The study found that rates of STIs dropped by about two-thirds after the clinic began prescribing DoxyPEP, while testing frequency remained the same.

Foltz, who was not involved in the research, told Medscape the findings were notable because they included people who often struggle to access preventive care.

“The main takeaway is that this study really focused on higher-risk populations that traditionally would likely not have as easy access [to DoxyPEP] for numerous reasons,” Foltz said. “This has long been the challenge with any preventive measure: How do you get in to the people who need it the most?”

Foltz told Medscape that clinics should build clear protocols to make sure everyone at risk is offered DoxyPEP. He said protocols can help “remove any provider bias” and called “for continued efforts to educate high-risk populations.”

He noted that early concerns from the medical community about side effects and bacterial resistance have largely been addressed. The bigger obstacle, he said, is access.

“Unfortunately, high-risk populations typically live in areas with less access to general healthcare,” Foltz told Medscape. He pointed to mobile health clinics and telemedicine as creative ways to expand education and prevention.

The remaining challenge, he added, is determining how to “re-create this on a much larger scale so we can really get the word out about Doxy and make it available to all of those who need it.”

Clinicians recommend that a single dose of doxycycline, taken as DoxyPEP within 72 hours of unprotected sex, can help prevent certain bacterial STIs, but it should not replace condoms.

Read the complete article from Medscape.

Cedars-Sinai in the News

CEOs Size Up Site-Neutral Pay Amid Tightening Financial Picture | Becker's Hospital Review
Peter L. Slavin, MD 

Foodborne Illnesses Can Lead to Long-Term Gut Issues | The New York Times
Mark Pimentel, MD 

Orbital Alchemy | Science
Arun Sharma, PhD, and Dhruv Sareen, PhD

Medical Experts Say Young Athletes Are More at Risk of Heat-Related Illnesses | CBS Los Angeles
Carlos Uquillas, MD 

What Are Compounded Medications? 8 Things Older Adults Should Know | AARP
Steven Simons, MD

Smart Toilets Are Scanning Poop and Urine for Health Clues. Should You Trust Them? | Miami Herald
Brennan Spiegel, MD, MSHS

What You Can Do To Slow Hearing Loss as You Age, According to Experts | Health
Yu-Tung Wong, MD 

How Modern Sports Medicine Is Prolonging Careers of Professional Athletes | CBS Los Angeles
Michael Banffy, MD

Good Medicine: Treating mCRPC | HealthCentral
Adam Weiner, MD

Lindsay Clancy Trial: A Closer Look at Postpartum Disorders | ABC 7 Los Angeles
Olusinmi Bamgbose, MD

The Risk of High Blood Pressure in Pregnancy Is Rising—and the Damage Can Be Life-Changing | Scientific American
Sarah Kilpatrick, MD, PhD

Faculty Publications

Anesthesiology

Obesity and Age Increase Hypoxia Risk During Esophagogastroduodenoscopy Under Monitored Anesthesia Care: Risk Stratification and Evaluation of a Procedural Oxygen Mask. Bonge, Sam, Maaz Majid, James M. Mirocha, Theodore Stein, Deena Midani, Derek Cheng, David Padua, Joshua Levy, and Megumi Nakamura. BMC Anesthesiology 26 (1): 534.

Biomedical Sciences

All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality in Chronic Pancreatitis: A Systematic Review. Jiang, Yi, Esther A. Adeniran, Wenmo Hu, Yanna Cai, Drew Fletcher, Zijin Lin, Yuan Li, Ali Badaoui, Jianing Li, Judy Tan, and Stephen J. Pandol. Therapeutic Advances in Gastroenterology 19: 17562848261483780.

Beyond Stenosis: Imaging Phenotyping and Risk Stratification in Nonobstructive Coronary Artery Disease. Piña, Pamela, Annalisa Filtz, Daniel Lorenzatti, Ankur Srivastava, Jaideep Singh Bhalla, Piotr J. Slomka, Daniel S. Berman, Damini Dey, and Leandro Slipczuk. Current Opinion in Cardiology, September.

Vitamin K2 and D3 Supplementation in Patients With Severe Coronary Artery Calcification: The DANCODE Trial. Hasific, Selma, Kristian Altern Øvrehus, Anna Mejldal, Susanne Hosbond, Jess Lambrechtsen, Preman Kumarathurai, Damini Dey, Emil Johannes Ravn, Lars Melholt Rasmussen, Oke Gerke, Hans Mickley, and Axel Diederichsen. Circulation, August.

Cardiac Surgery

Challenges of Using Fitness Trackers in Critical Care. Kazerouni, Stephanie, Xiaoyu Liu, Tao Shen, Michael Nurok, Abirami Kumaresan, Anahat Dhillon, and Jill Yaung. AACN Advanced Critical Care 37 (3): 287–91.

Cardiology

Aficamten for Symptomatic Nonobstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Masri, Ahmad, Martin S. Maron, Ankit Bhatia, Maria Luisa Peña-Peña, Mark V. Sherrid, Estevao Lanna Figueiredo, Michael Arad, Roberto Barriales-Villa, Lubna Choudhury, Brian L. Claggett, Caroline J. Coats, Edileide de Barros Correia, Juan Pablo Costabel, Perry M. Elliott, Jorge E. Silva Enciso, Pablo Garcia-Pavia, Junbo Ge, Sheila M. Hegde, Gregory D. Lewis, Renato D. Lopes, Matthew W. Martinez, Mathew S. Maurer, Zi Michael Miao, Michelle Michels, Sumeet S. Mitter, Jesus E. Pino Moreno, Iacopo Olivotto, Anjali T. Owens, Steen H. Poulsen, Florian Rader, Ethan J. Rowin, P. Christian Schulze, Robert Sepp, Nikhil Sikand, Scott D. Solomon, John A. Spertus, Charles Teale, Xiaoyan Zhao, Punag H. Divanji, Stephen B. Heitner, Daniel L. Jacoby, Stuart Kupfer, Fady I. Malik, Joel Salazar-Mendiguchía, Amy Wohltman, Shu Zhuo, Carolyn Y. Ho, and ACACIA-HCM Investigators. The New England Journal of Medicine, August.

Association of Eicosanoids and Eicosanoid-Related Metabolites With Obesity and Cardiometabolic Traits. Chitsazan, Mandana, Juhi K. Parekh, Amanda L. Grundmann, Emily S. Lau, Mona Alotaibi, Bing Yu, Casey M. Rebholz, Elizabeth Selvin, Norrina B. Allen, Matthew A. Allison, Mohit Jain, Susan Cheng, and Jennifer E. Ho. Diabetes, Obesity & Metabolism, September.

Beyond Lactate: Proteomic Prediction of Primary Graft Dysfunction in DCD Donor Hearts. Khush, Kiran K., and Jon A. Kobashigawa. JACC. Heart Failure, August, 103320.

Care Models for the Genetic Evaluation of Dilated Cardiomyopathy at Sites of the DCM Consortium. Jordan, Elizabeth, Tia Moscarello, Hibatallah Khafagy, Patricia Parker, Phoenix Grover, Simone Weinmann, Joseph Liu, Alberta Nomo, Naomi Barker, Emily E. Brown, Akos Berthold, Jessica Chowns, Ray E. Hershberger, et al. Circulation. Heart Failure, September, e014544.

Completeness of Revascularization in Coronary Three-Vessel Disease and Outcomes in the FAME 3 Trial. Otsuki, Hisao, Kuniaki Takahashi, Yuhei Kobayashi, Frederik M. Zimmermann, Mohamed El Farissi, Lennert Minten, Tatsunori Takahashi, Oskar Angerås, Steve E. S. Miner, Jaydeep Sarma, Evald H. Christiansen, Rana Sayeed, Kreton Mavromatis, Filip Casselman, Alan C. Yeung, Nico H. J. Pijls, Bernard De Bruyne, William F. Fearon, and FAME 3 Trial Investigators. European Heart Journal, August, ehag630.

Effect of Aficamten on Cardiac Structure and Function in Patients With Symptomatic Nonobstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Hegde, Sheila M., Xiaowen Wang, Ankit Bhatia, Maria Luisa Peña-Peña, Mark V. Sherrid, Estevao Lanna Figueiredo, Michael Arad, Roberto Barriales-Villa, Lubna Choudhury, Brian L. Claggett, Caroline J. Coats, Edileide de Barros Correia, Juan Pablo Costabel, Perry M. Elliott, Jorge E. Silva Enciso, Pablo Garcia-Pavia, Junbo Ge, Carolyn Y. Ho, Neal K. Lakdawala, Gregory D. Lewis, Martin S. Maron, Matthew W. Martinez, Ahmad Masri, Mathew S. Maurer, Michelle Michels, Sumeet S. Mitter, Jesus E. Pino Moreno, Viktória Nagy, Iacopo Olivotto, Anjali T. Owens, Steen H. Poulsen, Florian Rader, Ethan J. Rowin, Maria Ruda, P. Christian Schulze, Nikhil Sikand, John A. Spertus, Xiaoyan Zhao, Punag H. Divanji, Stephen B. Heitner, Daniel L. Jacoby, Stuart Kupfer, Fady I. Malik, Joel Salazar-Mendiguchía, Amy Wohltman, Shu Zhuo, Scott D. Solomon, and ACACIA-HCM Investigators. Circulation, August.

Eplontersen for Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy. Fontana, Marianna, Ahmad Masri, Scott D. Solomon, Francesco Cappelli, Margot K. Davis, Pablo García-Pavía, Julian D. Gillmore, Mazen Hanna, Laura Obici, Brett W. Sperry, Nobuhiro Tahara, Márcia Waddington-Cruz, Olga Azevedo, Thibaud Damy, Edileide de Barros Correia, Michel G. Khouri, Andriana P. Nikolova, Stefan Störk, Tom Conrad, Qingqing Yang, Brian L. Claggett, Jersey Chen, Gary T. Brice, Sotirios Tsimikas, Mathew S. Maurer, and CARDIO-TTRansform Investigators. The New England Journal of Medicine, August.

Global Efficacy of Aficamten in Nonobstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: Results From ACACIA-HCM. Maron, Martin S., Ahmad Masri, Ankit Bhatia, Maria Luisa Peña-Peña, Mark V. Sherrid, Estevao Lanna Figueiredo, Michael Arad, Lubna Choudhury, Brian L. Claggett, Caroline J. Coats, Edileide de Barros Correia, Juan Pablo Costabel, Perry M. Elliott, Jorge E. Silva Enciso, Junbo Ge, Carolyn Y. Ho, Ian Kulac, Gregory D. Lewis, Matthew W. Martinez, Mathew S. Maurer, Michelle Michels, Sumeet S. Mitter, Jesus E. Pino Moreno, Iacopo Olivotto, Anjali T. Owens, Steen H. Poulsen, Florian Rader, Ethan J. Rowin, P. Christian Schulze, Robert Sepp, Nikhil Sikand, Scott D. Solomon, John A. Spertus, Xiaoyan Zhao, Punag H. Divanji, Stephen B. Heitner, Daniel L. Jacoby, Stuart Kupfer, Fady I. Malik, Joel Salazar-Mendiguchía, Amy Wohltman, Shu Zhuo, Roberto Barriales-Villa, and ACACIA-HCM Investigators. Circulation, August.

Long-Term Effects of Acoramidis on Mortality in Variant Transthyretin Amyloid Cardiomyopathy, Including p.Val142Ile: Findings From the Open-Label Extension of ATTRibute-CM. Ruberg, Frederick L., Margot K. Davis, Sarah A. M. Cuddy, Lily K. Stern, Olakunle Akinboboye, Keyur Shah, Nitasha Sarswat, Michel G. Khouri, Daniel P. Judge, Jan M. Griffin, Justin L. Grodin, Souhiela Fawaz, Bret Zeldow, Jean-François Tamby, Adam Castaño, Uma Sinha, Marianna Fontana, Julian Gillmore, and Kevin M. Alexander. European Journal of Heart Failure, August, xuag258.

Noninvasive Thrombus Imaging in Patients With Ischemic Stroke. Whittington, Beth, Craig Balmforth, Alessandro Giaj Levra, Laura Clark, Neil Craig, Audrey White, Krithika Loganath, Evangelos Tzolos, Allison Winarski, Rachael O. Forsythe, Michael McDermott, Tariq Ramtoola, Phyo H. Khaing, Sphamandla Ntshangase, Mark G. Macaskill, Stefan Veizades, Mairi Brittan, Tim Clark, Michelle Rooney, Christophe Lucatelli, Piotr J. Slomka, Norman Koglin, Andrew W. Stephens, Iris Hardewig, Edwin J. R. van Beek, Marc R. Dweck, Joanna Wardlaw, Michelle C. Williams, William N. Whiteley, and David E. Newby. Circulation, September.

Percutaneous Epicardial Entry With a Novel Videoscope-Guided Epicardial Access Device: Initial Multicenter Experience. Ehdaie, Ashkan, Henry D. Huang, Jackson J. Liang, Ammar M. Killu, Alan Sugrue, Eric D. Braunstein, and Michael Shehata. JACC. Clinical Electrophysiology, August, S2405-500X(26)00743-7.

Platelet Activation and Thrombosis in Microvascular Obstruction. Balmforth, Craig, Alessandro Giaj Levra, Beth Whittington, Aidan Morgan, Mark G. Macaskill, Evangelos Tzolos, Alex J. Jordan, Tariq Ramtoola, Tim Clark, Michelle Rooney, Christophe Lucatelli, Edwin J. R. van Beek, Piotr J. Slomka, Stephanie L. Sellers, Norman Koglin, Andrew W. Stephens, Iris Hardewig, David E. Newby, Michelle C. Williams, and Marc R. Dweck. European Heart Journal. Cardiovascular Imaging, August, jeag225.

Short-, Medium-, and Long-Term Temperature and Sudden Cardiac Death in a Cohort of US Women. Borchert, William, Rachel C. Nethery, Christine M. Albert, Jochem O. Klompmaker, Charlotte Roscoe, Grete E. Wilt, Francine Laden, and Jaime E. Hart. Journal of the American Heart Association, August, e033829.

The Return of Thallium-201 for American Patients: History, Radiopharmaceutical Features, and Current Applications. Einstein, Andrew J., Daniel S. Berman, Yosef A. Cohen, Richard Green, Joshua Mailman, and Vasken Dilsizian. Current Cardiology Reports 28 (1): 86.

Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement for Severe Bicuspid Aortic Valve Stenosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Kumar, Sant, Jung-Min Ahn, Euihong Ko, Gossadi Mohammed, Kentaro Hayashida, Wei-Hsian Yin, Hasan Jilaihawi, Raj Makkar, Won-Keun Kim, Tullio Palmerini, Christine J. Chung, David Elison, Soo Yeon An, Ju Hyeon Kim, Do-Yoon Kang, Joon Bum Kim, David J. Cohen, Davide Capodanno, Duk-Woo Park, and Seung-Jung Park. JACC. Advances 5 (8): 103052.

Computational Biomedicine

Audience-Customized Translation of Rule-Based Evidence With Large Language Models Across Multiplexer Benchmarks. Bandhey, Harsh, Gabriel Lipschutz-Villa, Khoi Dinh, Malek Kamoun, and Ryan J. Urbanowicz. Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference: [Proceedings]. Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference 2026 (Companion): 1175–83.

Phase-Alternation and Tree-Initialization to Facilitate Interpretable Rule-Based Machine Learning. Lipschutz-Villa, Gabriel, Harsh Bandhey, Khoi Dinh, Michael Heider, Malek Kamoun, and Ryan J. Urbanowicz. Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference: [Proceedings]. Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference 2026: 300–309.

ScaleBarOn and Muad’Data: Simple Python Tools for Elemental Imaging Data Visualization and Comparative Scaling. Punshon, Tracy, Brian P. Jackson, and Joshua Levy. Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, August.

Survival-LCS: Rule-Based Survival Analysis Without Proportional Hazard Assumptions. Woodward, Alexa A., Harsh Bandhey, Jason H. Moore, and Ryan J. Urbanowicz. ACM Transactions on Evolutionary Learning and Optimization 6 (2): 13.

Medicine

Advancing Equity and Patient Partnership in Clinical Trials for Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Model for Inclusive Trial Design. Rubin, David T., Andres Yarur, Renika Wood, Brian Po-Han Chen, Lisa E. Young, Megan Gower, and Vijay Yajnik. Clinical and Experimental Gastroenterology 19: 603005.

Black Race Predicts Poor Compliance and Higher Prostate Cancer Risk in a Multinational Repeat Biopsy Cohort: Secondary Analysis From the Reduction by Dutasteride of Prostate Cancer Events (REDUCE) Clinical Trial. Freedland, Alexis R., Daniel M. Moriera, Jun Gong, and Stephen J. Freedland. The Prostate, August.

Comparative Efficacy of Herbal Products on Metabolic Parameters in Metabolic-Dysfunction Associated Liver Disease: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis. Sairaj, Revathi Thirumushi, Alejandro Chen Liang, Yeison Cruz Castillo, Mariela Denise Fermin Madera, Jose Medina, Tatiana Alexandra Moreno Díaz, Gabriela Flores Monar, Supritha Chintamaneni, Camila Sanchez Cruz, Rashmi Advani, Sushovan Guha, and Ernesto Calderón-Martinez. Gastro Hep Advances 5 (10): 101040.

Driver Genomic Lesions in MDM2, CDK4, and JUN Co-Opt Targetable Super-Enhancer Networks to Impose Liposarcomagenic Core Regulatory Circuitry. Chen, Ye, Ying Zhang, Long Xie, Xiaorui Fan, Jiyang Liu, Tuan Zea Tan, Zhengming Yang, Pushkar Dakle, Suya Zheng, Nan Li, Chenying Wang, Victor Kwanmin Lee, Lingwen Ding, Qiaoyang Sun, Wen Yi, H. Phillip Koeffler, and Liang Xu. Journal of Advanced Research, August, S2090-1232(26)00687-9.

L-Glutamine in Combination With First-Line Gemcitabine and Nab-Paclitaxel in Advanced Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: An Open-Label, Single-Arm, Phase 1 GlutaPanc Trial. Gong, Jun, Hayato Muranaka, So Yung Choi, Mourad Tighiouart, Shrikant Bhute, Ezinne R. Aja, Jonathan P. Jacobs, Aleksandr Stotland, Jennifer Van Eyk, Omer H. M. Elmadbouh, Mouad Edderkaoui, Sunao Tanaka, Hideki Furuya, Arsen Osipov, Jeremy Lorber, Sandrine Billet, Alexzandra Morris, Johanna Ten Hoeve-Scott, Thomas Graeber, Stephen J. Pandol, Andrew Hendifar, and Neil A. Bhowmick. Nature Cancer, August.

Nirmatrelvir-Ritonavir Targeting Viral Persistence in Post-COVID-19 Condition (Long COVID) in the USA (RECOVER-VITAL): A Randomised, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Phase 2 Trial. Baden, Lindsey R., Nirav S. Shah, Sean T. H. Liu, Jonathan Cohen, James Moy, Andre Kumar, Grace A. McComsey, Peter Chen, Michelle Floris-Moore, Nora G. Singer, Inti Fernandez, Alex J. Slandzicki, RECOVER-VITAL Clinical Trial Group, et al. The Lancet. Infectious Diseases, August, S1473-3099(26)00406-8.

Noninvasive Positive Airway Pressure for Hypoxemia Prevention During Sedated Gastrointestinal Endoscopy in Adults With Obesity: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Pérez, Jariel Abreu, Valeria Esther Acosta Casana, Carlos Josue Alfaro Lazo, Valentina Alonzo, Carla Daniela Calizaya Baldellon, Alejandro Chen Liang, Macarena Chalbaud, Edgar Lozano, Suleen Daniela Barrera Mosquera, Alejandra Anez Gonzalez, Alexander Vega, Rashmi Advani, and Ernesto Calderón Martínez. Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, September, S0016-5107(26)07018-5.

