Drugs for hyperlipidaemia may slow down the progression of hearing loss in the elderly: A drug repurposing study

Hearing loss in the elderly causes communication difficulties, decreased quality of life, isolation, loneliness and frustration. The aim of this study was to identify the modifiable variables that may affect the progression of hearing loss in the elderly. A case‐control study was conducted using two data sets. Data were extracted from the health examination survey of Ajou University Hospital (2010‐2014) and the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (2009‐2012) data sets. Audiometry data were evaluated according to variables such as age, sex and drug use for underlying diseases. Logistic regression analysis was performed on the entire study population, and middle‐aged and elderly groups using odds ratios (ORs). Factors including older age, female gender and diabetes mellitus were significantly associated with hearing levels in all age groups (OR [95% confidence interval, 95% CI], 0.375 [0.388‐0.415], 1.202 [1.195‐1.208], and 1.427 [1.183‐1.721], respectively). However, when the results from the middle‐aged and elderly groups were compared, medication for hyperlipidaemia had a significantly positive effect on the preservation of hearing in the elderly group (OR [95% CI], 0.713 [0.567‐0.897]), but not in the middle‐aged group (OR [95% CI], 0.967 [0.791‐1.183]). People, especially those in the elderly group, exposed to medication for hyperlipidaemia are likely to have better hearing than those not exposed to such drugs. Thus, drugs prescribed for hyperlipidaemia may maintain hearing in the elderly. However, to overcome potential confounding—by unmeasured variables—that is present in this study, further studies must be performed with more elaborate research design and methodology.     

Clinical Outcomes Associated with Treatment Modalities for Gastrointestinal Bezoars

Background/Aims

With technical and instrumental advances, the endoscopic removal of bezoars is now more common than conventional surgical removal. We investigated the clinical outcomes in a patient cohort with gastrointestinal bezoars removed using different treatment modalities.

Methods

Between June 1989 and March 2012, 93 patients with gastrointestinal bezoars underwent endoscopic or surgical procedures at the Asan Medical Center. These patients were divided into endoscopic (n=39) and surgical (n=54) treatment groups in accordance with the initial treatment modality. The clinical feature and outcomes of these two groups were analyzed retrospectively.

Results

The median follow-up period was 13 months (interquartile range [IQR], 0 to 77 months) in 93 patients with a median age of 60 years (IQR, 50 to 73 years). Among the initial symptoms, abdominal pain was the most common chief complaint (72.1%). The bezoars were commonly located in the stomach (82.1%) in the endoscopic treatment group and in the small bowel (66.7%) in the surgical treatment group. The success rates of endoscopic and surgical treatment were 89.7% and 98.1%, and the complication rates were 12.8% and 33.3%, respectively.

Conclusions

Endoscopic removal of a gastrointestinal bezoar is an effective treatment modality; however, surgical removal is needed in some cases.     

Effects of bariatric surgery on metabolic and nutritional parameters in severely obese Korean patients with type 2 diabetes: A prospective 2‐year follow up

Aims/Introduction

Little is known about the long‐term effects of Roux‐en‐Y gastric bypass (RYGB) in severely obese Asian individuals.

Methods and Materials

A total of 33 severely obese patients with type 2 diabetes underwent RYGB. All patients were followed up for 2 years. Visceral and abdominal subcutaneous fat areas were assessed using computed tomography (CT) before, and 12 and 24 months after RYGB. The muscle attenuation (MA) of paraspinous muscles observed by CT were used as indices of intramuscular fat.

Results

The mean percentage weight loss was 22.2 ± 5.3% at 12 months, and 21.3 ± 5.1% at 24 months after surgery. Compared with the baseline values, the visceral fat area was 53.6 ± 17.1% lower 24 months after surgery, and the abdominal subcutaneous fat area was 32.7 ± 16.1% lower 24 months after surgery. The MA increased from 48.7 ± 10.0 at baseline to 52.2 ± 8.9 (P = 0.009) 12 months after surgery. The MA after the first 12 months maintained changes until 24 months. Triglycerides and free fatty acids were reduced after surgery, whereas the high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol levels were increased significantly after surgery. At the last follow‐up visit, 18 patients (55%) had diabetes remission. The percentage of iron and vitamin D deficiency was 30% and 52%, respectively.

