All posts by : Felistas

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a graph worth? For doctors trying to determine whether a patient’s blood pressure is within normal range, the answer may depend on the type of graph they’re looking at.

Research led by Dr. Sophie Hodgetts in our Department of Psychology has uncovered the hidden impacts of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) on quality of life and relationships.

Researchers from the ECOG-ACRIN Cancer Research Group (ECOG-ACRIN) have applied AI-driven processes for detecting tertiary lymphoid structures (TLS) in thousands of digital images of melanoma tumor tissue, significantly enhancing TLS identification and survival predictions for operable stage III/IV patients. The presence of TLS, a key biomarker for better prognosis and improved survival, is not yet a standard part of patients’ pathology reports, and manual detection is labor-intensive and can be variable.

For patients with bronchiectasis, brensocatib leads to a lower annualized rate of pulmonary exacerbations, according to a study published in the April 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a potential new way to monitor the progression of high-grade gliomas, one of the most aggressive types of brain cancer. Their feasibility study suggests that a personalized blood test tailored to each patient’s tumor DNA could provide a faster and less invasive way to determine if the cancer is advancing.

Euthanasia has been legal in Belgium since mid-2002, and in the past two decades, the number of reported cases has risen sharply. In 2003, only 236 cases were recorded, but by 2023, this had increased to 3,423. This means that euthanasia now accounts for around 3% of all deaths. But what explains this increase? And does it suggest a worrying trend, as some critics fear?

In the emotionally complex world of dementia care, communication is more than just what we say—it’s how we say it. Terms of endearment like “darling,” “my lovely,” and “sweetheart” are often used by health care staff with the best intentions: to comfort, connect, and show warmth. But some people believe that elderspeak may sound patronizing.

Caring for an aging parent is one of life’s most meaningful—and challenging—experiences. For adults who grew up as only children, that task often comes without support. No siblings to share the stress, split costs or take turns during long nights—just one person carrying the entire load.

Pregnancy and postpartum are critical time periods when immigrants may be particularly vulnerable to unmet medical and social needs. A 2023 report from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health revealed that foreign-born Massachusetts residents are 1.4 times more likely to experience severe maternal morbidity compared with US-born residents.

Radiation therapy is an established method of cancer treatment. It works by subjecting tumor cells to ionizing radiation, damaging their genetic material and, ideally, eliminating the tumor. Researchers have long been working on methods for directing as much radiation as possible at tumors while avoiding harm to surrounding tissue, but thus far it has proven impossible to prevent damage to the skin and healthy organs when treating internal tumors.