1 in 20 Cases of Dementia Occurs in People Under 65

… In the United States, an estimated 175,000 people have the condition, accounting for roughly 3% of all dementia cases nationwide. In context, that means young-onset dementia is rare, said Dr. David Knopman, a neurologist who specializes in dementia care at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. But it's important for people, including doctors, to be aware that dementia can arise unusually early in life, Knopman said.

Healio, Repair of meniscus root tears may reduce arthritis, arthroplasty risk in select patients 

 Meniscus root tears should be recognized and diagnosed early to reduce the risk for arthritis and knee replacement, according to a presenter. “If you do not recognize [a meniscus root tear] — and this can happen in a short period of time, within 6 to 12 months — literally a normal joint space can become bone-on-bone arthritis and we see this happen quite frequently,” Aaron J. Krych, MD, of Mayo Clinic Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine, told Healio Orthopedics. “If you do not recognize it and treat it early then the natural history is for progression of arthritis, essentially.” …

ABC News, Researchers find air filtration systems provide an added layer of protection in classrooms

Researchers tracked how air filters slow the spread of droplets in the air.

With many students heading back to school soon, researchers are gathering information that can help schools set COVID protocols. … “I think it just provides another layer of security for people,” Dr. Bruce Johnson of the Mayo Clinic told “GMA.”

KTTC, Local experts discuss rise in overdose deaths

According to provisional data by the CDC, approximately 93,000 Americans lost their lives to an overdose in 2020, which is a nearly 30% increase year-over-year… "Unfortunately, all of the drugs are being tainted with fentanyl. Which is an ultra potent opioid," said Dr. Halena Gazelka, a pain specialist at Mayo Clinic. "People are getting more and more potent drugs. They're not aware that they're getting the fentanyl, typically, in the supply that they're getting. They don't know how to dose it." …

Healio, Women more likely than men to experience CV effects of sleep loss

Sleep loss caused a significant increase in 24-hour and sleep-time BP among healthy young adults, particularly women, according to data published in Hypertension.

… “Over the past half century, sleep habits have changed dramatically. Augmented artificial lighting, shift and night work schedules, access to 24-hour services and the recent ubiquitous use of electronic entertainment and communication technology are thought to contribute to shortening habitual sleep duration,” Naima Covassin, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues wrote. “Currently, 35% of the U.S. adult population (equivalent to 80 million people) report sleeping 6 or less hours.”

Healthcare IT News, Mayo Clinic's strategies for securing medical devices

The health system's manager of information security previews his upcoming HIMSS21 session, discussing the device ecosystem and best practices to defend it.

… In his upcoming HIMSS21 educational session, "Securing Medical Devices: Best Practices," Kurt A. Griggs, manager of information security at the Mayo Clinic, will discuss what the medical device ecosystem is like today, what some of the differences are between medical devices and traditional IT devices, the Mayo Clinic's approach to securing medical devices, and best practices the clinic has developed.

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