Conclusions

We found that patients subjected to RYGB had significant sustained reductions in visceral and intramuscular fat. There were durable improvements in the cardiometabolic abnormalities without any significant comorbidities. However, there were mild nutritional deficiencies in these patients despite daily supplementation with multivitamins and minerals.     

From the Cover: Wireless power transfer to deep-tissue microimplants

The ability to implant electronic systems in the human body has led to many medical advances. Progress in semiconductor technology paved the way for devices at the scale of a millimeter or less (“microimplants”), but the miniaturization of the power source remains challenging. Although wireless powering has been demonstrated, energy transfer beyond superficial depths in tissue has so far been limited by large coils (at least a centimeter in diameter) unsuitable for a microimplant. Here, we show that this limitation can be overcome by a method, termed midfield powering, to create a high-energy density region deep in tissue inside of which the power-harvesting structure can be made extremely small. Unlike conventional near-field (inductively coupled) coils, for which coupling is limited by exponential field decay, a patterned metal plate is used to induce spatially confined and adaptive energy transport through propagating modes in tissue. We use this method to power a microimplant (2 mm, 70 mg) capable of closed-chest wireless control of the heart that is orders of magnitude smaller than conventional pacemakers. With exposure levels below human safety thresholds, milliwatt levels of power can be transferred to a deep-tissue (>5 cm) microimplant for both complex electronic function and physiological stimulation. The approach developed here should enable new generations of implantable systems that can be integrated into the body at minimal cost and risk.Progress in semiconductor technology has led to electronic devices that can augment or replace physiological functions; their ability to be implanted for direct interaction with organ systems relies on overall miniaturization of the device for simplified delivery (e.g., via catheter or hypodermic needle) and access to interstitial spaces. Advances over the past few decades enable most components in a biomedical device, including electrodes, oscillators, memory, and wireless communication systems, to be integrated on tiny silicon chips. However, the energy required for electronic function remains substantial and the consumption density has not been matched by existing powering technologies (1). As a result, the vast bulk of most implantable electronic devices consists of energy storage or harvesting components.Although considerable progress has been made in energy storage technologies, batteries remain a major obstacle to miniaturization (2, 3) because their lifetimes are limited and highly constrained by the available volume, requiring periodic surgical replacement once the unit is depleted. Energy-harvesting strategies have been developed to eliminate batteries or to extend their function. Previous demonstrations include thermoelectric (4), piezoelectric (5–7), biopotential (8), or glucose (9, 10) power extraction. However, these methods are anatomically specific and, in their existing forms, yield power densities too low (<0.1 μW/mm²) for a microimplant.Alternatively, energy can be transferred from an external source. Ideally, power transfer should be completely noninvasive and not specific to regions in the body. Most existing approaches for this type of transfer are based on electromagnetic coupling in the near field (11–20). Though well-suited for large devices and prostheses (21, 22), near-field methods do not address key challenges to powering a microimplant: weak coupling between extremely asymmetric source and receiver structures (23), dissipative and heterogeneous tissue (24), and regulatory power thresholds for general safety (25). These challenges, compounded by the intrinsic exponential decay of the near field, severely limit miniaturization beyond superficial depths (>1 cm), even if the battery can be removed.Theory has indicated that these problems can be overcome in the electromagnetic midfield (23): energy transfer in this region, defined to be about a wavelength’s distance from the source, occurs through the coupling between evanescent fields in air and propagating modes in tissue. Using a patterned metal plate to control the near field, we demonstrate milliwatt levels of power transfer to a miniaturized coil deep in heterogeneous tissue (>5 cm), with exposure levels below safety thresholds for humans; this enables us to power a microimplant capable of delivering controlled electrical pulses to nearly anywhere in the body. The device consists of a multiturn coil structure, rectifying circuits for AC/DC power conversion, a silicon-on-insulator integrated circuit (IC) for pulse control, and electrodes, entirely assembled within a 2-mm diameter, 3.5-mm height device small enough to fit inside a catheter. We demonstrate wireless function by operating it in human-scale heart and brain environments, and by wirelessly regulating cardiac rhythm through a chest wall.