Remission Rates of Patients With Axial Spondyloarthritis in a Tertiary Care Center. Kluempers, Franziska, Imke Redeker, Abin P. Puravath, Omar Javier Calixto, Styliani Tsiami, David Kiefer, Xenofon Baraliakos, and Uta Kiltz. The Journal of Rheumatology, September, jrheum.2025-1143.

The Cognitive Effects of Creatine Supplementation in Older Adults and Preclinical Models of Dementia: A Scoping Review. Whitford, Tobias, Christian Donlon, Aidan Pech, Chase Goldberg, Harris Whiteson, and Mill Etienne. Ageing Research Reviews, August, 103317.

Waist-to-Height Ratio as a Practical Indicator for Screening Pediatric Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease in Diverse Populations and Genetic Backgrounds. Liu, Yun-Fei, You-Xin Wang, Li Li, Di Shi, Maike Wolters, Ping-Ping Zhang, Jia-Jia Dang, Shan Cai, Tian-Yu Huang, Ya-Qi Wang, Jie-Yu Liu, Ming-Yue Wang, Yu-Ying Wu, Enkar Nur, Wen-Jia Lian, Li-Po Guo, Yuan-Yuan Li, Jie-Yun Song, Jing Li, Yan-Hui Dong, Yan-Chun Cui, Antje Hebestreit, Yee Hui Yeo, Susan M. Sawyer, Hui Wang, and Yi Song. World Journal of Pediatrics: WJP, August.

Neurology

No Evidence for Modulation of the Readiness Potential by Respiratory Phase During Natural Breathing. Jeay-Bizot, Lucas, Raniyah Chishti, Uri Maoz, and Aaron Schurger. PLoS Biology 24 (9): e3003982.

Priorities for Advancing Palliative Care for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis: A Consensus Report From a Palliative Care for ALS Working Group in the United States. Bischoff, Kara E., Yaowaree L. Leavell, Jessica M. Besbris, Christi Lero, Kelsey Noble, Astrid Grouls, Jerome Kurent, Benzi M. Kluger, Steven Z. Pantilat, Ambereen K. Mehta, and International Neuropalliative Care Society’s Palliative Care for ALS Working Group. Muscle & Nerve, August.

Neurosurgery

Early Retinal UCHL1 Dysregulation Coupled With Synaptic Loss Reflects Alzheimer’s Disease Severity. Rentsendorj, Altan, Jean-Philippe Vit, Alexandre Hutton, Yosef Koronyo, Saba Shahin, Edward Robinson, Ernesto Barron, Anthony Rodriguez, Ousman Jallow, Julia Sheyn, Bhakta Prasad Gaire, Lalita Subedi, Miyah R. Davis, Barathan Gnanabharathi, Alexander V. Ljubimov, Stuart L. Graham, Vivek K. Gupta, Mehdi Mirzaei, Debra Hawes, Katlin Silm, Keith L. Black, Lon S. Schneider, Alfredo A. Sadun, Jesse G. Meyer, Dieu-Trang Fuchs, and Maya Koronyo-Hamaoui. Advanced Science, August, e00020.

Predicting Craniospinal Surgery in Pediatric Achondroplasia: Benchmarking Statistical Inference and Explainable AI Under Rare-Disease Constraints. Gholampour, Seifollah, Jesse Huang, Dylan Keusch, Carolina Lopes, Aseel Masarwy, James Obayashi, Marcella Ruppert-Gomez, Christina M. Sayama, Lissa C. Baird, Moise Danielpour, and David F. Bauer. Annals of Biomedical Engineering, September.

Refining the Posterior Compartment of the Cavernous Sinus: A Detailed Reappraisal of Surgical Anatomy and Techniques for Invasive Pituitary Adenoma Resection. Xu, Yuanzhi, Tatsuya Uchida, Erik Burgos-Sosa, Ana Sofia Alvarez, Mariano Rinaldi, Taishi Nakase, Matei Alexandru Banu, Ludovico Agostini, Limin Xiao, Vera Vigo, Peyton L. Nisson, Simon A. Menaker, Aaron A. Cohen-Gadol, and Juan C. Fernandez-Miranda. Journal of Neurosurgery, August, 1–13.

Nursing

Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of Nursing Leadership: From Innovation to Stewardship. Marshall, David, and Nancye R. Feistritzer. Nursing Administration Quarterly 50 (4): 177–78.

Critical Care Nurses in Organ Donation and Transplantation, Part 2. Coleman, Bernice, and Linda Ohler. AACN Advanced Critical Care 37 (3): 293–94.

System-Level AI Governance in Nursing: A Practical Framework for Safe and Scalable Adoption. Wang, Jing, Yijiong Yang, David Marshall, Patricia Shucoski, Tera Gross, Ryannon Frederick, and Sharon Pappas. Nursing Administration Quarterly 50 (4): 208–13.

OBGYN

Seeing But Not Foreseeing: O-RADS Stratification and Surgical Outcomes in Benign Ovarian Cysts Engel, O., M. Weiss, R. Meyer, M. Tenne, N. Paul, O. Markovitch, Y. Dykan, Z. Klein, R. Schonman, and Y. Yagur. Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology 68 Suppl 1 (September): 99.

Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine

Decompression and Dynamic Sagittal Tether Stabilization for Degenerative Spondylolisthesis: Primary Outcomes of a Multicenter FDA IDE Trial. Sasso, Rick C., Hyun Bae, Ivan Cheng, Jeffrey L. Gum, Alan T. Villavicencio, Mick Perez-Cruet, S. Tim Yoon, William F. Lavelle, Kee D. Kim, Michael Y. Wang, Ravinder S. Bains, Calvin C. Kuo, Harvinder S. Sandhu, Michael P. Stauff, Dennis G. Crandall, Sigurd H. Berven, Harel Deutsch, Jeffrey S. Fischgrund, Adam L. Shimer, Khalid Sethi, Wilson Z. Ray, Matthew J. Mermer, Reginald J. Davis, Elizabeth Yu, Todd F. Alamin, Louis C. Fielding, Jens R. Chapman, Richard D. Guyer, and William C. Welch. Spine, August.

Trends in the Distribution of Skeletal Compensation Based on Severity and Correction in Adult Spinal Deformity Patients. Onafowokan, Oluwatobi O., Mohammad Daher, Renaud Lafage, Virginie Lafage, Justin S. Smith, D. Kojo Hamilton, Max R. Fisher, Bassel G. Diebo, Alan H. Daniels, Robert Eastlack, Gregory Mundis, Breton G. Line, Pierce Nunley, Neel Anand, Themistocles Protopsaltis, David O. Okonkwo, Khaled M. Kebaish, Justin K. Scheer, Praveen V. Mummaneni, Dean Chou, Han Jo Kim, Richard Hostin, Munish Gupta, Douglas Burton, Christopher P. Ames, Frank Schwab, Christopher I. Shaffrey, Shay Bess, Lawrence Lenke, and Peter G. Passias. Journal of Neurosurgery. Spine, August, 1–8.

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Examining Inflammatory Effects of Reticulocyte Erythrophagocytosis in Human Macrophage Cultures. Hernández-Armengol, Rosario, Kausik Paul, Che-Yu Chang, June Young Lee, Krystalyn E. Hudson, and David R. Gibb. Methods in Molecular Biology 3053: 641–58.

Lessons Learned From the Validation of a Machine Learning-Based Colorectal Carcinoma Screening Pipeline in Sub-Saharan Africa. Githuka, Alfred, Ulysses G. J. Balis, Ye Chan Kim, Eileen M. Weinheimer-Haus, Christopher L. Williams, Jerome Y. Cheng, Kelou Yao, John Blau, Jessica A. Baker, Priscilla Njenga, Winny Chepkemoi, Robert K. Parker, Akbar K. Waljee, Shahin Sayed, and Mansoor N. Saleh. Journal of Pathology Informatics 22 (August): 100691.

Pediatrics

Analysis of Neonatal Resuscitation Debriefings: Mixed-Methods Results From a Multicenter Pilot Study. Dadiz, Rita, Louis P. Halamek, Julie E. Riccio, Daniel Chiou, Michelle Olech Smith, Len Y. Tanaka, Debra L. Weiner, American Academy of Pediatrics WHiCED Task Force, and Theodora A. Stavroudis. Journal of Perinatology, August.

Mechanistic Characterization and Inhibition of PAD4-Dependent NETosis Following Experimental Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Brain Injury. Bremer, Anna-Sophie, Maria Eugenia Bernis, Hannah Burkard, Elke Maes, Aimee S. Wilson, Zhaoyang Xu, David H. Rowitch, Waqar Hanif, Riki Kawaguchi, Thomas Ulas, and Hemmen Sabir. Experimental Neurology 406 (August): 115994.

Randomized Controlled Trials Evaluating Exercise Interventions for Plantar Fasciopathy Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Gonçalves, Irenilde F., Thacyana T. Carvalho, Kamila Grandolfi, Juliano Casonatto, and Sergio M. Borghi. Musculoskeletal Science & Practice 86 (August): 103644.

Sequential Patterning of Photoresponsive Hydrogels Directs Crypt Fission and Reveals the Role of Epithelial Curvature on Fission Symmetry. McNally, Delaney L., Kaustav Bera, Nolan R. Petrich, Alex Khang, Marilyne Coulombe, David Castillo-Azofeifa, Ophir D. Klein, Peter J. Dempsey, and Kristi S. Anseth. Advanced Science, August, e77397.

Surgery

AI-Based Tools for Predicting and Early Diagnosis of Graft Rejection in Solid Organ Transplantation - a Systematic Review. Henderson, Douglas, Tobias Niederegger, Robert Munzinger, Emre Karakas, Jonas Hildinger, Jasper Iske, Max Heiland, Curtis L. Cetrulo, Alexandre G. Lellouch, and Leonard Knoedler. Transplantation Reviews 40 (4): 101054.

Efficacy and Safety of Local Tranexamic Acid in... : Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery - Global Open. Mokhtar, Jonathan, Marwa Hadi, Kreutz-Rodrigues Lucas, Kevin Sadati, Krishna S Vyas, Curtis L Cetrulo, and Alexandre G Lellouch. Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery - Global Open, August.

Generative AI and Clinicians Show Comparable Prognostic Reasoning From Clinical Narratives in Biologic-Treated CRSwNP. Hack, Sholem, Chase Kahn, Ainhoa Garcia-Lliberos, Cristina Rodriguez-Prado, Ameen Biadsee, Maxime Fieux, Mark Liu, Eran Glikson, Masayoshi Takashima, Omar G. Ahmed, Raj Sindwani, Dennis M. Tang, and Christopher R. Roxbury. World Journal of Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, August.

HSV-1 LAT Promotes Ocular Diseases in the Absence of Type I IFN Responses in Sensory Neurons. Wang, Shaohui, Ujjaldeep Jaggi, Jay J. Oh, Deepak Arya, and Homayon Ghiasi. Journal of Virology, August, e0096026.

Mapping Structural Aging Across Human Tissues Reveals Tissue-Specific Trajectories and Coordinated Deterioration. Yadav, Anamika, Kyle Alvarez, Anna Chechenina, Kevin Y. Yip, Eytan Ruppin, Alexandre Colas, Jacqueline C. Yano Maher, Veronica Gomez-Lobo, Caroline Kumsta, and Sanju Sinha. Nature Aging, August.

Precision Oncology in Pediatric Cancer Surgery. Lee, William G., and Eugene S. Kim. Hematology/Oncology Clinics of North America 40 (5): 895–931.

Primary Resection and Metastasectomy for Well-Differentiated Grade 3 Gastro-Entero-Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors: A National Cancer Database Analysis. Sutton, Thomas L., Marco Ventin, Teodora Dumitra, Shahrzad Arya, Lara Schwieger, Cristina R. Ferrone, Andrew E. Hendifar, and Alexandra Gangi. Annals of Surgical Oncology, August.

Real-World Use of Normothermic Machine Perfusion in Liver Transplantation: A Multi-Institutional Experience From the National Organ Perfusion Registry. Cortez, Alexander R., Wei San Loh, Sarah Sheskey, Hillary J. Braun, Aashna Mehta, Christopher Connelly, Austin Schenk, Musab Alebrahim, Raj Patel, Lori A. McLamb, Andrew Barbas, Steven A. Wisel, Garrett R. Roll, and Kyle H. Sheetz. Clinical Transplantation 40 (9): e70664.

Reconstructing the Anterior Skull Base After Oncologic Resection: A Comprehensive Systematic Review of Open Techniques and Outcomes. Cardoso, Leonardo Januário Campos, Márcio Yuri Ferreira, Murtaja Satea, Paulo Vitor Marques Xavier, Lidia Cheidde, Benjamin Marc Daniels, Danil Ratnikov, Felix Schumacher, Gustavo Vieira Rennó, Anderson Matheus Pereira da Silva, Haizam Oubari, Alexandre G. Lellouch, and Netanel Ben-Shalom. The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery, August.

Urology

Robotic Versus Open Post-Chemotherapy Retroperitoneal Lymph Node Dissection: A Propensity Score Matched Study Across 11 Academic Medical Centers. Chavarriaga, Julian, Alireza Ghoreifi, Eshetu G. Atenafu, Ahmad Mousa, Lynn Anson-Cartwright, Sanchit Kaushal, Farshad Sheybaee Moghaddam, Anirban P. Mitra, Ashish Khanna, Amitabh Singh, Sol C. Moon, Ahmed Saeed Goolam, Ryan Chuang, Jordan Rich, Fady Baky, Mathew Ho, Jacob Roberts, Inderbir S. Gill, Reza Mehrazin, John Sfakianos, James Porter, Soroush Rais-Bahrami, Aditya Bagrodia, Nariman Ahmadi, Scott Eggener, Jacob Tallman, Sudhir Rawal, John F. Ward, Michael Jewett, Hooman Djaladat, and Robert J. Hamilton. World Journal of Urology 44 (1): 612.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

A new study led by Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University investigators found that prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels in the blood, which are used to track the effectiveness of prostate cancer treatment, need to be 10 times lower than most physicians generally target for the best patient outcomes.

The study, published in Cancer, could help doctors better manage treatment of prostate cancer patients, maximizing patients’ chances of survival.

“PSA levels drop dramatically when patients receive hormone therapy,” said Stephen Freedland, MD, professor of Urology and director of the Center for Integrated Research in Lifestyle and Cancer at Cedars-Sinai, and first author of the study. “Our study found that the optimal PSA level was less than 0.2 nanograms per milliliter of blood. However, fewer than half of patients given hormone therapy alone reached that optimal level for overall survival.”

Investigators reviewed Veterans Health Administration data on 4,090 prostate cancer patients. They found that even if PSA dropped 90%, if it did not get below 0.2 nanograms per milliliter of blood, outcomes were not good.

Importantly, the study found that if doctors added drugs called androgen receptor pathway inhibitors to their hormone therapy, patients were much more likely to reach PSA levels below 0.2 nanograms per milliliter of blood.

“Many physicians don’t offer patients additional treatment because hormone therapy alone lowers their PSA levels below 2 nanograms per milliliter, which we previously showed was many physicians’ target level,” Freedland said. “We hope these data will change that practice.”

Additional authors include Wei Gao, PhD; Maëlys Touya, PharmD, MSc; Hongbo Yang, PhD; David Russell, MD, FACS; Jingyi Chen, MS; Grace Chen, MS; and Jasmina I. Ivanova, MA.

Funding: Sponsored by Pfizer Inc. and Astellas Pharma Inc.

Disclosures: Stephen J. Freedland reports consulting or advisory roles with Astellas Pharma Inc., AstraZeneca, Bayer, Candel, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine (formerly Janssen), Merck, Novartis, Pfizer Inc., Sanofi, Sumitomo Pharma America, Inc. (formerly Myovant Sciences), and Tolmar.

New Tool Measures Thyroid Cancer Patients’ Anxiety

A new tool created by Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University investigators is the first to measure anxiety in patients with thyroid cancer. Described in Thyroid, the Thyroid Cancer Modified Anxiety Scale (TC-MAX) could help doctors clarify patients’ expectations, better match their treatment to their needs, and improve patient outcomes.

“A patient’s distress greatly influences which thyroid cancer treatment the patient prefers and what their doctor recommends,” said Allen Ho, MD, professor of Surgery, co-director of the Thyroid Cancer Program at Cedars-Sinai Cancer and senior author of the study. “We found that our tool effectively assesses patient concerns to help doctors better determine the best course of treatment. This is especially important when the treatment options have similar likely outcomes but patient preferences vary widely.”

The tool includes 18 questions that measure a patient’s general cancer-related anxiety, their anxiety around ultrasound testing, which is used to monitor thyroid cancer progression, and their fear about whether their cancer will progress or come back. Investigators created TC-MAX in collaboration with Thyroid Cancer Survivors’ Association, the world’s largest thyroid cancer patient consortium. They relied on medical literature, physician expertise and the perspectives of more than 1,000 thyroid cancer patients.

The study showed that the extent of each patient’s anxiety mirrored the extent of surgery they chose, Ho said. When active surveillance, partial thyroid removal and total thyroid removal were all options, patients with the highest TC-MAX anxiety scores chose to have their entire thyroid removed, while those with lower average TC-MAX scores generally selected partial thyroid removal. Patients with the lowest scores chose active surveillance.

Ho said that the tool is now ready for use in clinical trials and patient care.

Additional Cedars-Sinai authors include Amanda J. Bastien MD, Sungjin Kim MS, Cynthia Zalt, Iris Cong PhD, Jewel Ng, Caroline Marshall, Christopher V. Almario MD MSHPM, Omer Liran MD, Brennan M.R. Spiegel MD, MSHS, Jon Mallen-St. Clair MD, PhD, Evan Walgama MD, Kevin S. Scher MD, Julie K. Jang MD, Yufei Chen MD, Samuel Zhang MD, Linnea Peterson MD, Wendy L. Sacks MD, and Zachary S. Zumsteg MD.

Other authors include Gary Bloom and Michelle M. Chen MD.

Funding: AAOHNS CORE Grant; Cedars-Sinai Jim and Eleanor Randall Department of Surgery Research Award.

Reducing Unnecessary Fluid Testing Could Lower Cancer Care Costs

Doctors might be able to safely reduce healthcare costs by skipping unnecessary laboratory tests for patients with advanced gynecologic cancers, according to a Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University study. The paper, published in JAMA Network Open, examined testing on fluid drained from the abdomen or around the lungs.

Patients with advanced gynecologic cancer often experience fluid buildup in these areas. Draining the fluid helps relieve pain, pressure and other symptoms, but the investigators found that laboratory testing of the fluid is frequently unnecessary.

Cedars-Sinai gynecologic oncology fellow Yingao Zhang, MD, and obstetrics and gynecology resident Olivia Foy, MD, are co-first authors of the study.

“We undertook this study to determine how often unnecessary tests may be safely skipped, and to estimate how much this would help reduce healthcare costs,” Zhang said.

Investigators reviewed 976 fluid-draining procedures performed on gynecologic cancer patients at one hospital over 10 years. Laboratory testing was ordered in 40% of cases, a common practice done to rule out infection, check for the presence of cancer cells, and determine the cause of fluid buildup.

Nearly 80% of those orders included at least one test the researchers determined was likely unnecessary—either because a cancer diagnosis had already been confirmed or a patient had no symptoms that would prompt further fluid testing. The estimated cost of these tests was roughly $1million over 10 years.

The investigators found that unnecessary tests were more likely to be ordered in the emergency department or for hospitalized patients than in outpatient clinics. They also found that non-oncology care providers were more likely to order unneeded fluid tests than oncologists.

