news 2020

Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been much debate about the danger to hospital staff from anaesthetic procedures. Concerns include that placing a tube in the patient's airway (intubation) before surgery or removing it at the end (extubation) may produce a fine mist of small particles (called aerosols) and spread the COVID-19 virus to nearby staff.

Setting up 'COVID-19 free' hospital areas for surgical patients could save lives during the second wave of the pandemic - reducing the risk of death from lung infections associated with coronavirus, a new global study reveals. Researchers working together in Brazil and beyond found that that patients who had their operation and hospital care in 'COVID-19 free' areas had better outcomes.

Imaging techniques could replace the need for invasive tissue biopsies in helping rapidly determine whether cancer treatments are working effectively, according to researchers at the University of Cambridge. Currently, patients can wait a long time to find out if a treatment is working.

Bristol is part of a major new international project to improve our understanding of severe coronavirus infection in humans. The study, funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), will analyse samples from humans and animals to create profiles of various coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

A fifth (22%) of people have said that when a Covid-19 vaccine is approved, they're unlikely to get it, with 10% of people saying they were 'very unlikely' to get vaccinated, find UCL researchers as part of the Covid-19 Social Study. Only half (49%) of people reported being 'very likely' to get vaccinated.

The COVID-19 pandemic is the greatest global healthcare crisis of our generation, presenting enormous challenges to medical research, including clinical trials. Advances in machine learning are providing an opportunity to adapt clinical trials and lay the groundwork for smarter, faster and more flexible clinical trials in the future.

As many as one in 100 patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 develop a pneumothorax - a 'punctured lung' - according to a study led by Cambridge researchers. Doctors need to be alert to the possibility of a punctured lung in patients with COVID-19, even in people who would not be thought to be typical at-risk patients Stefan Marciniak Like the inner tube of bicycle or car tyre, damage to the lungs can lead to a puncture.

People who are admitted to hospital with Covid-19 can be divided into four distinct groups, according to data from the world's largest study of patients with the disease. Researchers identified the groups using clinical information and tests carried out upon arrival at hospital to predict the patients' risk of death - ranging from low to very high.

An innovative genetic study of blood protein levels, led by researchers in the MRC Integrative Epidemiology Unit (MRC-IEU) at the University of Bristol, has demonstrated how genetic data can be used to support drug target prioritisation by identifying the causal effects of proteins on diseases. Working in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies, Bristol researchers have developed a comprehensive analysis pipeline using genetic prediction of protein levels to prioritise drug targets, and have quantified the potential of this approach for reducing the failure rate of drug development.

Scientists will work in Bangladesh to create a blueprint to help ensure that medics can get a COVID-19 vaccine to everyone who needs it across the Global South. Universal vaccine access is already a major challenge in low-income countries, due to the lack of robust refrigerated cooling networks especially to remote communities.

Young people who are genetically predisposed to risk-taking, low extraversion and schizophrenia are more likely to use alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis, or other illicit drugs, according to a new UCL-led study. The researchers say that the findings, published in Addiction Biology , are in line with the notion that people who are more vulnerable to psychopathology or certain personality traits are more inclined to try several types of drugs or use them to 'self-medicate'.

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) failure and drug resistance are extremely common in patients living with HIV who are admitted to hospital in Malawi, according to new research published in Lancet HIV .

Corticosteroids reduce the risk of death among critically ill COVID-19 patients by 20 per cent, an analysis of seven trials published today [2 September] in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has found. The results of three of the trials included in the meta-analysis are also published in JAMA today.

A Cambridge hospital has piloted the use of combined rapid point-of-care nucleic acid and antibody testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection after researchers at the University of Cambridge showed that this approach was superior to virus detection alone for diagnosing COVID-19 disease. PCR and antibody tests both have limitations because of the nature of coronavirus infection and how our body responds.

A study analysing over 650,000 hip replacement patients across England and Wales over 14 years sought to investigate why one hospital has consistently been identified as having better than expected outcomes compared to other settings. The findings have shown that the outstanding hip implant survival results seen in one centre in the UK are associated with implant choice more than surgeon skill.

The trial found that the combined drug treatment worked in 83% of cases, compared to 76% in the placebo group - and crucially, it reduced the need for surgery. A new drug combination is more effective for women having miscarriages without symptoms than current standard NHS treatment, according to an NIHR funded study from Tommy's National Centre for Miscarriage Research published today in The Lancet.

The combination of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin has been linked to significant cardiovascular risks, including mortality, in the largest safety study ever performed comparing hydroxychloroquine treatment to hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin treatment for rheumatoid arthritis patients. Hydroxychloroquine is commonly used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, while azithromycin is a frequently-prescribed antibiotic to treat infections such as pneumonia, chest and sinus infections, etc.

At the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, clinical research capacity may have been reduced by up to 87% in England, finds a new study led by UCL academics. In the study, published in PLOS One , researchers estimated that at a population infection rate of 10% - at the peak in April, for over a month - less than 400 of the 3,200 (13%) full-time clinical academics in England would be available to do research.

An international team of scientists, led by the University of Glasgow, has announced findings that could pave the way to a new treatment for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The breakthrough findings, published today in Science Translational Medicine , identify a new class of drugs that reverse the symptoms of asthma in animal models.

Patients with early onset psychosis may benefit from treatment for depression, including with anti-depressants alongside other medication, new research shows. According to scientists at the University of Birmingham's Institute for Mental Health , depression may be an intrinsic part of early phase psychotic disorders that should be treated together with other more prominent symptoms to improve patient outcomes.