“Avoiding automatic lab testing on fluid from patients with known cancer diagnoses represents a low-risk opportunity to reduce healthcare costs,” Foy said.

The investigators identified clinician education as a way to reduce unnecessary testing and related costs, and suggested that similar analyses in other cancer types and other institutions could uncover additional cost-reducing opportunities.

Additional Cedars-Sinai authors include Grace Pipes, MD; and Margaret I. Liang, MD, MSHPM.

Funding: The Cedars-Sinai Honest Enterprise Research Broker (HERB) Committee, which assisted with cohort building, is supported by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) UCLA CTSI Grant Number UL1TR001881.

Disclosures: Dr. Liang reported grants from Merck, grants from Foundation for Women’s Cancer, and personal fees from Association of Cancer Care Centers outside the submitted work.

How Your Brain Stays Focused on a Goal

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University investigators have discovered how the brain maintains focus when a person is working toward a goal. The study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, sheds light on how a person’s brain actively maintains task goals in working memory while that person responds to changes in their environment.

“Our findings show that the brain maintains memories of task goals by keeping certain neurons persistently active over minutes,” said Ueli Rutishauser, PhD, professor of Neurosurgery, at Cedars-Sinai and senior author of the study. “The two different brain regions we studied maintained such memories in two different formats, thereby giving people the flexibility to adapt while continuing to pursue the same goal.”

The study concentrated on two brain regions: the medial frontal cortex, which supports planning, decision-making and long-term goal achievement, and the hippocampus, which plays an important role in learning and memory.

Investigators recorded the activity of individual brain cells while study participants completed tasks designed to test how the brain remembers goals over many minutes without reminders.

By analyzing activity patterns in different brain regions, investigators found that task goals are stably and persistently represented by brain cells in the medial frontal cortex many minutes after instructions were given to the participants. In contrast, the hippocampus continuously updated task goal information as circumstances changed on the timescale of seconds. This allows a person to adapt quickly to change without losing sight of a desired long-term outcome.

Additional Cedars-Sinai authors include Hristos Courellis, Michael Kyzar, Juri Minxha and Adam Mamelak.

Other authors include Araceli R. Cardenas, Taufik Valiante and Ralph Adolphs.

Funding: This work was supported by the BRAIN Initiative through the NIH Office of the Director (U01NS117839 to U.R.), the Simons Foundation Collaboration on the Global Brain (to U.R. and R.A.), and by a merit scholarship from the Josephine De Karman Fellowship Trust (to H.S.C.).

Small Bowel Microbiome Offers Clues to Women’s Health        

A new study by investigators at Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University has identified differences in the makeup and organization of the small bowel microbiome between women and men. The findings, published in iScience, could offer new insights into why some conditions are more prevalent in women.

The small bowel microbiome comprises a community of microorganisms that coexist in this part of the digestive tract and play vital roles in immune function, metabolism and hormonal regulation.

“One intriguing finding was a bacterial community containing Granulicatella, which we found only in women,” said Ruchi Mathur, MD, director of Clinical Research and Clinical Operations for the Medically Associated Science and Technology (MAST) Program at Cedars-Sinai and corresponding author of the study. “Bacteria in this community appear at increased levels in women with polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome, formerly known as polycystic ovary syndrome.”

Investigators also found sex differences related to how small bowel microbes produce fructans, complex carbohydrates known for triggering digestive symptoms in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a condition far more common in women than men.

“Our findings show that biological sex is a critical variable in the small bowel microbiome,” said Mathur, also a professor of Medicine. “We must consider it as we move toward more personalized approaches to understanding and treating disease.”

Other Cedars-Sinai authors include Mohamad Rashid, Gabriela Leite, Gillian M. Barlow, Ava Hosseini, Daniel Brimberry, Dilara Flor, Gonzalo Parodi, Maritza Sanchez, Ignacio Rivera, Angel Trujillo, Maria Jesus Villanueva-Millan, Walter Morales, Stacy Weitsman and Mark Pimentel.

Funding: This study was supported by the Monica Lester Charitable Trust and the Elias, Genevieve and Georgianna Atol Charitable Trust in support of Ruchi Mathur’s research, and the National Philanthropic Trust in support of Mark Pimentel’s research.

Boosting the Accuracy of Disease Risk Prediction From Genetic Data

Investigators at Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University have developed a new computational framework for improving how genetic data is used to estimate the inherited risk that an individual will develop conditions like Alzheimer's disease, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and breast cancer.

The framework, called Adaptive Boosting of Pre-trained Polygenic Risk Scores (AB-PRS) and described in Nature Communications, builds on existing polygenic risk scores, tools that estimate disease risk based on many genetic variants across the genome, and identifies additional genetic signals that may not be fully captured by current scoring methods.

"As more people undergo genetic testing, it's becoming increasingly important to make the best use of that information," said Ruowang Li, PhD, co-corresponding author of the study and assistant professor of Computational Biomedicine at Cedars-Sinai. "Our findings aim to improve the accuracy of genetic risk prediction, allowing us to better predict disease risk and guide more personalized care."

Polygenic risk scores are increasingly used in research and clinical settings to estimate genetic susceptibility to common diseases, but their accuracy varies across diseases, datasets and populations. Investigators trained AB-PRS to identify genetic signals that existing risk scores may miss. They tested the approach using genetic data from the UK Biobank and validated the findings in three independent biobanks. The method consistently matched or outperformed existing polygenic risk scores across multiple diseases. The researchers say additional validation, particularly in more diverse populations, will be needed before the approach can be widely used in clinical care.

Additional Cedars-Sinai authors include Raelynn Chen, Olivia Wu, Okan Bilge Ozdemir, Zaldy Tan.

Other authors include Jie Hu, Maxwell Salvatore, Yiwen Lu, Shawn Murphy, Elizabeth Karlson, Atlas Khan, Krzysztof Kiryluk, Iftikhar Kullo, Johanna Smith, Eimear Kenny, Yuan Luo, William G. La Cava, Marylyn D. Ritchie and Yong Chen.

Funding: J.H. and Y.C.’s efforts were supported in part by National Institutes of Health

(U01TR003709, RF1AG077820, R01AG073435, R01DK128237). R.L. is supported

by the National Institutes of Health grants R01 AG094962, P30 AG094848 and U01 AG066833 and in part by Cedars-Sinai Department of Neurology/Jona Goldrich Center for Alzheimer’s & Memory Disorders. R.C. and O.B.O. are supported by the Department of Computational Biomedicine, Cedars-Sinai.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

Atrial fibrillation, or AFib, is a condition in which the heart’s upper chambers beat irregularly, often causing a rapid heartbeat. Some people with AFib also experience chest discomfort, shortness of breath or heart palpitations. Others may notice only mild fatigue during activity. And still others may feel no symptoms at all. AFib also increases the risk of stroke.

“That’s why it’s especially important to carefully manage AFib in the summer, when people may spend more time in the sun, lose fluids through sweating, and drink more alcohol on vacation, at barbecues and at other outdoor social gatherings,” said Archana Ramireddy, MD, a clinical electrophysiologist in the Smidt Heart Institute. “Older adults are especially affected by the heat, even if it may not seem obvious at first.”

In recognition of AFib Awareness Month in September—when Southern California often experiences some of its hottest weather—the Cedars-Sinai Newsroom spoke with Ramireddy about steps people with AFib can take to stay healthy.

What summer factors can trigger an AFib episode?

Hot weather can put added stress on the heart, but heat itself isn’t necessarily the primary concern. Dehydration is of special concern because people lose fluids through sweating. Older adults may be particularly susceptible to heat-related dehydration because the body’s ability to conserve fluids and regulate temperature can decline with age. Alcohol is another concern because it is a well-recognized trigger for AFib, and people tend to drink more during the summer while vacationing, spending time outdoors and attending social gatherings.

Should people with AFib drink plain water to stay hydrated, or do they need electrolytes?

Plain water is usually the best choice. Electrolyte drinks may be helpful in some circumstances, although individual needs vary based on heat exposure, activity level, how much a person has been sweating, and underlying health conditions.

What are the signs of dehydration?

Signs of dehydration can include dark urine, dizziness, dry mouth, fatigue, confusion and a rapid heartbeat. If symptoms are prolonged or severe, or if a person also is experiencing chest discomfort or shortness of breath, they should seek medical attention.

Is coffee off-limits for people with AFib?

One cup of coffee a day generally isn’t a concern. Even two cups may be acceptable, although for some patients I recommend switching extra servings to decaf or half-caf. It’s most important that people pay attention to their own bodies. If caffeine consistently triggers symptoms, cutting back is recommended. I’m far more concerned about the consumption of multiple energy drinks, because high doses of caffeine and other ingredients in these drinks can increase the risk of arrhythmias.

Is it safe for people with AFib to exercise in the summer?

I encourage regular exercise for my patients with AFib. If physical activity consistently triggers episodes, the underlying AFib should be evaluated and treated rather than simply avoiding exercise. That said, it’s best to avoid strenuous exercise during the hottest part of the day and to stay well-hydrated if outside in the heat. To combat overheating, seek air conditioning, drink plenty of water, take a cool shower or use cool towels.

What if a person thinks they may have AFib?

If a person has heart palpitations and isn’t sure what is causing them, capturing an episode can be key for diagnosis and treatment. This is where wearable devices, such as smartwatches, can play a role. If a device can record an ECG, or electrocardiogram, during an episode, a physician can review the tracing to determine whether it is consistent with AFib. Wearable devices have helped us identify more patients sooner, allowing us to begin treatment sooner. Preventing stroke is a major goal of AFib treatment. People who have been diagnosed with AFib should work with their healthcare team to determine whether further evaluation by a cardiac electrophysiologist is appropriate.

Read more from Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: Atrial Fibrillation—Know the Warning Signs

Beta-blockers, used to treat high blood pressure and other heart conditions, mute the effects of adrenaline, slowing the heart rate and relaxing blood vessels. Prescribed off-label, they can ease some of the physical symptoms associated with short-term, situational anxiety, such as nervousness before a speech or presentation.

“For example, if you have tremors, if you have sweating, if you have palpitations, if you have increased heart rates, the beta-blockers essentially target that and dull that down,” Murphy told AARP.

She said beta-blockers provide an additional option for people who experience occasional anxiety, particularly those who cannot tolerate or are not good candidates for other anxiety medications.

“They’re kind of a different class of medications compared to other, more classical treatments we have for anxiety and depression,” she said. “They’re not SSRIs, they’re not antidepressants, they’re not benzodiazepines.”

However, Murphy noted that beta-blockers may not be suitable for everyone, including people with certain heart or circulation conditions. They also can worsen asthma and mask signs of low blood sugar.

She told AARP that people considering beta-blockers should consult their healthcare provider to help determine whether the medication is right for them or whether speaking with a mental health professional would be more appropriate.

Beta-blockers are not a treatment for chronic conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder.

Read the complete article from AARP.

L-glutamine, an amino acid that occurs naturally in the body and plays an important role in digestion, has been studied as a potential way to ease side effects in other cancers. But this was the first trial to evaluate it as an anti-cancer therapy in human patients, said Jun Gong, MD, associate professor of Medicine, medical director of Colorectal Cancer at Cedars-Sinai Cancer and first author of the study.

“Current treatment for stage 4 pancreatic cancer is a cocktail of chemotherapy, with overall survival ranging from eight to 13 months,” Gong said. “We found that by adding L-glutamine to this treatment, we increased overall survival to as much as 22 months—and these positive results merit larger clinical trials of this combination.”

In this Phase I clinical trial, investigators studied 16 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. All patients were treated with a standard chemotherapy combination of gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel, along with clinical-grade L-glutamine supplements.

“We began the trial in the hope of improving gut health in these patients,” said Neil Bhowmick, PhD, Mark Goodson Chair in Oncology Research, professor of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, research scientist at Cedars-Sinai Cancer, and senior author of the study. “Patients with pancreatic cancer do not absorb nutrients well, and often develop a condition called cachexia—a loss of weight and muscle that can be fatal. Glutamine is known to help the gut heal.”

Half of the patients in the study maintained their weight, and investigators found a correlation between the way the bacteria in the gut responded to the glutamine and patient outcomes, Gong said.

“At the time of our paper’s publication, the life expectancy of these patients taking glutamine and chemotherapy was more than double the average life expectancy associated with the historical standard of care,” Gong said. “The study did not compare the two options head-to-head, but our result is striking enough for us to advance to a larger randomized trial where patients are given glutamine or not.”

In the lab, investigators also found that cancer cells exposed to high-dose glutamine were particularly vulnerable to chemotherapy, a result in line with the reduction in tumor size seen in patients.

“It is really satisfying to see science from the bench translated so well into patient outcomes,” Bhowmick said.

The supplements used in the study are approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of sickle cell disease, meaning they are federally regulated, Bhowmick and Gong said.

“The survival rate for advanced pancreatic cancer is poor,” said Robert Figlin, MD, interim director of Cedars-Sinai Cancer. “This trial points to a potential new option for optimizing first-line chemotherapy for patients while also opening up a number of new avenues for our physician-scientists to study.”

Additional Cedars-Sinai authors include Hayato Muranaka, So Yung Choi, Mourad Tighiouart, Aleksandr Stotland, Jennifer Van Eyk, Omer H.M. Elmadbouh, Mouad Edderkaoui, Sunao Tanaka, Hideki Furuya, Arsen Osipov, Jeremy Lorber, Sandrine Billet, Stephen J. Pandol, and Andrew Hendifar.

Other authors include Shrikant Bhute, Ezinne R. Aja, Jonathan P. Jacobs, Alexzandra Morris, Johanna ten Hoeve-Scott, and Thomas Graeber.

Funding: This project was funded by the 2019 Tower Cancer Research Foundation Experimental Therapeutics Endowed Fund/Cedars-Sinai Cancer 2019 Developmental Funds for Investigator-Initiated Trials (IITs; J.G.). This project was also supported in part by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) UCLA CTSI (UL1 TR001881-01; M.T.) and NCI grants P01CA233452 (M.T., S.J.P., N.A.B.) and U01 grant CA232859-01 (M.T.).

Competing Interest Statement: H.M., N.A.B., J.G. and A.H. have a pending patent related to the work.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

Danovitch told CBS LA Mornings co-hosts Jamie Yuccas and Sheba Turk that eating disorders such as anorexia and binge eating are marked by inflexible patterns of eating, distress and, often, distortions in body image. Repeated exposure to cultural messages and images contributes to these conditions.

Eating disorders in men have long been underrecognized, he said, though men account for about a third of cases. Rates are now increasing more quickly among men than among women, which Danovitch attributed to cultural pressures around muscularity and appearance.

“We are in an environment where we’re constantly presented with images that are unrealistic of what’s attainable about one’s body,” he said. “We are constantly confronted with platforms, like social media, that cause us to appraise and assess our own appearance and compare it to unrealistic representations.”

Danovitch cautioned against making assumptions about someone’s health based on appearance. When asked how to address concerns about a loved one’s health, he encouraged a direct, caring approach.

“The best thing to do is to directly express your concern: ‘I’m worried about you. I’ve noticed there’s been a change in your behavior,’” he said. He recommended asking questions rather than making judgments because judgments can cause a person to become defensive.

Danovitch added that changing behavior is rarely immediate.

“It’s a marathon,” he told Yuccas and Turk, noting that the most effective approach is to express concern consistently over time and encourage a loved one to see a doctor.

Watch the complete segment from CBS 2.

Cedars-Sinai in the News

GLP-1 Health Benefits May Go ‘Far Beyond’ Weight Loss. Here’s What’s Exciting Doctors | TODAY
Nicolas Musi, MD 

STI Rates Fall by Two Thirds After Implementation of DoxyPEP Prescribing at Southern US Clinic | Medscape
Christopher Foltz, MD 

Cases of ‘Scromiting’ Condition Tied to Cannabis Use Spike Among Teens, Young Adults: New Study | The Hill
Sam Torbati, MD 

The Lifesaving Case for CPR Dummies With Breasts | Vox
Pooja Nawathe, MD

Managing IBD Patients With Few Options Left | Gastroenterology & Endoscopy News
Gil Melmed, MD 

Cedars-Sinai Study Links Daily Coffee to Reduced Liver Scarring | Los Angeles Times
Hyunseok Kim, MD, MPH, PhD, and Shelly Lu, MD 

Are Fermented Foods More Than a Wellness Trend? | The Advisory Board
Suzanne Devkota, PhD

AI System Links Surgical Gestures With Postoperative Outcomes | Urology Times
Andrew J. Hung, MD

Faculty Publications

Biomedical Sciences

PTEN-AKT2 Regulates Mixed Lineage Liver Cancer Development and Sensitizes Cancer Cells to TGFβ Treatment. Tang, Qi, Ielyzaveta Slarve, Jingyu Chen, Ni Zeng, Yiwei Gu, Lina He, Shunan Hu, Diala Alhousari, Zifei Xu, Brittney Hua, Guo Zhang, Phillip Nguyen, Mario Alba, Ajay Bharadwaj, Jihyeon Lee, Simion Kreimer, Jian Xu, Baoan Ji, Shelly C. Lu, Jennifer Van Eyk, Shefali Chopra, Gary Kanel, Liyun Yuan, and Bangyan L. Stiles. Oncogene, August.

Cardiac Surgery

The Impact of Preoperative Mechanical Support on Long-Term Survival Following Early Lung Re-Transplantation for Graft Failure. Krishna, Vikram, Allen A. Razavi, Brian Lim, Zachary Brennan, Qiudong Chen, Joanna Chikwe, Michael E. Bowdish, Laura DiChiacchio, Reinaldo Rampolla, Dominick Megna, and Pedro Catarino. JHLT Open 14 (November): 100626.

Cardiology

Artificial Intelligence-Derived Fractional Flow Reserve in Routine Clinical Practice: An International Multicenter Retrospective Study. Ben-Assa, Eyal, Bruce A. Samuels, Ehtisham Mahmud, Carlos Cafri, Ariel Roguin, Yair Feld, Eli Lev, Emanuel Harari, Tali Ben-Yehuda, Hector M. Garcia-Garcia, and Gregg W. Stone. Journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions 5 (8): 105451.

Associations Between Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety With Left Ventricular Hypertrophy Among Hispanic and Latino Participants of the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos. Andrade-Bucknor, Sharon N., Robert A. Mesa, Christina Cordero, Neil Schneiderman, Alvin Mathew, Barry E. Hurwitz, Carlos J. Rodriguez, Linda C. Gallo, Carlos E. Rosas, Sara Gonzalez, Scott D. Solomon, Susan Cheng, Martha Daviglus, Mayank M. Kansal, Krista M. Perreira, Frank J. Penedo, and Tali Elfassy. Journal of the American Heart Association, August, e048867.

Conduction Disturbances and Pacing After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement: Mechanisms, Risk Stratification, and Management. AlBadri, Ahmed, Stephanie Wang, Cesar Egoavil, and Hasan Jilaihawi. Interventional Cardiology Clinics 15 (4): 623–35.

Device Shifting and Embolization of a New Generation Percutaneous Left Atrial Appendage Occluding Device. Novel Insights on Watchman FLX PRO. Bahbah, Ali, Ehab Aboelsoud, Mai Badr, Kerollos Abdelsayed, John Ambrose, Chandra K. Katikireddy, Robert Hauser, and Michael Shehata. Cardiovascular Revascularization Medicine: Including Molecular Interventions, August, S1553-8389(26)00370-2.

Early Multicenter Outcomes of Dedicated Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement for Left Ventricular Assist Device-Associated Pure Aortic Regurgitation. Hinkov, Hristian, Sara Yousefzada, Isabell A. Just, Christoph Klein, Evgenij Potapov, Santiago Garcia, Dhairya Patel, Lauren S. Ranard, Arseniy Goncharov, Dean J. Kereiakes, Raj R. Makkar, Torsten P. Vahl, Tanja K. Rudolph, and Axel Unbehaun. Artificial Organs, August.

Health Status Relationship to Ischemia and Coronary Artery Disease Severity in the ISCHEMIA Trial. Phillips, Lawrence M., Philip G. Jones, Leslee J. Shaw, Daniel B. Mark, Daniel S. Berman, Raymond Y. Kwong, Michael H. Picard, Bernard R. Chaitman, James K. Min, Jelena Celutkiene, Gregg W. Stone, Joao Vitola, Nagaraja Moorthy, Philippe Gabriel Steg, Peter Ong, Whady A. Hueb, Paulo C. Rezende, Judith S. Hochman, David J. Maron, Harmony R. Reynolds, John A. Spertus, and ISCHEMIA Research Group. American Heart Journal, August, 107586.

Impaired CD4+ T Cell Response to Apolipoprotein B-100 Peptide P210 in Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Is Reversed by P210-Conjugated Nanoparticles. Dimayuga, Paul C., Jianchang Zhou, Xiaoning Zhao, Janet Wei, Noah Trac, Karla Lambaren, Eun Ji Chung, Bojan Cercek, Prediman K. Shah, and Kuang-Yuh Chyu. American Journal of Physiology. Heart and Circulatory Physiology, August.

Mitral Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge Repair in Younger Adults. Guo, Yuchao, Vivek Patel, Jair Basantes de la Calle, Takashi Nagasaka, Kazuki Suruga, Hidemasa Shitan, Dhairya Patel, Tarun Chakravarty, Mamoo Nakamura, Aakriti Gupta, Moody Makar, Sabah Skaf, Mitch Gheorghiu, Wen Cheng, Hasan Jilaihawi, and Raj Makkar. Journal of the American Heart Association, August, e043262.

Prenatal Diagnosis of Aorto-Left Ventricular Tunnel. Le, Tuyen Kim, Truong Huy Hoang, and Mark S. Sklansky. CASE 10 (8): 342–45.

Pulmonary Primary Oxysterol and Bile Acid Synthesis as a Predictor of Outcomes in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension. Alotaibi, Mona, Lloyd D. Harvey, William C. Nichols, Anna Hemnes, Wei Sun, Arjana Begzati, Tao Long, Aki S. Havulinna, Teemu J. Niiranen, Ankit A. Desai, Susan Cheng, Mohit Jain, and Stephen Y. Chan. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, August, aamag383.

Racial and Ethnic Differences in Dietary Intake and Metabolic Profiles Among Adults With Heart Failure, Type 2 Diabetes, and Overweight or Obesity: A Secondary Analysis of the Pro-HEART Trial. Evangelista, Lorraine S., Angelina P. Nguyen, Jennifer Kawi, Rebecca Meraz, Kelly L. Wierenga, Alona D. Angosta, Michele A. Hamilton, and Gregg C. Fonarow. Nutrients 18 (16): 2737.

Redo-TAVR With Evolut: The Second Valve Is Only Half the Story. Chakravarty, Tarun, Christopher Rajkumar, and Raj R. Makkar. JACC. Cardiovascular Interventions 19 (16): 2217–19.

Sleep Deprivation as a Modulator of Thyroid Function: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Jain, Sharon Philip, Laurentia Fidella Averina Setia Santoso, Niharika Ikkurthy, Shervinchris Philip Jain, and Gilda Silven. Journal of Endocrinological Investigation, August.

Stability of Compounded Intracoronary Acetylcholine and Implications for Beyond-Use Dating. Takahashi, Tatsunori, Janet Wei, Allen Ahn, Heidi Hagena, C. Noel Bairey Merz, and Bruce A. Samuels. Circulation. Cardiovascular Interventions, August, e017021.

Statins and Frailty in Older Adults: From Cardioprotection to Geroprotection. Ji, Hongwei, Elaine Luterstein, and Susan Cheng. European Heart Journal, August, ehag640.

The Neglected Role of Lethal Arrhythmia in the Sudden Death of Stroke Survivors. Kadiyala, Vishnu, Kyndaron Reinier, and Sumeet S. Chugh. Nature Cardiovascular Research, August.

Computational Biomedicine

A Novel Approach for Analyzing Non-Proportional Hazards With Long-Term Survivors: The Defective Yang-Prentice Model. Calsavara, Vinicius F. Biometrical Journal. Biometrische Zeitschrift 68 (5): e70158.

Emergency Medicine

VenoArterial Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation in Cardiac Arrest Suspected Due to Massive Pulmonary Embolism: A Case Report. Chopra, Tananshi, Lea Dahlke, Nancy Salinas, Moizza Shabbir, Tyler Gunn, and Sam Torbati. Clinical Practice and Cases in Emergency Medicine 10 (3): 358–62.

Medicine

A Dosimetric Reappraisal of the Photobiomodulation Literature Assessing Animal Safety and Phototoxicity Evidence for Photobiomodulation in Oncology: Phantom Dangers. Cronshaw, Mark, Steven Parker, James D. Carroll, Joel B. Epstein, Kinga Grzech-Leśniak, and Michael R. Hamblin. Biomedicines 14 (8): 1859.

A Single Question on Quality-of-Life Improvement Identifies Treatment Satisfaction in Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Clark, Allistair, Rongsen Li, Brennan M. R. Spiegel, and Christopher V. Almario. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, August, S1542-3565(26)00629-4.

Anakinra Prophylaxis for Recurrent Severe ICANS Associated With Tarlatamab in Small Cell Lung Cancer: Case Report. Shia, David W., Suwicha Limvorasak, Karen L. Reckamp, and Kamya Sankar. JTO Clinical and Research Reports 7 (9): 101025.

Beyond ADCs: Antibody-Encapsulated Drug for Targeted Cancer Therapy. Li, Linrong, Armando Giuliano, Qiang Sun, Xiaojiang Cui, and Yuan Yuan. Cell Investigation 2 (3): 100087.

Cross-Cultural Validation of the 11-Item Frommelt Attitude Toward the Care of the Dying Scale Among U.S. Preclinical Medical Students. Miniotti, Marco, Barbara Loera, Giorgia Molinengo, Michael Lee, Amy Hayton, Julio Silvestre, and Paolo Leombruni. Journal of Cancer Education, August.

Elacestrant in Combination With Everolimus for Estrogen Receptor-Positive, HER2-Negative Previously Treated Advanced Breast Cancer: Results From ELEVATE. Rugo, Hope S., Sara M. Tolaney, Nancy Chan, Giuliano Borges, Rinat Yerushalmi, Marina N. Sharifi, Wassim McHayleh, Thaddeus Beck, Neelima Vidula, Erika Hamilton, Kristine J. Rinn, Joyce O’Shaughnessy, Giuseppe Curigliano, Javier Cortés, Isabel Garcia-Fructuoso, Philippe Aftimos, Begoña Bermejo de Las Heras, Pablo Tolosa, Yuan Yuan, Vicente Valero, Marla Lipsyc-Sharf, Paula Muñoz Romero, Faten Koraichi Auriol, Alessandro Paoli, Jennifer A. Crozier, Tomer Wasserman, and Virginia Kaklamani. Clinical Cancer Research, August.

Epigenetic Aging of Colorectal Mucosa in Cancer Development. Hardikar, Sheetal, Biljana Gigic, Jacob K. Kresovich, Victoria Damerell, Caroline Himbert, Jennifer Ose, Adetunji T. Toriola, David Shibata, Christopher I. Li, Jane C. Figueiredo, Doratha A. Byrd, Erin M. Siegel, Christoph Kahlert, Alexander Brobeil, Peter Schirmacher, Cornelia M. Ulrich, and Timothy M. Barrow. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, August, djag297.

Genetic Testing in Pituitary Adenomas: A Pituitary Society International Consensus Statement. De Sousa, Sunita M. C., Cynthia L. Andoniadou, Adrian F. Daly, Mônica Gadelha, Federico Gatto, Peter Kamenický, Pedro Marques, Martin Reincke, Frederique Ruf-Zamojski, Roberto Salvatori, Yutaka Takahashi, Christina Tatsi, Takako Araki, Sabrina Chiloiro, Laura Dichtel, Adriana G. Ioachimescu, Susana Mallea-Gil, Dan A. Niculescu, Alberto M. Pereira, Ilan Shimon, John Wass, Gabriel Zada, Maria Fleseriu, and Shlomo Melmed. Nature Reviews. Endocrinology, August.

Insights on Supplement Use During Cancer Care From Online Reddit Conversations. Waissengrin, Barliz, Karen O’Connor, Celina H. Shirazipour, Flores Amaro Ivan, Karen L. Reckamp, Graciela Gonzalez-Hernandez, and Jane C. Figueiredo. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies 26 (1): 256.

Pain Prescription Trends and Opioid Disorder Risk in Chronic Pancreatitis: A Real-World Data Analysis From 2015 to 2024. Cai, Yanna, Jianing Li, Niwen Kong, Walter G. Park, Yan Bi, Stephen Pandol, and Yi Jiang. Pancreatology, August, S1424-3903(26)00896-3.

Reply: The Simplest Hepatoprotective Intervention? Coffee in the Era of Precision Hepatology. Celtik, Derin, Hyun-Seok Kim, and co-authors. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, August, S1542-3565(26)00632-4.

The International Chinese Young Scholars Alliance for the Study of the Liver: Facilitating Global Collaboration. Li, Wenhao, Zhujun Cao, Yee Hui Yeo, Ying Shang, Kaina Chen, and Xiaolong Qi. Nature Reviews. Gastroenterology & Hepatology, August.

Timing-Dependent Clearance of P16-Positive Cells Mitigates Radiation-Induced Accelerated Aging. Valdivieso, Karla, Melanie Weigand, Daniela G. Costa, Gung Lee, Nick Pirius, Helene Martini, Shivangi Oberai, Christina Inman, Yi Zhu, Thomas von Zglinicki, Sundeep Khosla, Nathan LeBrasseur, João F. Passos, Tamara Tchkonia, James L. Kirkland, and Diana Jurk. Aging Cell 25 (9): e70693.

Neurosurgery

Disruption of Hippocampal Upstream Regulators of mTOR and Insulin Pathways in Down Syndrome With Alzheimer’s Disease Neuropathology: Preliminary Observations. Nordbeck, Abigail J., Mitchell Martá-Ariza, Henric Ek Olofsson, Evgeny Kanshin, Beatrix Ueberheide, Ken Jones, Bridget Sanford, Eric D. Hamlett, Elizabeth Head, Elliott J. Mufson, Sylvia E. Perez, Thomas Wisniewski, Samuel Guzman, and Ann-Charlotte Granholm. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association 22 (8): e71776.

Socioeconomic and Sociodemographic Factors and Utilization of Revascularization Surgery in Moyamoya Disease: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Wijaya, Jeremiah Hilkiah, Miguel David Quintero Consuegra, Daniela A. Perez-Chadid, Aafreen Azmi, Juan Pablo Avila Madrigal, Abdelrahman Ramadan Elashry, Mohamed Lemine Sidi, Kerry A. Vaughan, Shane Shahrestani, Anil Nanda, and Nestor Gonzalez. Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases, August, 108735.

The Impact of Testosterone Replacement Therapy on Clinical Outcomes After Anterior Cervical Discectomy and Fusion: A Propensity-Matched Cohort Study. Ferdon, Robert J., Jacob Peller, Sohaib Z. Hashmi, J. Patrick Johnson, Robert A. Ravinsky, Charles A. Reitman, and Jason Silvestre. European Spine Journal, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society, August.

Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine

Charcot-Marie-Tooth Cavovarus Foot: Current Concepts and Emerging Strategies for Deformity Correction. Moon, Sung Jun, Young Ki Min, Glenn B. Pfeffer, Byung Ki Cho, Chan Kang, Yea Eun Kang, Woo Jin Shin, and Jae Hwang Song. Journal of Clinical Medicine 15 (16): 6474.

Clavicle Length and Scapulothoracic Angle in Young Children With Internal Rotation Contracture Secondary to Brachial Plexus Birth Palsy: A Bilateral MRI Study. Meltzer, Jourdan H., and Michael L. Pearl. JSES Reviews, Reports, and Techniques 6 (4): 100823.

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Improving the Histologic Classification of Advanced Diabetic Nephropathy Based on the Transformative Research in Diabetic Nephropathy (TRIDENT) Findings. Mohandes, Samer, Cynthia C. Nast, Amy Mottl, Julia Scialla, Salem Almaani, Randy Luciano, Tamara Isakova, Carla Ellis, Shweta Bansal, Christos Argyropoulos, J. Charles Jennette, Adil Gasim, Isaac E. Stillman, Kirk N. Campbell, Amin Abedini, Gaia Coppock, TRIDENT Consortium, Katalin Susztak, and Matthew B. Palmer. Kidney International, August, S0085-2538(26)00716-7.

Pediatrics

Advancing Neonatal Drug Development Through Industry-Academic Collaboration. Ramanathan, Rangasamy, Jacob V. Aranda, Daniele De Luca, and Victoria Niklas. Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 66 (8): e70273.

Breastfeeding and Viral Infections in Preterm Infants: A Multicenter Cohort Study. Kamiya, Yusaku, Akihito Takeuchi, Kazue Nakamura, Takahiro Namba, Kei Tamai, Makoto Nakamura, Misao Kageyama, Takashi Yorifuji, and Noriko Sugino. Pediatric Research, August.

Development and Validation of Temperature Trajectory-Based Phenotypes in Pediatric Sepsis: A Multicenter Retrospective Cohort Study, 2012-2018. Brown, Stephanie R., L. Nelson Sanchez-Pinto, Jocelyn R. Grunwell, Xiao Hu, Craig M. Coopersmith, Mihir R. Atreya, Colin M. Rogerson, Alon Geva, Tellen D. Bennett, Grace Chong, Sareen S. Shah, Mark W. Hall, and Sivasubramanium V. Bhavani. Pediatric Critical Care Medicine: A Journal of the Society of Critical Care Medicine and the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies, August.

Shared Genetic Basis and Structure of Syndromic and Normal Facial Variation. Aponte, J. David, Cassidy Da Silva, Hanne Hoskens, Seppe Goovaerts, Michiel Vanneste, Jay Devine, Katherine Caine, Alexander Buchner Beaudet, H. Artee Luchman, Seth M. Weinberg, Hilde Peeters, Ophir D. Klein, Ralph S. Marcucio, A. Micheil Innes, Peter Claes, Richard A. Spritz, Francois P. Bernier, and Benedikt Hallgrímsson. American Journal of Human Genetics, August, S0002-9297(26)00280-6.

Radiation Oncology

Association of Pulmonary Artery Radiation With Pulmonary Hypertension After Lung Cancer Radiotherapy. Atkins, Katelyn M., Samuel C. Zhang, Christopher E. Kehayias, Christian Guthier, Katrina D. Silos, Olivia Peony, Andrew Warrington, Mina Bakhtiar, Maria Oorloff, Cosmin Ciausu, Asneh Singh, John He, David E. Kozono, David C. Christiani, Cody Ramin, Anju Nohria, Andriana P. Nikolova, Aaron B. Waxman, and Raymond H. Mak. Thorax, August, thorax-2025-224178.

Thymic Radiation Is Associated With Worse Outcomes in Patients With NSCLC. Prudente, V., S. Bernatz, S. Pai, K. M. Atkins, F. Pecci, E. Garbo, K. Bressem, C. V. Guthier, A. Warrington, M. Tonneau, C. Ciausu, S. Yu, L. Thompson, E. Mannarino, A. K. Attermann, L. Nuernberg, C. E. Kehayias, C. Abbosh, C. Swanton, M. Jamal-Hanjani, B. Ricciuti, N. J. Birkbak, R. H. Mak, and H. J. W. L. Aerts. Annals of Oncology, December, S0923-7534(26)00997-X.

Surgery

Cellularized Skin Substitute Bioengineering for Regenerative Medicine: Cell Sources, Culture Strategies, and Transition Toward Defined, Xeno-Free Culture Systems. Lemaître, Gilles, Marina Trouillas, Tatiana Vinasco-Sandoval, Cécile Giordano, Alexandre G. Lellouch, Walid Rachidi, Jean-Jacques Lataillade, and Nicolas O. Fortunel. Advanced Healthcare Materials, August, e71630.

Development and Reliability Testing of the Sinonasal Assessment of Reepithelialization, a Novel Wound Healing Scale to Assess Postoperative Healing. Bellary, Rohan, Zakaria Dairi, Niraj Rama, Jennifer Kreinik, Thomas S. Higgins, Taylor Carle, Arthur W. Wu, Dilpreet Mann, Jennifer K. Mulligan, Brian Lobo, Christopher Ito, Elisa A. Illing, Satyan B. Sreenath, Martin J. Citardi, Christopher Roxbury, Raj Sindwani, Edward McCoul, Jeffrey Suh, Daniel Beswick, Philip G. Chen, and Dennis M. Tang. International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology, August.

Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy With or Without Radiotherapy in Resected Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma. De Stefano, Federico, Nathaniel F. Wu, Giulio Belfiori, Hannah J. Roberts, Cristina Ferrone, Francesca Aleotti, Jill N. Allen, Gianpaolo Balzano, Lawrence S. Blaszkowsky, Jeffrey W. Clark, Francesco De Cobelli, Peter J. Fagenholz, Giulia Gasparini, Jon M. Harrison, Theodore S. Hong, Nicole A. Lester, Diego Palumbo, Priyadarshini S. Pathak, Nicolò Pecorelli, Marco Schiavo Lena, Rebecca Tang, Domenico Tamburrino, Colin D. Weekes, Motaz Qadan, Stefano Partelli, Keith D. Lillemoe, David P. Ryan, Jennifer Y. Wo, Stefano Crippa, Massimo Falconi, and Carlos Fernández-Del Castillo. JAMA Surgery, August.

Physical Activity Changes Following Sinus Surgery: A Multi-Center Apple Health Wearable Technology Pilot Study. Varghese, Justina R., Aakash Agarwal, Akshay R. Prabhakar, Cameron Keehn, Corinne Negvesky, Raffaello Cutri, Linda Liu, Stephanie Camey, Roger Neuberger, Renjie Hu, Ron L. Moses, Masayoshi Takashima, Arthur Wu, Dennis Tang, and Omar G. Ahmed. International Forum of Allergy & Rhinology, August.

Practice Patterns in the Surgical Management of Hinchey III and IV Diverticulitis: Results of a National Survey. Cripps, Michael W., Patricia Sylla, Robert Lim, Mark Whiteford, Mike Truitt, Marylise Boutros, Sara Hennessy, Dale Butler, Matthew Bloom, Shane Urban, and Caroline Reinke. Surgical Endoscopy, August.

Resolution of Painful Refractory Soft Palate Mucoceles Following Post-Surgical Onset of Satellite Lesions: A Rare Three-Year Course. Ellis, Collin L., Ankona Ghosh, and Joel B. Epstein. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Pathology 19 (7): 346–51.

The Value of Multidisciplinary Aerodigestive Evaluation in Pediatric Vascular Ring and Sling Management: A Retrospective Cohort Study. Risbud, Adwight, Ethan D. Frank, Heather Y. Sun, Aparna Rao, Z. Jason Qian, Matthew T. Brigger, Soma Kumar, Virginia Floco, Elizabeth E. LaSalle, Kimberly Morris, Lisa Horvay, and Tzyynong L. Friesen. International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology 209 (August): 112990.

Urology

Insulin-like Growth Factor Signaling Promotes Corneal Myofibroblast Survival and Sustains Corneal Fibrosis. Hwang, Yunjeong, Kyung-No Son, Manoj Chaudhary, Eunbee Lee, Minhyung Kim, Sungyong You, Terry J. Smith, Vinay Kumar Aakalu, and Kyu-Yeon Han. International Journal of Molecular Sciences 27 (16): 7320.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

Danovitch and Murphy can discuss:

• How social media engages the brain and whether compulsive use shares characteristics with substance-related and other addictive disorders
• What research shows about the relationship between social media use and mental health, self-esteem and self-worth
• Why children and adolescents may be more vulnerable than adults to the potential harms of social media
• How performing for a constant online audience can influence identity development during adolescence
• How frequent social media use may affect young people’s ability to sustain attention, tolerate boredom and focus on tasks that require deep concentration
• Practical steps parents can take to encourage healthier social media habits and protect young users
   

Media Contact

To schedule an interview with a Cedars-Sinai behavioral health expert, contact Kristin Reynolds at marykristin.reynolds@cshs.org or 424-241-8108.

During FY 2026, which ended June 30, more than 9,400 donors supported the academic medical center’s operations, programs and initiatives. Three out of every four of these donors received care at Cedars-Sinai prior to contributing.

“The extraordinary commitment of our donors is a wonderful validation of the dedication and expertise of Cedars-Sinai employees as well as the remarkable generosity of the people we are privileged to serve,” said Peter L. Slavin, MD, president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai and the David and Meredith Kaplan Presidential Chair.

Emma Geller is an example of a patient whose family showed gratitude with a donation. The 13-year-old is cancer-free after being treated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma at Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s. Despite financial strain caused by major damage to their home in the January 2025 Palisades Fire, the Gellers remain committed to their annual support of pediatric hematology/oncology research and pediatric nursing at Cedars-Sinai.

“Our daughter received such tremendous care from amazing doctors, and we wanted to know how we could give back,” said Jordan Geller, Emma’s father. “If there was a way to make other people’s lives a little better as they were going through something like this, we wanted to do it.”

Some of the most meaningful philanthropic investments in Cedars-Sinai are unrestricted gifts to The Fund for Cedars-Sinai.

One example of unrestricted support this past year was a $10 million gift from the Ashkenazy family, providing flexible resources that can be directed where they will have the greatest impact. This support enables Cedars-Sinai to respond to emerging needs, invest in strategic priorities and pursue promising opportunities, helping advance our mission both now and in the years ahead.

“Unrestricted gifts are the fuel powering vital community health initiatives and the highest level of patient care,” said Heather Renshaw Vučetin, vice president of Development for Cedars-Sinai. “Gifts of every size improve our community’s health, which is priceless.”

Other recent major gifts included but were not limited to:

• The Cedars-Sinai Cayton BRCA Center: A $30 million gift from the Cayton Goldrich Family Foundation to create a center for research, diagnosis and comprehensive treatment of illnesses linked to mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.
• The Cedars-Sinai Holoman Health Equity Center: A $13 million gift from Eric and Terri Holoman to establish a center that will shape the future of equitable healthcare at Cedars-Sinai.
• A generous bequest from the estate of Joanna Carson, demonstrating the enduring impact of planned giving. By including the organization in her estate plans, Carson created a legacy that will strengthen our mission for future generations.

“Philanthropic support is a powerful catalyst for healing,” said Arthur J. Ochoa, JD, senior vice president and chief advancement officer for Cedars-Sinai. “Whether expressed through volunteering or making a financial gift, the simple act of giving is fundamental to Cedars-Sinai’s vision to make a meaningful and lasting difference in the Los Angeles community and beyond.”

Read more from Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: Strengthening Children’s Health

Considered an immune-mediated disease, IBD is driven in part by an abnormal immune response that triggers chronic inflammation in the digestive tract.

Khanna told podcast host Amber Tresca that although IBD begins in the gastrointestinal tract, the disease often also shows up elsewhere. Classic health problems that can occur outside the intestines include achiness or stiffness in the joints, as well as eye disorders or inflammation of the eyes.

“Patients can have inflammation involving their liver,” Khanna said. “Women, especially, have skin issues and IBD.”

Khanna told Tresca that IBD can affect women differently than men, with disease patterns and activity sometimes changing around life stages such as puberty, pregnancy and menopause.

She noted that because IBD can involve more than “just one part of you,” Cedars-Sinai uses a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to IBD care.

For women, Khanna told Tresca, “we have involvement from OB-GYNs and dermatologists and rheumatologists” to help address the issues women with IBD often face. She added that patients also can see nutritionists, social workers and physical therapists.

Khanna said she emphasizes the importance of patients communicating openly with physicians about any concerns and speaking frankly about symptoms they aren’t sure are related to IBD.

“My biggest mantra is that information is power,” she told Tresca. “And you need to gather as much as you can to educate yourself.”

Above all, Khanna said, she encourages patients to trust their own experience.

“You know your body the best,” she said. “Your doctor can’t tell you what’s happening to you. You need to advocate for yourself.”

Listen to the complete segment from the About IBD podcast.

Soliz initially shrugged it off as a pulled muscle. But the pain grew progressively worse. Soon, he was experiencing sharp pain throughout the day, using walls for support as he walked and struggling to find a comfortable position to sleep.

Soliz underwent an MRI, revealing a large tumor in his spine. Recognizing the critical diagnosis of this bone tumor, an orthopedic surgeon in Ventura County near Soliz’s home referred him to Cedars-Sinai.

An image-guided biopsy performed by interventional neuroradiologist Marcel Maya, MD, co-chair of the Department of Imaging at Cedars-Sinai, made the diagnosis of an aneurysmal bone cyst, a rare, blood-filled tumor that can grow rapidly and, as in Soliz’s case, destabilize the spinal column and compress the spinal cord.

Although the tumor was benign, its location made it dangerous, said his surgeon, Tiffany Perry, MD, associate professor of Neurosurgery and co-director of Spine Oncology.

“Spinal fluid normally surrounds the cord, providing space for the cord and the nerve roots as they exit the spinal column,” Perry said. “But in Ryan’s case, the tumor was taking up about 80% of the spinal canal and was blocking the flow of fluid and compressing the cord, causing weakness in his legs.”

For Soliz, the diagnosis quickly became about more than treating a rare tumor—it was about saving his ability to walk. Three days after his outpatient appointment in the neurosurgery clinic, Soliz began losing feeling in his legs, prompting doctors to act emergently. By the time he was admitted to the ICU, he had lost the ability to walk.

“It was a roller coaster of emotions. I was terrified thinking I might never be able to walk again,” Soliz said.

A Rare Tumor and Emergency Surgery

Aneurysmal bone cysts are uncommon, and involvement of the spine with significant spinal cord compression is particularly unusual, Maya said.  

“Although these tumors are benign, they can be locally very aggressive—destroying bone, bleeding significantly and, when they occur in the spine, compressing the spinal cord,” Maya said.

After Soliz was seen in the outpatient clinic, his case was reviewed by a spine tumor board, a group of specialists at Cedars-Sinai from different disciplines that discusses complex spinal tumors. The board ensures patients like Soliz receive coordinated care, formulating a comprehensive, individualized treatment plan for each patient. Maya said the multidisciplinary tumor board allows specialists in neurosurgery, imaging, interventional neuroradiology, pathology and other disciplines to develop a coordinated treatment strategy from the outset. Given the rapid decline of Soliz’s condition, his care team implemented the developed plan in an expedited manner.

Before removal of the tumor, Michael Alexander, MD, vice chair of Neurosurgery, performed a preoperative embolization of the tumor. This minimally invasive procedure blocked blood flow to the tumor, reducing the risk of major blood loss during surgery.

Following the embolization, Perry resected the tumor during a five-hour surgery, ultimately relieving the pressure on Soliz’s spinal cord and preserving his ability to walk.

In addition to Perry, Maya and Alexander, many Cedars-Sinai specialists contributed to Soliz’s care, including the pathologists who confirmed his diagnosis. The specialists and staff in the Neuroscience Critical Care Unit were also instrumental in his recovery, providing attentive care before and after surgery that helped him begin walking again.

“Ryan’s case reflects the importance of every team bringing its expertise together toward one shared goal—taking care of every patient and ensuring the best outcomes possible within our abilities,” Perry said.

A Recurrence, and Off to College

After surgery, Soliz spent time in rehabilitation recovering his strength. But in April, the tumor returned.

Alexander performed another embolization, blocking the blood vessels supplying the tumor. The approach allowed Soliz to avoid another operation to remove it and instead take medication to suppress the tumor’s growth.

Today, Soliz is in good health, golfing and hiking, and preparing to start his freshman year at the University of Hawaii, where he will be followed by a specialist throughout the school year. During breaks, he will continue his medical care at Cedars-Sinai.

Despite everything he has been through, Soliz is looking ahead to college and to a possible career in healthcare.

“I’ve always had huge respect for healthcare workers, but being a patient made me realize I want to work in healthcare and help others as a nurse,” he said.

For Perry, Soliz’s story feels personal.

“I have a daughter one year older than Ryan who just went through the college application process and moved away,” Perry said. “I could only imagine what Mrs. Soliz was feeling. I knew we had to work together for Ryan. He has amazing things he will do—and I cannot wait to see how he changes the world.”

Read more from Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: Seeking a Second Opinion for a Spine Condition

Cedars-Sinai in the News

Doctor and Survivor Discuss how CPR Saved the Dancer’s Life After Cardiac Arrest | CBS News LA
Laura Dichiacchio, MD, PhD 

Q&A: Expert Consensus Pathway Outlines ‘Explosion of Therapies’ now Available for HFpEF | Healio Cardiology Today
Michelle Kittleson, MD, PhD 

Beta-Blockers for Anxiety: What Older Adults Should Know | AARP
Nathalie Murphy, MD 

HCM Care Is Evolving Thanks to Better Data, New Treatments | Cardiovascular Business
Florian Rader, MD 

The Impact of AI on Clinical Practice and Care—Insights From Dr. Melissa Wong | Clinical Pain Advisor
Melissa Wong, MD 

Shigella Growing ‘More Resistant’ to Antibiotics as Adult Men Shoulder Burden of New Cases | Healio Gastroenterology Today
Ali Rezaie, MD  

Patient Warning: Bariatric Surgery Can Get Them Drunk Faster | Medscape
Albert Abayev, RD 

New Research Explores the Earliest Stages of Coronary Plaque Inflammation | Cardiovascular Business
Sarah Parker, PhD 

Mass Spec Roundup: Protein Landscapes and Adaptive Analysis | The Analytical Scientist
Katlin Silm, PhD 

AI-Powered Opportunistic Screening Could Help Find Patients With Undetected Aortic Stenosis | Cardiovascular Business
Ofir Koren, MD

Faculty Publications

Biomedical Sciences

Assessment of Coronary Plaque Burden Using Non-Contrast T1-Weighted Cardiovascular MR: Comparison With Coronary CT Angiography. Pedersen, Alexandra Amalie Uglebjerg, Gregory Wood, Andreas Kabel, Damini Dey, Erik Thorlund Parner, Jesper Møller Jensen, Martin Bødtker Mortensen, Karl P. Kunze, Claudia Prieto, René M. Botnar, Bjarne Linde Nørgaard, and Won Yong Kim. Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance, August, 102788.

Retrieval-Augmented Claude Opus 4.7 and GPT-5.5 Surpass Human Performance on the Nuclear Cardiology Board Preparation Exam (and Claude Drafts a Paper About It). Killekar, Aditya, Aakash Shanbhag, Robert J. H. Miller, Damini Dey, Paul B. Kavanagh, Jamieson M. Bourque, Lawrence M. Phillips, Panithaya Chareonthaitawee, and Piotr J. Slomka. Journal of Nuclear Cardiology, August, 102946.

South Asian Cardiovascular Risk: Role of Coronary Artery Calcium Scoring and Computed Tomography Angiography. Kalra, Dinesh K., Deepak Vedamurthy, Nisha Hosadurg, Abhinav Goyal, Milan Gupta, Neha Pagidipati, Leandro Slipczuk, Damini Dey, Anurag Mehta, Parag Joshi, Lohendran Baskaran, Nathan Wong, and Salim S. Virani. JACC. Asia 6 (8 Pt 2): 1657–77.

Cardiac Surgery

Outcomes After Lung Retransplantation for Restrictive Allograft Syndrome Have Not Improved Over 2 Decades. Krishna, Vikram, Allen A. Razavi, Brian Lim, Zachary Brennan, Qiudong Chen, Laura DiChiacchio, Dominick Megna, Joanna Chikwe, Michael E. Bowdish, and Pedro Catarino. JTCVS Open 32 (August): 101862.

Cardiology

A National Institute on Aging Workshop on Sex Differences in Health Across the Lifespan. Pea, Jeffrey, Siobhan Addie, Fabrisia Ambrosio, Rozalyn M. Anderson, C. Noel Bairey Merz, Elizabeth Barr, Stacy Carrington-Lawrence, Rafael de Cabo, Patrice Desvigne-Nickens, Dena B. Dubal, Chelsea Haakenson, Passley Hargove-Grimes, Emily G. Jacobs, Mihoko Kai, Maja Maric, Sunila G. Nair, Kristy Nicks, Jennifer L. Pluznick, Kimberlee Potter, Mercy R. Prabhudas, Marta Rodriguez-Garcia, Michael B. Stout, Barbara E. Stranger, Susan Taymans, Dan Theodorescu, John P. Williams, Fei Wang, Xin Yuan, Viviana I. Perez, and Francesca E. Duncan. Nature Aging, August.

Bone Mineral Density in Women With Functional Hypothalamic Amenorrhea Compared to Eumenorrheic Controls and Recently Menopausal Women. Safwan, Nancy, Regina Castaneda, Erin R. Uddenberg, Maria D. Hurtado Andrade, Jenna Maughan, Mariam Saadedine, Stephanie S. Faubion, Sarah L. Berga, Margareta D. Pisarska, C. Noel Bairey Merz, and Chrisandra L. Shufelt. Frontiers in Endocrinology 17: 1897514.

Game-Changers: Using Simulation Gaming to Strengthen Charge Nurse Leadership Development. Rodriguez, Krystal, Lucía Floríndez-Cox, Byunghyun Kim, Marisela Rosales, and Margo Minissian. Nurse Leader 0 (0).

Is Menopause a Driver of Cardiovascular Disease? Bairey Merz, C. Noel. Circulation. Population Health and Outcomes, August, e013944.

Pharmacokinetics of Oral Bromocriptine in Postpartum Patients. Sinkey, Rachel, Yuanfan Ye, Kevin J. Ryan, Jeff M. Szychowski, Natalie A. Bello, Karen Sliwa, Edward P. Acosta, and Alan Tn Tita. Pregnancy 2 (1): e70199.

Physics-Informed Reconstruction of Transmural Myocardial Deformation From 3D Echocardiography: Validation Against Cardiac MRI. Pradhan, Satya Prakash, Arash Yavari, Issac D. Lindley, Nader Binesh, Yuri P. Matusov, Kambiz Ghafourian, Gianni Pedrizzetti, and Arash Kheradvar. Annals of Biomedical Engineering, August.

Prophylactic Implantation of Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator for the Primary Prevention of Sudden Cardiac Death After Myocardial Infarction: Protocol for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomised Controlled Trials. Amarasekera, Anjalee Thanuja, Anoja W. Gunaratne, Joshua G. Kovoor, Aravinda Thiagalingam, Clara Chow, Sarah Zaman, Gopal Sivagangabalan, Matthew Kuang Yu Tung, Martin Stiles, Ian Crozier, Keng Tat Koh, Christian Sticherling, Tobias Reichlin, Jerzy Krzysztof Wranicz, Dimitrios Avramides, Konstantinos Tsioufis, Oliver Ritter, Kerstin Bode, Oholi Tovia-Brodie, Karin Chia, Robert E. Park, Karin Nentwich, Yoav Michowitz, Martin Svetlosak, Robert Hatala, Markus Zabel, Vivien Klaudia Nagy, Béla Merkely, Andrew Taylor, Laurent Billot, Pramesh Kovoor, and PROTECT-ICD Study Investigators. BMJ Open 16 (8): e107134.

Short-Interval Coronary Plaque Remodeling Assessed by Serial AI-Quantified Coronary CTA During Intensive Plaque-Directed Therapy. Karlsberg, Ronald P., Abhinav R. Thummala, Francisco X. Elisarraras, Ilana S. Golub, and Geoffrey W. Cho. Journal of Cardiovascular Computed Tomography, August, S1934-5925(26)00427-2.

The Opportunities and Challenges in AI Opportunistic Disease Detection in General Populations. Sahashi, Yuki, Jacob Mishell, and David Ouyang. Journal of the American College of Cardiology 88 (7): 765–67.

What Makes a Meta-Analysis Believable? Lee, Matthew M. Y., Sanjay Kaul, Harlan M. Krumholz, Stuart J. Pocock, Carolyn S. P. Lam, and Faiez Zannad. Lancet, August, S0140-6736(26)01087-1.

Computational Biomedicine

Characterizing Primary Care in Breast Cancer Survivors After Completion of Cancer Therapy. Kay, Kendall, Yancen Pan, Jessica Li, Lan Zhang, Vanessa N. Torres, Yelba Castellon-Lopez, Meng-Han Tsai, Geetanjali D. Datta, Jennifer Henry, and Cody Ramin. Cancer Causes & Control: CCC 37 (9): 146.

Emergency Medicine

Time to Inpatient Management for Boarding Emergency Department Patients. Janke, Alexander T., Adrian D. Haimovich, Meaghan Cussen, Christopher M. Fung, Margaret E. Samuels-Kalow, DaMarcus E. Baymon, Yosef Berlyand, Laura G. Burke, Brian W. Patterson, Daniel J. Hekman, Martin S. Copenhaver, Joshua D. Niforatos, Amber K. Sabbatini, M. Kennedy Hall, Ula Hwang, Natalia Sifnugel, Rohit B. Sangal, Arjun K. Venkatesh, George Glass, Richard Andrew Taylor, Rachel M. Skains, Russell L. Griffin, Peter S. Antkowiak, Seth Gemme, Michael Gottlieb, Eric Moyer, Carl T. Berdahl, Sam S. Torbati, Larry A. Nathanson, Evan L. Leventhal, Molly M. Jeffery, Brendan M. Carr, Tehreem Rehman, Samuel E. Sondheim, Kenneth M. Lee, Theodore J. Iwashyna, and Ari B. Friedman. JAMA, August, e2613302.

Medicine

A Deep Learning Approach for Noise Suppression in Cardiac-Gated SPECT Studies. Zhang, Xirang, Yongyi Yang, Jovan G. Brankov, Janusz K. Kikut, Piotr J. Slomka, and Michael A. King. Journal of Nuclear Cardiology, August, 102944.

Cryptogenic Steatotic Liver Disease Reveals Hidden Liver Risk in Metabolically Silent Lean Individuals. Danpanichkul, Pojsakorn, and Ju Dong Yang. Gut, August, gutjnl-2026-339978.

Diagnostic Performance of the Nine-Item ARFID Screen in Patients With Disorders of Gut-Brain Interaction. Wang, Yingxin, Adeline Answine, Michigan Medicine ARFID Working Group, William D. Chey, Jessica P. Naftaly, Allen Lee, and Prashant Singh. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, August, S1542-3565(26)00592-6.

Endpoint Discordance in IBS-C: Bloating as a Partially Uncaptured Therapeutic Signal. Busam, Jonathan A., and Mark Pimentel. Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, August, S1542-3565(26)00591-4.

Primary Care Referrals and Abdominal Imaging in People With New-Onset Diabetes and Weight Loss: Cohort Study Using the English National Sentinel Network Database. Lemanska, Agnieszka, Hugh Claridge, Claire A. Price, Jessica Abell, Eithne Costello, Georgina Evans-Lilley, Stephen Pandol, Poppy Richards, Rachael Z. Stolzenberg-Solomon, and Simon de Lusignan. BMJ Open 16 (8): e119662.

Protocol for the CLOCKS Study: A 4-Arm Randomized Controlled Trial Testing the Independent and Combined Effects of 2 Chronotherapies-Early Time-Restricted Eating and Daytime Bright Light Therapy-in Adults With Type 2 Diabetes. Steger, Felicia L., Sarah-Jeanne Salvy, T. Brooks Vaughan, Catherine Lowry, Joshua S. Richman, Karen L. Gamble, W. Timothy Garvey, Frank A. J. L. Scheer, and Courtney M. Peterson. Nutrition Research 153 (July): 142–59.

Safety and Efficacy of Intratumoral MEDI1191, an IL-12 mRNA Lipid Nanoparticle, Plus Intravenous Durvalumab in Patients With Advanced Solid Tumors: A First-in-Human Study. Carneiro, Benedito A., Thomas Marron, Dmitriy Zamarin, Eduardo Castañón, Sandip Pravin Patel, Vivek Subbiah, Inderjit Mehmi, Anthony El-Khoueiry, Arjun Oberoi, Michael Abadier, Emily C. Jennings, Vincent Dubois, Zhongying Chen, Xiaoru Chen, Nairouz Elgeioushi, Nicholas M. Durham, Benjamin Ridgway, Paula G. Fraenkel, Analia Azaro, and Omid Hamid. Clinical Cancer Research, August.

September 2026 Issue First Authors. Akinsola, Rasaq, Sofia Nasini, Hanyuan Zheng, and Andrea Villatore. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, August, S0165-6147(26)00200-2.

The Role of Glucagon-like Peptide 1 Receptor Agonists in the Management of Patients With Inflammatory Bowel Diseases. Beniwal-Patel, Poonam, Sami Samaan, Maria T. Abreu, Parakkal Deepak, and Andres J. Yarur. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, August, izag151.

Neurology

Generative Artificial Intelligence in Manuscript Writing and Peer Review for the Journal of Neuroimmunology. Wu, Gregory F., Robyn S. Klein, Ashutosh K. Mangalam, Kristen E. Funk, Hanane Touil, Qiang Liu, Ralf Gold, and Laura Piccio. Journal of Neuroimmunology, July, 579042.

Neurosurgery

Neural Dynamics Underlying Minute-Timescale Persistent Behaviour in the Human Brain. Courellis, Hristos S., Michael Kyzar, Juri Minxha, Araceli R. Cardenas, Taufik A. Valiante, Adam N. Mamelak, Ralph Adolphs, and Ueli Rutishauser. Nature Human Behaviour, August.

OBGYN

Cost-Effectiveness of Implementing a Multidisciplinary Team Approach in the Management of Placenta Accreta Spectrum. Luu, Binh T., Megha Arora, Ava D. Mandelbaum, Andrew H. Chon, Tania F. Esakoff, Deirdre J. Lyell, and Aaron B. Caughey. Pregnancy 2 (4): e70323.

Hypertension-Related Morbidity After Delivery Discharge: A Comparison of Nifedipine Versus Labetalol. Fabricant, Sonya, Matthew Cervantes, Glenda Marshall, Natalie Bello, Emily Seet, Sarah Kilpatrick, and Mariam Naqvi. Pregnancy 2 (4): e70357.

Impact of a Substance Use Screening Program on Racial Disparities in Urine Toxicology Testing. Naqvi, Mariam, Amin Tavakoli, Camelita S. Thrift, Allison Henry, Jennifer Astasio, Farnaaz Kia, Naomi Greene, and Sarah J. Kilpatrick. Pregnancy 2 (2): e70247.

Interdisciplinary Management of a Viable Term Abdominal Ectopic Pregnancy. Hayer, Sarena, Natasha Q. McGlaun, Katerina A. Furman, Michael R. Manuel, Gouri B. Sadananda, Daniel Manzoor, Swati Bhardwaj, Tanu Patel, Sara Dayanim, and John A. Ozimek. Pregnancy 2 (4): e70336.

Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome (PMOS)/Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS): Current and Future Trends. Chan, Jessica L., Irene Masini, and Margareta D. Pisarska. The Journal of Clinical Investigation 136 (12): e202824.

Uterine Weight and Postoperative Outcomes by Surgical Route in Minimally Invasive Hysterectomy. Yagur, Yael, Kacey M. Hamilton, Ogechukwu Ezike, Maya Shats, Connie Liao, Katharine Ciesielski, Rebecca Schneyer, Yair Daykan, Gabriel Levin, Matthew T. Siedhoff, Kelly N. Wright, and Raanan Meyer. Journal of Minimally Invasive Gynecology, August, S1553-4650(26)00442-5.

Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine

Administration of Preoperative Cryoneurolysis Is Associated With Continued and Persistent Opioid Reduction and Improved Outcomes in Primary Total Knee Arthroplasty. Ng, Mitchell K., Jennifer H. Lin, Andrew I. Spitzer, Vinod Dasa, Adam Rivadeneyra, David Rogenmoser, Andrew L. Concoff, Paul G. Mastrokostas, Mary DiGiorgi, Joshua Urban, William M. Mihalko, and Michael A. Mont. The Journal of Arthroplasty, August, S0883-5403(26)00871-5.

Age-Related Differences in Radiologic and Clinical Presentation of Charcot-Marie-Tooth Foot Deformity: Insights From WBCT and PROMIS Analysis. Song, Jae Hwang, Max P. Michalski, Giselle Moriah Porter, Andy Tong, and Glenn B. Pfeffer. Foot and Ankle Surgery, August, S1268-7731(26)00212-2.

Injectable Thermoresponsive Microgels Encapsulate and Precondition Nucleus Pulposus Cells for Intervertebral Disc Regeneration. Jiang, Wensen, Namdev More, Melissa Chavez, Jacob T. Wechsler, Sarah Mohyeddinipour, Tiffany Lee, Wei Huang, Giselle Kaneda, Lei Mou, Thomas Spaeter, Julia Sheyn, Changlu Xu, Victoria Yu, Chloe Castaneda, Ethan Ha, Wafa Tawackoli, Linda Ea Kanim, Oksana Shelest, Hyun W. Bae, Samad Ahadian, Mehmet R. Dokmeci, Ali Khademhosseini, Dror Seliktar, and Dmitriy Sheyn. ACS Applied Bio Materials 9 (16): 7398–7408.

Quantifying Influence: The Orthopaedic PAC’s Impact Explored Through Analysis of FEC Data. Nadarajah, Vidushan, Miranda Barnes, Jonathan Belding, Basilia O. Nwankwo, Susan E. Stephens, A. Bobby Chhabra, and Matthew J. Deasey. Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. Global Research & Reviews 10 (8): e26.00257.

Representation of Hispanic and Latino Orthopaedic Surgery Trainees and Attendings in the United States: A Demographical Analysis. Brito, Emmanuel, Nathan Sherman, and Guy Paiement. JB & JS Open Access 11 (3): e25.00349.

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Fatal Outcome of Widespread Cranial Basal Cell Carcinoma Due to Intraparenchymal Brain Extension in a Setting of Local Recurrences. Gant, Tayler, Serguei Bannykh, and David Frishberg. Cureus 18 (7): e112885.

Longitudinal Associations Between Albuminuria and Renal Function and Annual Brain Volume Changes: The Ohasama Study. Nakayama, Shingo, Michihiro Satoh, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Ayana Saito, Hiroki Nobayashi, Megumi Tsubota-Utsugi, Yukako Tatsumi, Takahisa Murakami, Takahito Yagihashi, Maya Toyama, Takuo Hirose, Azusa Hara, Takefumi Mori, Kei Asayama, Naoko Mori, Masahiro Kikuya, Kyoko Nomura, Hirohito Metoki, and Takayoshi Ohkubo. Clinical and Experimental Nephrology, August.

Scalable, Modular Whole-Slide Imaging Pipelines for Low-Resource Settings: A Practical Framework and Open Notebook Implementation. Githuka, Alfred, Ulysses G. J. Balis, Ye Chan Kim, Eileen M. Weinheimer-Haus, Christopher L. Williams, Jerome I. Cheng, Kelou Yao, John Blau, Jessica A. Baker, Priscilla Njenga, Winny Chepkemoi, Robert K. Parker, Akbar K. Waljee, Shahin Sayed, and Mansoor N. Saleh. Journal of Pathology Informatics 22 (August): 100692.

Pediatrics

Cancer Control After Pausing Treatment With Larotrectinib in Responding Children With Sarcoma and a TRK Fusion: A Plain Language Summary. Mascarenhas, Leo, Christopher Ollis, Yuvraj Singh, Linet Menachery, Domnita-Ileana Burcoveanu, Esther De La Cuesta, Cornelis M. van Tilburg, and Theodore W. Laetsch. Future Oncology, August, 1–10.

Donor-Derived Cell-Free DNA in Stable Pediatric Kidney Transplant Recipients: Influence of Donor Obesity and Recipient Size. Steinke, Julia, Lyndsay Harshman, Kelly Kirshner, Arundhati Kale, Erica Winnicki, Daniel Ranch, Jayanthi Chandar, Helen Pizzo, Arshdeep Kaur, Paul Hanson, Zunqiu Chen, Ling Shen, and Dechu Puliyanda. Pediatric Transplantation 30 (8): e70416.

Radiation Oncology

Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy vs Moderately Hypofractionated IMRT for Localized Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Ellis, Rodney J., Stephanie L. Pugh, James B. Yu, Felix Y. Feng, Andre A. Konski, Robert L. Grubb, Robert E. Wallace, David J. Gladstone, Cynthia Ménard, Joseph A. Miccio, Arthur J. Frazier, J. Daniel Pennington, Jeff M. Michalski, Daniel E. Spratt, Alvaro Martinez, Scott C. Morgan, Alina Mihai, Abhishek Ashok Solanki, Asim Amjad, Michael W. Straza, Guila Delouya, Thomas M. Schroeder, David T. Marshall, Nirav Kapadia, Akshar N. Patel, Terrence P. Cescon, Ali El-Gayed, Harold A. Yoon, Rebecca Paulus, Howard M. Sandler, and NRG-GU005 Collaborative Authors. JAMA, August, e2612627.

Surgery

Clustering and Predicting VCA Patient Populations - a Machine Learning Approach Into Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation. Knoedler, Leonard, Tobias Niederegger, Thomas Schaschinger, Carsten Stahl, Jule Brandt, Curtis L. Cetrulo, Max Heiland, Gabriel Hundeshagen, Jan O. Voss, and Alexandre G. Lellouch. Frontiers in Immunology 17 (August).

Comparative Clinical Effectiveness and Operating Efficiency of Different Ultrasonic Devices for Performance of Sleeve Gastrectomy. Monali, Misra, I.-Wen Pan, Zasim Azar Siddqui, Frank Bisceglie, and Matthew Kroh. Obesity Surgery, August.

Development of Cecal Volvulus After Redo Pancreas Transplantation. Voidonikolas, Georgios, Nicolas Melo, Steven A. Wisel, Justin A. Steggerda, Manaf Alsudaney, Tsuyoshi Todo, Irene K. Kim, and Todd V. Brennan. Journal of Surgical Case Reports 2026 (8): rjag703.

Early vs Late Surgical Intervention for Morel-Lavallée Injuries: A Pacific Coast Surgical Association Prospective Multicenter Study. Smith, Maren B., Areg Grigorian, Jarrett E. Santorelli, Joshua C. Dilday, Daniel J. Stephens, Karen G. Minoza, Walter L. Biffl, Raul Coimbra, Areti Tillou, Jeffry Nahmias, and Morel Lavallée Study Group. Journal of the American College of Surgeons 243 (3): 651–59.

Facial Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation: Mapping Global Research Trends and Scientific Impact. Alves, André S., Tobias Niederegger, Leonard Knoedler, Curtis L. Cetrulo, and Alexandre G. Lellouch. JPRAS Open 0 (0).

Performance of Large Language Models in Answering Otolaryngology Clinical Questions in Non-English Languages. Oh, Eugene, Arthur W. Wu, Laura Garcia-Rodriguez, Zhen-Xiao Huang, Wei-Chung Hsu, Jeongkyou Kim, Young Chul Kim, Yi-Tsen Lin, Hae Chan Park, Hector Andres Perez, Juan San Juan, Gene Liu, Matthew Lee, and Dennis M. Tang. World Journal of Otorhinolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, August.

Survival and Outcomes After Nonoperative Management of Operable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer. Rocco, Raffaele, Ralf Martz Sulague, Vikram Krishna, Clark B. Fuller, Philicia Moonsamy, Andrew R. Brownlee, and Harmik J. Soukiasian. JTCVS Open 32 (August): 101920.

The Regenerative Potential of GHK-Cu in Aesthetic Medicine. Mokhtar, Jonathan, Basel Mohamad, Jewel Haddad, Alma Said, Arya Menon, Lucas Kreutz-Rodrigues, Krishna S. Vyas, Curtis L. Cetrulo, and Alexandre G. Lellouch. Aesthetic Surgery Journal, August, sjag169.

The Superficial Musculoaponeurotic System Versus Deep Plane Facelift Debate in the Instagram and TikTok Era. Lu, Richard, and Babak Azizzadeh. Facial Plastic Surgery & Aesthetic Medicine, August, 26893614261479874.

Urology

Evaluation of AI Chatbot Responses to Pediatric Urology Frequently Asked Questions. Mazhari, Najva, Andrew Freedman, Nadine Friedrich, Timothy Daskivich, and Paul Kokorowski. Urology, August, S0090-4295(26)00517-0.

Prospective Multicenter Validation of a Urine-Based Multiplex Assay for Risk Stratification of Patients Presenting With Gross Hematuria. Lotan, Yair, Amit Gupta, Makito Miyake, Satoshi Anai, Michael Luu, Michael Ahdoot, Edward Messing, Garry Peers, Arnold I. Chin, Menghan Liu, Sergei Tikhonekov, Toru Sakatani, Takuto Shimizu, Ian Pagano, Yingye Zheng, Zhen Zhang, Howard Kim, David Josephson, Hideki Furuya, and Charles J. Rosser. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, August, djag282.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

The promotions of Jennifer Blaha, MBA; Clare Lee, MBA; Lisa Maqueira; and Alen Voskanian, MD, MBA, represent an intentional investment in leadership capacity to meet Cedars-Sinai’s core mission of delivering the highest-quality care to patients in Los Angeles and beyond.

“These four leaders exemplify the operational excellence and strategic acumen required to deliver on our care vision,” said Peter L. Slavin, MD, president and CEO of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Health System. “Collectively, these promotions expand the portfolio of responsibilities held by leaders who have shown, time and again, that operational excellence and exceptional patient care are complementary priorities.”

Blaha, senior vice president of Surgical Services, joined Cedars-Sinai 17 years ago from GE Healthcare, where she served as a senior consultant, and has since risen through senior operational roles across the institution before being named vice president of Operations in 2018.

In her new role, she will oversee the service lines of Neurosurgery, Neurology, Orthopaedics, Surgery, Transplant and Urology, along with Peri-Procedural Services, including Anesthesia and OR Operations.

Blaha has built a strong record of improving clinical quality, patient satisfaction and operational efficiency across the surgical service lines she now leads. She was one of 22 healthcare leaders selected nationally for the Carol Emmott Fellowship, a competitive program advancing women in healthcare leadership.

Lee, senior vice president of Medical Services, brings 34 years of healthcare experience, including 21 years at the executive level, to her new role. She joined Cedars-Sinai in 2018 as vice president of Operations. Prior to Cedars-Sinai, Lee was chief operating officer at Dignity Health Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento and vice president of Operations at Houston Methodist.

In her new role, she will oversee the service lines of Medicine, OB/GYN, Pediatrics and Psychiatry, along with Imaging, Lab and Pathology, and Emergency Services. Over her career, she has transformed clinical operations within the service lines under her purview, cultivating strong leaders and driving significant improvements across clinical and operational areas.

Maqueira, senior vice president of Finance and chief revenue cycle officer, joined Cedars-Sinai in 2011 as director of Professional Billing and Revenue Cycle Services, leading the transformation of professional billing operations. She was promoted to vice president of Revenue Cycle and Managed Care Operations in 2016, taking on expanded responsibility for managed care operations and contracting, professional compliance, government incentives, and centralized scheduling for Cedars-Sinai Medical Network.

Maqueira was named vice president of Finance and chief revenue cycle officer in 2022, leading the organization’s integrated revenue cycle strategy across hospitals and physician networks. With 33 years of revenue cycle experience, she has consistently delivered stronger collections, improved charge capture and greater operational efficiency. In her new role, she is accountable for setting and executing a strategic vision to advance exceptional patient and provider experience while strengthening financial performance.

Voskanian, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Ambulatory Clinics, joined Cedars-Sinai in 2018 from VITAS Healthcare, where he was regional medical director. He served as medical director of Cedars-Sinai Medical Group and later as vice president and chief operating officer of Cedars-Sinai Medical Network.

A practicing physician who continues to care for patients, Voskanian has helped lead ambulatory strategy and the growth and integration of specialty practices, contributing to substantial growth in weekly patient volumes during his tenure as chief operating officer. Working closely with clinical and administrative leaders, he has also advanced a dyad leadership model that strengthens collaboration, improves operational performance and supports physicians and staff in delivering high-quality care.

Read more from Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: New Cedars-Sinai CEO Shares Vision for Growth and Priorities

Spiegel told Forbes that understanding a patient’s health requires insight into daily life beyond the clinic.

“Patients spend 99.9% of their lives nowhere near the clinic,” he said. “If we’re truly going to understand health, we need a way to learn what happens between office visits, not just during them. That has always been the promise of remote patient monitoring.”

While wearable data has long been available, Spiegel told Forbes the challenge has been turning that information into meaningful clinical action. He said advances in AI, paired with HIPAA-compliant data sharing and patient consent, are helping make that possible.

“Rather than overwhelming clinicians with a constant stream of data, AI can help identify meaningful patterns and ‘hot spot’ patients who may need more timely attention,” he said. “The goal isn’t more data—it’s better, more proactive care.”

Spiegel told Forbes that Cedars-Sinai has spent more than a decade integrating wearable biosensor data into the electronic health record, though he emphasized that establishing that connection is only a first step.

“The larger challenge is developing clinical workflows that make these data genuinely useful without creating additional burden for clinicians,” he said.

Spiegel told Forbes his team is now focused on evidence-based care models that integrate wearable data into routine clinical practice while improving outcomes, enhancing efficiency and supporting clinicians.

Read the complete article from Forbes.

“The moment I saw the scan I was a little bit in disbelief,” he told PEOPLE.

The cyst had concealed Suze Lopez’s pregnancy and her condition posed significant risks. Ozimek explained that even taking every single precaution, “there’s always still a chance that nature takes its course and we cannot control the bleeding and there’s the potential that she doesn’t survive the case.”

Ozimek told PEOPLE a team of 30 experts performed the delivery and surgery.

“As soon as that mass was out of the way, there was this baby,” he said. “This 8-pound baby just laying in her abdomen, where it absolutely should not be, with an umbilical cord. And there was still an amniotic sac around this baby. It was just something that your brain can’t quite comprehend.”

Ozimek told PEOPLE Lopez began bleeding heavily during surgery, prompting doctors to perform a hysterectomy to control the bleeding.

“If this would’ve happened somewhere that doesn’t have these resources, there is no way that she would’ve survived, and very unlikely that the baby would’ve survived either,” he said.

Lopez survived and delivered a healthy baby boy. Today both mom and baby are thriving.

Ozimek described the case as “the most miraculous and wonderful outcome” of his years as a high-risk pregnancy specialist.

Read the complete article from PEOPLE.

, a national recognition awarded to programs that bring together specialists across disciplines to advance care for patients with complex skull base tumors through clinical expertise, research, education and innovation. These programs offer advanced surgical approaches to treating skull base tumors, including some cases considered inoperable elsewhere.

The designation recognizes Cedars-Sinai’s collaborative approach to treating tumors that develop at the base of the skull—an anatomically complex area where tumors grow near nerves and blood vessels that control vision, hearing, facial movement and swallowing.

“There is very precious real estate, and treatment often requires expertise from multiple specialties,” said Vladimir Ljubimov, MD, assistant professor of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai, where he and other neurosurgeons at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and Torrance Memorial Medical Center collaborate with a range of specialists to remove some of the most complex tumors.

The Cedars-Sinai Newsroom spoke with Ljubimov about what skull base surgery involves, why a multidisciplinary team is essential, and how advances in surgical techniques are expanding treatment options for patients.

What is skull base surgery?

Skull base surgery involves treating tumors that develop in one of the body's most anatomically complex regions. But the goal isn't simply to remove the tumor—it's to do so while preserving the nerves and blood vessels that control critical functions. Even a small injury to one of these structures can have life-altering consequences, including stroke, vision loss or facial paralysis. That's why skull base surgery requires advanced techniques, meticulous planning and close collaboration among specialists.

Treatment is tailored to each patient. Depending on the tumor's location, we may perform a traditional craniotomy, in which surgeons temporarily remove a small section of the skull to reach the tumor. We also use minimally invasive endoscopic techniques through the nose, orbit, or mouth, or combine multiple surgical approaches. These techniques allow us to safely treat tumors that were once considered extremely difficult or even impossible to reach.

What does a multidisciplinary skull base team involve?

Skull base surgery is truly a team effort. Neurosurgeons and otolaryngologists often work together during surgery, especially for minimally invasive endoscopic procedures performed through the nose or ear. Depending on where the tumor is located, other specialists may join the team. For example, ophthalmologists and oculoplastic surgeons help us safely treat tumors near the eye while preserving vision and appearance. Plastic surgeons may assist with reconstruction when needed. We also collaborate with endocrinologists, neuro-oncologists, neurologists and radiation oncologists, depending on the patient's diagnosis.

Every case is reviewed by our multidisciplinary team before surgery. Together, we evaluate imaging, discuss treatment options and determine the safest, most effective approach. Just as important as removing the tumor is reconstructing the skull base afterward. Our specialists work together to rebuild these structures, helping prevent complications such as cerebrospinal fluid leaks or infection while allowing patients to recover safely. After surgery, we continue coordinating care, which may include hormone management, radiation therapy, chemotherapy or rehabilitation.

What are the symptoms of a skull base tumor?

Not all skull base tumors are cancerous. Many are benign, but because of where they're located, they can still cause serious problems by pressing on the brain, nerves or blood vessels.

Skull base tumors include tumors such as pituitary tumors, tumors that arise from the lining of the brain (meningiomas), rare tumors that develop near the pituitary gland (craniopharyngiomas), tumors of the bone and cartilage (chordoma, chondrosarcoma), as well as cancers that have spread to the skull base from other parts of the body.

Symptoms vary depending on where the tumor is located and may include vision changes or vision loss, double vision, dizziness, balance problems, headaches, nausea or hormonal changes.

What are the latest advances in skull base surgery?

One of the biggest advances is the development of sophisticated endoscopic techniques that allow us to reach tumors through the natural openings of the nose, avoiding large incisions in many cases. These approaches give us access to areas that were once considered too risky to operate on, including tumors deep within the skull base and around the cavernous sinus.

As technology continues to advance, we're able to treat increasingly complex tumors with greater precision while reducing complications and improving quality of life for our patients.

How should patients look for the right skull base surgeon for them?

Patients should look for a program that offers multidisciplinary care. Complex skull base conditions often require expertise from multiple specialists, and having those experts work together from the beginning leads to more comprehensive treatment planning.

At Cedars-Sinai, we evaluate each case as a team and offer the full spectrum of surgical and nonsurgical treatment options. If a patient has been told their tumor is too difficult to remove or has limited treatment options, seeking a second opinion at a high-volume skull base center can help determine whether additional approaches may be available.

Read more from Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: From Vacation Vertigo to an Acoustic Neuroma Diagnosis

Though the terms often are used interchangeably, Tan told Prevention that they aren’t the same thing. Dementia is a broad category, and Alzheimer's disease falls within it.

“Dementia is an umbrella term for a range of diseases that are characterized by cognitive decline, and then Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia under that umbrella,” he said.

Tan told Prevention that diagnosing dementia is complicated because there’s no simple test that pinpoints a specific type. He said that the presentations vary widely from person to person, “so if you have two different people and they both have Alzheimer’s disease, their presentation may be quite different.”

Experts encourage people who notice possible signs of dementia to see a doctor for an evaluation that includes a medical history, cognitive testing and a neurological exam.

Tan told Prevention that most medications approved by the Food and Drug Administration for dementia are indicated for Alzheimer’s disease because it is the most common and most extensively studied form of dementia. He said clinicians may prescribe Alzheimer’s medications off-label for patients with other dementia types, including Lewy body dementia, frontotemporal dementia and Parkinson’s disease dementia.

“The reason is that Alzheimer’s can co-exist with other forms of dementia and treating it with these medications may help the overall memory or thinking of the person,” he said.

Alzheimer’s disease typically begins with memory loss and is characterized by abnormal protein buildup in the brain that progressively impairs thinking, behavior, speech and movement. Early neuropsychological testing soon after the earliest symptoms appear may help preserve memory and slow disease progression. Experts recommend speaking with a primary care physician to determine if an evaluation is needed.

Read the complete article from Prevention.

Cedars-Sinai in the News

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How Will the Commanders Replace Laremy Tunsil—and Could He Return This Season? | The New York Times
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Warning Symptoms, Clinical History Can Predict Sudden Cardiac Arrest | HealthDay
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Inconclusive BRCA Results Linked to Higher Breast Cancer Risk | Medscape
Fahima Dossa, MD, PhD

How Urinary Tract Infections Trigger Delirium in People With Dementia | Being Patient
Shouri Lahiri, MD

Faculty Publications

Biomedical Sciences

Let Distortion-Guided Restoration: A Physics-Informed Learning Framework to Correct Prostate Diffusion MRI Artifacts. Long, Ziyang, Nader Binesh, Lixia Wang, Archana Vadiraj Malaji, Chia-Chi Yang, Haoran Sun, Rola Saouaf, Timothy Daskivich, Hyung Kim, Yibin Xie, Debiao Li, and Hsin-Jung Yang. Radiology Advances 3 (4): umag031.

Metabolic Reprogramming of Brain Microglia: Implications for Aging and Aging-Associated Neurodegenerative Diseases. Kang, Seokjo, and Helen S. Goodridge. Aging Cell 25 (8): e70660.

Nepal’s Vulnerability to Nipah Virus Transmission: An Urgent Call for Preparedness. Lama, Bhupendra, Uday Narayan Yadav, Gopiram Syangtan, Alaka Bhandari, Binod Gc, Mukesh Rai, Martyn D. Kirk, and Binod Rayamajhee. Sustainable Microbiology 3 (2): qvag015.

Cardiac Surgery

A New Era for the Surgical Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation: Evolving Surgical Techniques and Clinical Considerations. Kiankhooy, Armin, Adam Eqbal, Richard P. Whitlock, T. Jared Bunch, Ali J. Khiabani, Ralph J. Damiano, Graham Peigh, Rod S. Passman, Patrick M. McCarthy, J. Hunter Mehaffey, and Arnar Ingason. The Annals of Thoracic Surgery, August, S0003-4975(26)00817-9.

Baseline Lung Allograft Dysfunction: Definition, Timing, and Implications for Outcomes-an ISHLT Consensus Document. Gottlieb, Jens, Tereza Martinu, Merel Hellemons, David R. Darley, Laurie Snyder, Laura DiChiacchio, Miranda Paraskeva, Christian Benden, Berta Saez-Gimenez, Anoop Mohandas, Letizia Corinna Morlacchi, Joshua M. Diamond, Saskia Bos, Erika D. Lease, Geert Verleden, Allan Glanville, and Kieran Halloran. The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation, June, S1053-2498(26)01945-5.

Donor Diabetes Status Impacts Long-Term Survival in Diabetic Heart Transplant Recipients. Lim, Brian, Allen A. Razavi, Aminah Sallam, Vikram Krishna, Federico Sertic, Dominic Emerson, Dominick Megna, Pedro Catarino, Michael E. Bowdish, Lawrence Czer, Jon Kobashigawa, Fardad Esmailian, Joanna Chikwe, and Laura DiChiacchio. JHLT Open 14 (November): 100631.

Cardiology

Aspirin-Free P2Y12 Inhibitor Monotherapy Post-Stenting in Acute Coronary Syndromes. Kaul, Sanjay, and James M. Brophy. European Heart Journal, August, ehag620.

Dual Inhibition of SGLT 1 and 2 by Sotagliflozin Alleviates Intracellular Sodium Overload and Improves Cardiometabolic Remodelling in Uraemic Cardiomyopathy. Young, Megan, Anja Karlstaedt, Sanushi Dambure, Jack J. J. J. Miller, Tong Guo, Xin Zhou, Zenouska Ramchunder, Jair Gonzalez Marques Junior, Muriel Nobles, Andrew Tinker, Kyuongmin Kim, Amanda R. Purcell, Sarah J. Glastras, Fenn Cullen, Thomas R. Eykyn, Alex Von Kriegsheim, Blanca Rodriguez, Michelangelo Campanella, Michael J. Shattock, Nay Aung, Claudia P. Cabrera, Magdi M. Yaqoob, and Dunja Aksentijevic. Cardiovascular Research, August, cvag167.

Prediction of Left Main Coronary Artery Disease by ECG Exercise Stress Testing: Ready for Clinical Implementation? Bairey Merz, C. Noel. European Heart Journal, August, ehag605.

Predictors of Target Lesion Failure in Patients With In-Stent Restenosis: Insights From the AGENT IDE Trial. Abbott, J. Dawn, Nicholas Kassis, Azeem Latib, Richard A. Shlofmitz, Jeffrey W. Moses, William B. Bachinsky, Suhail Dohad, Steven G. Rudick, Robert C. Stoler, Brian K. Jefferson, William J. Nicholson, John D. Altman, Cinthia T. Bateman, Amar Krishnaswamy, Rafael Cavalcante, Robert W. Yeh, and Ajay J. Kirtane. Circulation. Cardiovascular Interventions, August, e016289.

The Current and Future in Transcatheter Treatment of Aortic Stenosis: From the ‘Beyond the Guidelines’ Session at Cardiovascular Research Technologies. Ha, Edward T., Holger Thiele, Michael Joner, Howard C. Herrmann, Hasanian A. Jilaihawi, Gilbert H. L. Tang, Isaac George, Thomas E. MacGillivray, and Ron Waksman. Cardiovascular Revascularization Medicine: Including Molecular Interventions, July, S1553-8389(26)00326-X.

Computational Biomedicine

Impact of Surveillance Colonoscopy on Colorectal Cancer Incidence and Mortality in Lynch Syndrome: A National Observational Cohort Study of Patients in the English NHS 2010-2022. Huntley, Catherine, Lucy Loong, Corinne Mallinson, Tameera Rahman, Beth Torr, Sophie Allen, Isaac Allen, Hend Hassan, Yvonne Walburga Joko Fru, Daniela Tataru, Lizz Paley, Sally Vernon, Richard S. Houlston, David Muller, Fiona Lalloo, Adam C. Shaw, John Burn, Eva J. A. Morris, Marc Tischkowitz, Antonis C. Antoniou, Paul D. P. Pharoah, Kevin Monahan, Steven Hardy, and Clare Turnbull. Gut, August, gutjnl-2025-337379.

Emergency Medicine

Conversational Artificial Intelligence and Neuropsychiatric Risk: A Narrative Review and Case-Based Synthesis Proposing a Delusional Feedback Loop. Abesadze, Nino, Abigale Fernandes, and Elizabeth Rubin. Cureus 18 (7): e112306.

Small Doses, Big Problems: Antidote Shortages. Laub, Daniel Ascher, Maryann Mazer-Amirshahi, Michelle Burns, and Erin R. Fox. The Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics: JPPT, 31 (4): 574–76.

Imaging

Coronary Plaque Phenotype in Ischemic Stroke Survivors: A Quantitative Coronary CT Angiography Comparison With Acute Myocardial Infarction and Stable Chest Pain. Muthalaly, Rahul G., Julian Giovannucci, Andrew Lin, Sean Tan, Nitesh Nerlekar, Adam J. Nelson, Damini Dey, Thanh Phan, Henry Ma, and Stephen J. Nicholls. Radiology. Cardiothoracic Imaging 8 (4): e260039.

Medicine

Association Between Diabetic Control and Progression of Monoclonal Gammopathy of Undetermined Significance to Multiple Myeloma. Liu, Lawrence, Byron Sigel, Mei Wang, Nikhil Grandhi, Martin W. Schoen, Kristen M. Sanfilippo, Kenneth R. Carson, Murali Janakiram, Tzeyu L. Michaud, Graham A. Colditz, Theodore S. Thomas, and Su-Hsin Chang. Blood Cancer Journal 16 (1): 135.

Association of High Birth Weight With Risk of Early-Onset Colorectal Cancer. Mukherjee, Amrita, Lanfang Xu, Darios Getahun, Jessica Chubak, Jane C. Figueiredo, Kimberly L. Cannavale, Alec D. Gilfillan, Bechien U. Wu, and Chun R. Chao. Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention: A Publication of the American Association for Cancer Research, Cosponsored by the American Society of Preventive Oncology, August.

Belzutifan Plus Lenvatinib Versus Cabozantinib in Patients With Previously Treated Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma (LITESPARK-011): An Open-Label, Randomized, Controlled, Phase 3 Trial. Motzer, Robert J., Ray McDermott, Se Hoon Park, Mauricio Burotto, Roberto Iacovelli, Elena Verzoni, Cristina Suárez, Masatoshi Eto, Hernan J. Cutuli, Camillo Porta, Ray Manneh Kopp, Sylvie Rottey, Guillermo de Velasco, Begoña P. Valderrama, Arun A. Azad, Ugo De Giorgi, Michel Pavic, Piotr Tomczak, Robert Figlin, Hans M. Westgeest, Annalisa Guida, Andrea Necchi, Fabio A. Schutz, Britt B. M. Suelmann, John B. A. G. Haanen, Sammy Shuai Yuan, Rodolfo F. Perini, Ding Wang, Daniel Y. C. Heng, Manuela Schmidinger, and LITESPARK-011 Investigators. Lancet, August, S0140-6736(26)01089-5.

Beyond Calprotectin: Where Leucine-Rich Α2-Glycoprotein May Fit in Small Bowel Crohn Disease Monitoring. Anand, Rajsavi, and Andres J. Yarur. Inflammatory Bowel Diseases, August, izag165.

Early Consideration of Automated Insulin Delivery in Type 2 Diabetes: A Critical Review. Tariq, Zunera, Grazia Aleppo, Anders L. Carlson, David Kayne, Davida F. Kruger, Yogish C. Kudva, Eden Miller, Katelyn O’Brien, Sean M. Oser, Ruth S. Weinstock, and Viral N. Shah. Endocrine Practice, August, S1530-891X(26)01105-5.

Fstl1 Determines Luminal Size of Mouse Trachea Through Negative Regulation of BMP4 Signaling. Jin, Yueyue, Yue Zhang, Yingying Liu, Maolin Yao, Chenjie Zhang, Shuzi Li, Yibo Ding, Zhuan Niu, Yue Han, Yan Geng, Lian Li, Xue Liu, and Wen Ning. iScience 29 (8): 116972.

Liver Transplantation at the Extreme: Analysis of Outcomes and Predictors of Futility in Acute-on-Chronic Liver Failure Grade 3 Patients on Maximal Life Support. Melehy, Andrew, Asara Thepbunchonchai, Benjamin V. Tran, Ruben Hernaez, Dominic Amara, Samer Ebaid, Daniela Markovic, Fady M. Kaldas, Igor Barjaktarevic, Victor Xia, Constantine J. Karvellas, Saro Khemichian, Lance L. Stein, Kirti Shetty, Christina C. Lindenmeyer, Justin R. Boike, Douglas A. Simonetto, Robert S. Rahimi, Prasun K. Jalal, Manhal Izzy, Michael S. Kriss, Gene Y. Im, Ming V. Lin, Janice H. Jou, Brett E. Fortune, George Cholankeril, Alexander Kuo, Vinay Sundaram, Multi-Organ Dysfunction and Evaluation for Liver Transplantation (MODEL) Consortium, Ronald W. Busuttil, Douglas G. Farmer, and Vatche G. Agopian. JHEP Reports: Innovation in Hepatology, August, 101959.

Novel Topical Treatment for Dysgeusia/Ageusia: A Case Series Report. Epstein, Joel B., Arezou Petrie, Geena L. Epstein, and Andrei Barasch. Supportive Care in Cancer, 34 (9): 845.

STAT3 Signaling Inhibitors for Cancer Treatment. Akinsola, Rasaq, Jing Xian, and James Turkson. Trends in Pharmacological Sciences, August, S0165-6147(26)00173-2.

Neurosurgery

Cross-Region Neuron Co-Firing Mediated by Ripple Oscillations Supports Distributed Working Memory Representations. Verzhbinsky, Ilya A., Jonathan Daume, Sophia Cheng, Ueli Rutishauser, and Eric Halgren. Nature Neuroscience, August.

Dorsal Spinal CSF Leaks in Patients With Spontaneous Intracranial Hypotension: A Radiologic-Anatomic Study. Schievink, Wouter I., Marcel M. Maya, Kim T. Giang, Rachelle B. Taché, Ravi S. Prasad, and Vikram Wadhwa. AJNR. American Journal of Neuroradiology, August, ajnr.A9572.

Inferring Brain-Wide Interactions Using Data-Constrained Recurrent Neural Network Models. Perich, Matthew G., Charlotte Arlt, Sofia Soares, Siyan Zhou, Manuel Beiran, Aaron S. Andalman, Tyler Benster, Megan E. Young, Clayton P. Mosher, Juri Minxha, Eugene Carter, Ueli Rutishauser, Peter H. Rudebeck, Christopher D. Harvey, Karl Deisseroth, and Kanaka Rajan. Neuron, August, S0896-6273(26)00571-4.

Orthopaedics and Sports Medicine

Achilles Tendon Injuries in Major League Soccer: A 10-Year Analysis of Injury Rate, Return to Play, and Performance Metrics. Forsythe, Brian, Catherine Hand, Francis Hand, Henry Eilen, Matthew Varano, Jared Sasaki, Camden Bohn, Anne Timmermann, Lauren Fertig, Eric Giza, Robert H. Brophy, Bert Mandelbaum, and Kirk McCullough. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine 14 (8): 23259671261449641.

Smart Implantable Device Use Is Associated With Decreased Post-Discharge Hospital Utilization in Total Knee Arthroplasty Patients Who Have Metabolic Syndrome: A Propensity Score-Matched Analysis. Nakla, Andrew, Patrick M. Aubin, Samuel Ademisoye, Rebecca G. Burr, Sean S. Rajaee, and Mark Wu. The Journal of Arthroplasty, August, S0883-5403(26)00843-0.

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Reproductive Factors and Brain Volume in Community-Dwelling Individuals: The Ohasama Study. Saito, Ayana, Kyoko Nomura, Michihiro Satoh, Satoshi Yamaguchi, Azusa Hara, Melanie Griffith-Quintyne, Hiroaki Shimizu, Shingo Nakayama, Megumi Tsubota-Utsugi, Takahisa Murakami, Yukako Tatsumi, Takuo Hirose, Tomoko Totsune, Naoko Mori, Kei Asayama, Masahiro Kikuya, Hirohito Metoki, Atsushi Hozawa, and Takayoshi Ohkubo. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine 31: 52.

Unmasking Additional Mutations: A Single Institution Study in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms. Tizro, Parastou, Eric Vail, Manoj Sapkota, Matthew G. Gayhart, and Celeste C. Eno. Cancers 18 (15): 2458.

Pediatrics

Alemtuzumab Induction via Intravenous vs. Subcutaneous Administration in Pediatric Kidney Transplantation. Pizzo, H., A. Barbera, K. Westreich, M. E. Seifert, J. Mirocha, K. Kirshner, and D. Puliyanda. Pediatric Transplantation 30 (8): e70424.

Whole Genome Sequencing in Cerebral Palsy: A UK Paediatric Pilot Study. Ratnaike, Thiloka E., Heather H. Pierce, Alison J. Coffey, Joao M. L. Dias, Iain R. L. Kean, Emily Li, Ravi P. More, Dulika S. Sumathipala, Maya Bajracharya, Zoya Kingsbury, Taksina Newington, Anthony S. Rogers, Isabelle Delon, Kate Downes, Yasmin de Alwis, Anna P. Basu, Manal Issa, Catherine Kearney, Amjad H. Khan, Benjamin P. Marlow, Alison Sansome, JooWook Ahn, A. Yee Than, Tracy Lau, David R. Bentley, Sarah Bowdin, Evan Reid, Henry Houlden, Sean Humphray, and David H. Rowitch. The Lancet Regional Health. Europe 68 (September): 101786.

Surgery

‘I Don’t like Fitting a Box, Except the Box I Am’: Genderqueer and Nonbinary (GQNB) Patient Strategies for Navigating Healthcare. Sidhu, Shanaya, Jennifer T. Anger, Victor Trasvina, Falisha Kanji, Kyle Okamuro, Sunny Mangiameli, Alan J. Card, Tara Cohen, Hanna J. Barton, and TRANS-SAFE Author Group. International Journal for Equity in Health 25 (1): 194.

Incidental Mass Found on Screening Colonoscopy. Amedi, Alan, Serhat Suzer, Jesse Zuckerman, and Eiman Firoozmand. Journal of Surgical Case Reports 2026 (8): rjag684.

Prediction of Blunt Trauma Outcomes With Pulmonary Contusion Quantification. Jain, Ashwin, Erik DiGiacomo, Pedro V. Staziaki, Matthew Diamond, Donghoon Shin, Celina L. Duran, Oam Bhate, Myoung Jin Kim, Stephan W. Anderson, Tejal S. Brahmbhatt, and Christina A. LeBedis. Emergency Radiology, August.

Predictive Models for Toxicities after CAR T-Cell Therapy: Challenges and Opportunities. Ma, Julie, August Culbert, Tian-Gen Chang, Mark L. Solter, Eytan Ruppin, Kai Rejeski, and Nirali N. Shah. Blood Cancer Discovery, August, OF1–23.

Reply to: When Guidelines Meet Reality: Implementing the 2025 ATA Recommendations for Differentiated Thyroid Cancer in Limited-Resource Settings. Ho, Allen S., Matthew D. Ringel, Julie Ann Sosa, Julie H. Johnson, and Ellen Marqusee. Thyroid, August, 10507256261478396.

Surviving the Nucleus Pulposus Desert: Next-Generation Strategies for Intervertebral Disc Cell Therapy. Hamidouche, Tynhinane, Namdev More, Tiffany Lee, Mia Orr, Anne Camus, Devina Purmessur, Sarah E. Gulbrand, Nadeen O. Chahine, Lara Silverman, and Dmitriy Sheyn. JOR Spine 9 (3): e70207.

The Thyroid Cancer Modified Anxiety Scale (TC-MAX): Development and External Validation of a Thyroid Cancer Distress Instrument. Bastien, Amanda J., Sungjin Kim, Cynthia Zalt, Iris Cong, Jewel Ng, Caroline Marshall, Christopher V. Almario, Omer Liran, Brennan M. R. Spiegel, Jon Mallen-St Clair, Evan S. Walgama, Kevin S. Scher, Julie K. Jang, Yufei Chen, Samuel Zhang, Gary Bloom, Michelle M. Chen, K. Linnea Peterson, Wendy L. Sacks, Zachary S. Zumsteg, and Allen S. Ho. Thyroid, August, 10507256261475819.

Urology

How Low Do You Need to Go? Association Between Various Prostate-Specific Antigen Response Measures and Clinical Outcomes in Metastatic Castration-Sensitive Prostate Cancer in the Veterans Health Administration Data. Freedland, Stephen J., Wei Gao, Maëlys Touya, Hongbo Yang, David Russell, Jingyi Chen, Grace Chen, and Jasmina I. Ivanova. Cancer 132 (16): e70494.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

Según las nuevas pautas, los estudiantes de educación temprana, kínder y primer grado no tendrán tiempo semanal frente a las pantallas en el aula. Los estudiantes de segundo y tercer grado estarán limitados a 1 hora y 40 minutos por semana; los de cuarto y quinto grado, a 2 horas y media; los estudiantes de sexto a octavo grado, a 6 horas por semana; y los estudiantes de secundaria, a 10 horas por semana.

Los límites incluyen el tiempo dedicado a tareas escolares que requieren el uso de pantallas.

“El tiempo frente a las pantallas está literalmente cambiando la trayectoria del desarrollo cerebral. Está haciendo crecer la corteza visual a expensas de las áreas responsables del lenguaje, la lectura y las habilidades sociales”, dijo Jane Tavyev Asher, MD, neuróloga pediátrica y directora de la División de Neurología Pediátrica de Cedars-Sinai Guerin Children’s. “Los padres deberían estar realmente muy contentos de que sus hijos vayan a pasar menos tiempo frente a las pantallas en la escuela, y deberían ver a la escuela como un aliado que los ayuda con el desarrollo cerebral de sus hijos”.

Ahora que la nueva política entra en vigor este año escolar, Cedars-Sinai Newsroom conversó con Tavyev Asher sobre por qué reducir el tiempo frente a las pantallas puede beneficiar el desarrollo cerebral de los niños y cómo los padres pueden fomentar hábitos saludables en el uso de pantallas en casa.

LAUSD y otros distritos escolares están implementando límites más estrictos, según la edad, sobre el tiempo frente a las pantallas. ¿Por qué eran necesarias estas nuevas políticas?

Las investigaciones continúan mostrando que el exceso de tiempo frente a las pantallas puede afectar la manera en que el cerebro de los niños crece y se desarrolla. Durante la infancia, el cerebro está desarrollando habilidades importantes para el lenguaje, la lectura, la atención y la interacción social. Queremos que el cerebro se desarrolle para favorecer la lectura, el lenguaje y las habilidades sociales. Y el tiempo frente a las pantallas realmente está haciendo crecer la corteza visual a expensas de todas las demás partes del cerebro.

Reducir drásticamente el tiempo frente a las pantallas en la escuela puede ayudar a crear más oportunidades para que los estudiantes participen en un aprendizaje activo, conversen y desarrollen capacidades cognitivas más profundas a largo plazo.

Ahora que las escuelas están conociendo la evidencia neurocientífica sobre lo que el tiempo frente a las pantallas hace al cerebro en desarrollo, muchas están comenzando a adoptar estas investigaciones e implementar límites. Quieren lo mejor para el desarrollo cerebral de los estudiantes, al igual que los padres. Al final del día, todos trabajamos hacia el mismo objetivo: ayudar a nuestros niños a aprender, crecer y prosperar.

¿Por qué es especialmente importante limitar el tiempo frente a las pantallas durante la primera infancia?

La primera infancia es un período crucial para aprender a hablar, leer y escribir, y para desarrollar habilidades sociales. Durante estos años, los centros auditivos y del lenguaje del cerebro se desarrollan rápidamente mediante la conversación y la interacción humana.

Por ejemplo, el desarrollo del habla comienza alrededor del primer año de vida, cuando los niños empiezan a aprender a hablar. Este proceso depende del desarrollo de las señales nerviosas y del crecimiento continuo de la corteza auditiva, que se desarrolla considerablemente durante los primeros años de vida. La corteza auditiva también es la parte del cerebro que contribuye no solo al desarrollo del lenguaje, sino también a la interacción social.

El uso excesivo de pantallas puede interferir con estos procesos al sobreestimular las vías visuales y, al mismo tiempo, reducir las oportunidades de comunicación cara a cara, desarrollo del lenguaje y reconocimiento de señales sociales, como las expresiones faciales y el lenguaje corporal.

¿Cómo puede afectar el uso de pantallas al desarrollo cerebral de los estudiantes de escuela intermedia?

Las funciones cognitivas de nivel superior realmente comienzan a desarrollarse con rapidez alrededor de los 12 años. Es entonces cuando empieza a surgir la curiosidad intelectual. Es una etapa en la que los niños comienzan de manera natural a establecer conexiones entre ideas, como leer algo, relacionarlo con otra cosa que han aprendido, hacer preguntas y querer encontrar las respuestas. Así es exactamente como queremos que se desarrolle su cerebro.

Pero si todo se les proporciona de manera pasiva mediante la inteligencia artificial (IA) o un aprendizaje excesivamente basado en pantallas, esa parte del cerebro no se ejercita de la misma manera. Están consumiendo información en lugar de pensar activamente, hacer preguntas y establecer conexiones. Es maravilloso que nuestras escuelas finalmente estén llegando a esta conclusión y cambiando la manera en que se presenta el currículo a nuestros niños.

¿Qué recomendaciones sobre el tiempo frente a las pantallas tiene para los padres de estudiantes de secundaria?

Para un estudiante de secundaria, trataría de mantener en casa las mismas pautas que se han establecido para los niños más pequeños. La razón es que su cerebro todavía está en desarrollo y el tiempo frente a las pantallas sigue siendo muy adictivo.

Creo que a esta edad realmente tienen la capacidad de comprender por qué las pantallas no son lo ideal para ellos. Cuando llegan a la secundaria, los adolescentes pueden entender la lógica detrás de reducir el tiempo frente a las pantallas. Este es el momento en que su intelecto se está desarrollando. Pueden leer los estudios al respecto. Como padres, también es un momento ideal para mostrarles los estudios que demuestran lo que la adicción a las pantallas puede hacerle al cerebro a largo plazo.

¿Cómo deberían abordar los padres el uso de teléfonos inteligentes entre los estudiantes de escuela intermedia y secundaria?

El teléfono inteligente es realmente la peor forma de tiempo frente a las pantallas porque es muy fácil tenerlo disponible en el bolsillo. Es más fácil volverse adicto a él. Por eso, es importante supervisar cómo los niños acceden a sus teléfonos inteligentes y cómo los utilizan.

Durante la escuela intermedia ocurre un enorme desarrollo social. Si se puede ayudar a los niños a superar esa etapa sin un teléfono, se puede evitar que desarrollen una adicción al dispositivo.

Existe un programa llamado “Wait Until 8th”. Es un movimiento en el que los padres firman un compromiso para retrasar la entrega de un teléfono inteligente a sus hijos al menos hasta el final del octavo grado o hasta que tengan 13 años. Cuando las familias asumen este compromiso juntas, se crea una comunidad en la que menos niños tienen teléfonos inteligentes a una edad temprana, lo que ayuda a reducir la presión de los compañeros para obtener uno antes de estar preparados. Esto brinda apoyo a los padres para establecer límites saludables y facilita que los niños esperen junto con sus amigos.

Si necesita mantenerse en contacto con su hijo adolescente, dele un teléfono plegable sencillo que no tenga acceso a internet. De esta manera, podrá llamar a quien necesite. Algunos teléfonos también permiten programar a quién pueden llamar o de quién pueden recibir llamadas.

¿Cómo pueden los padres establecer y hacer cumplir límites al tiempo frente a las pantallas en casa?

Los padres tienen una enorme influencia en la manera en que los niños desarrollan su relación con las pantallas. Es mucho más fácil no introducir las pantallas desde el principio que establecer límites o quitarlas más adelante. En lugar de enfocarse únicamente en retirar las pantallas, los padres pueden ayudar a los niños a descubrir otras actividades, como leer, participar en juegos creativos, pasar tiempo al aire libre y convivir en familia.

Es importante señalar que los padres deben dar el ejemplo de los hábitos que esperan ver en sus hijos practicando ellos mismos un uso saludable de las pantallas, ya que es más probable que los niños adopten los comportamientos que observan en casa.

En primer lugar, establezca una regla de no usar pantallas durante al menos dos horas antes de acostarse. Esto ayudará a los niños a evitar la luz brillante justo antes de dormir, lo que favorece un sueño más profundo. En segundo lugar, evite las pantallas durante las comidas. La hora de comer es una excelente oportunidad para que la familia se siente junta y converse. Hay muchos estudios positivos sobre los beneficios que las comidas familiares tienen para el desarrollo social y cognitivo de los niños.

Lea más en Cedars-Sinai Stories and Insights: Guía Familiar Para Adolescentes, Pantallas Y Redes Sociales  

“Through my interests in research and patient care, I saw a need for a tool that could streamline a critical gatekeeper process,” said Ella Tetrault, who has worked at Cedars-Sinai for two years and is earning a master of science in health systems at Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University.

Her tool is designed to save staff time and help patients receive faster access to care by flagging missing details, drafting justification letters, and creating a checklist with action items for staff before they submit the request to insurers.

Tetrault’s tool also is a perfect example of how Cedars-Sinai is empowering employees to use AI to solve common healthcare problems and improve patient care, said Mouneer Odeh, MA, chief data and artificial intelligence officer at Cedars-Sinai.

“We see artificial intelligence as an opportunity to rethink how we deliver care and run our operations,” Odeh said. “Our employees are our first step in identifying how new technologies can become part of our workflows, and their willingness to adopt these technologies drives our innovation.”

During Cedars-Sinai’s “Prompt-A-Thons,” employees compete to develop AI tools to solve operational, clinical and administrative challenges. Nearly 80 groups submitted proposals at the summer competition. Topics ranged from personalizing patient education to assessing patients’ risk for pharmaceutical side effects.

Ten employee teams were then selected to present their AI solutions at a final showcase in front of a panel of judges. Second- and third-place presentations aimed to streamline the Emergency Department trauma documentation auditing process and provide faster, more integrated reporting for medical center data.

During her winning presentation, Tetrault estimated that her pre-authorization tool could save 450 hours per year per authorization staff member.

“According to the American Medical Association, prior authorizations take up roughly 13 hours a week of any given employee’s time,” Tetrault said. “Unfortunately, many of these authorizations are denied due to missing information or submissions not matching the payer’s policy. Most appealed denials get overturned.”

Chain Insights: Turning Prompt-A-Thon Experience Into Action

The Cedars-Sinai Supply Chain Department won a 2025 Prompt-A-Thon for designing an app to help streamline nursing paperwork and give nurses more time for direct patient care. The app, Chain Insights, monitors supplies, tracks back orders, and flags approved substitutes for items that might become unavailable.

Chain Insights, built by a Cedars-Sinai team from Supply Chain Operational Excellence, Enterprise Information Services and Nursing, was first tested as a pilot on an inpatient floor at Cedars-Sinai. Early data shows that it reduced nurses’ supply-ordering time by 1 1/2 minutes per call.

“This time savings adds up to roughly seven hours each day once fully rolled out for the nursing team,” said Nausheen Ahmed, executive director of Supply Chain Operational Excellence. “With approximately 300 calls to our supply chain team each day, this modest but important efficiency means nurses can reclaim time to focus on their most important role, patient care.”

For supply chain staff, knowing how much inventory is available and where it is housed is critical, especially when a nurse calls with a need for supplies. Each call requires a detailed discussion including when the supplies must be in hand and possible substitutions if an item is on back order.

Chain Insights replaces the phone call with an app that precisely locates inventory. The app also identifies unnecessary items to help clear space, a “quieter win” but one that compounds over time.

Regina Chung, MSN, RN, CMSRN, a nurse at Cedars-Sinai, uses Chain Insights every shift.

“Chain Insights has made it easy to quickly order the supplies I need while on the go, even while I am walking in the halls between patients,” Chung said. “I always receive the correct product and quantity, and when items are out of stock, it tells me immediately, so I am not aimlessly waiting. These efficiencies allow me to focus on providing exceptional care to our patients.”

Leaders from Supply Chain Operational Excellence designed data models, decision frameworks and inventory intelligence that tell the tool how to think about supply risk and priorities.

Cedars-Sinai employees from Enterprise Information Services wrote the code and built the infrastructure, turning that back-end logic into a working application. Nursing colleagues provided continuous frontline input, including real-world testing of the tool to ensure it solved the right problems.

“This effort stands as an example of what happens when teams build something together to solve a real problem,” Odeh said. “It's also a signal of what's possible when the people closest to the work are empowered to build the solution, and there's more to come. There is nothing more motivating than seeing knowledge be translated into solutions.”

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.

Las células cerebrales que liberan dopamina —una sustancia química mensajera que interviene en el control del movimiento— la almacenan en pequeños sacos rodeados de membrana llamados vesículas sinápticas. Y estas vesículas son diferentes de las que utilizan las células cerebrales que liberan otras sustancias químicas mensajeras, según demuestra un estudio dirigido por investigadores de Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University.

El estudio, publicado en Science Advances, podría contribuir a una mejor comprensión de la enfermedad de Parkinson, un trastorno del movimiento que provoca la muerte progresiva de las células cerebrales que liberan dopamina. La muerte de estas células causa los problemas de movimiento característicos de la enfermedad.

“Nuestra investigación arroja luz sobre las distintas formas en que las células cerebrales liberan mensajeros químicos, que utilizan para comunicarse entre sí”, dijo Katlin Silm, PhD, profesora asistente de Ciencias Biomédicas y Neurología y autora principal del estudio. “Identificamos diferencias clave entre las células cerebrales que liberan dopamina y las que liberan otras sustancias químicas cerebrales”.

Las vesículas sinápticas ayudan a las células cerebrales a comunicarse al fusionarse con la membrana celular y liberar su contenido en el espacio entre las células. En los cerebros de ratones de laboratorio, los investigadores descubrieron que las vesículas sinápticas que contienen dopamina transportan un conjunto de proteínas distinto al de aquellas que contienen otras sustancias químicas mensajeras.

“Nuestros hallazgos demuestran que la composición de una vesícula es fundamental para determinar cómo se liberan las sustancias químicas mensajeras del cerebro”, dijo Silm, quien también es investigadora científica del Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute. “Las diferencias que identificamos ayudan a explicar las propiedades únicas de la liberación de dopamina y sientan las bases para explorar cómo esto afecta la estabilidad a largo plazo de las células cerebrales productoras de dopamina”.

Otros autores de Cedars-Sinai incluyen a Hrach Asmerian, Alexia J. Diaz, Jacob Alberts, Barathan Gnanabharathi, Anna M. Sanetra y Noah Carr.

Otros autores incluyen a Hongfei Xu, Juan A. Oses-Prieto, Poulomi Das, Alma L. Burlingame y Robert H. Edwards.

Financiamiento: Este trabajo recibió apoyo de The Larry L. Hillblom Foundation, subvención 2022-A-004-SUP (KS); Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, subvención 29845 (KS); National Institutes of Health, subvención R01NS138465 (KS); National Institutes of Health, subvención R01NS103938 (RHE); y National Institutes of Health, subvención R01NS129803 (RHE). La espectrometría de masas se realizó en el Mass Spectrometry Resource de UCSF, que cuenta con el apoyo de la Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation (JAO-P y ALB).

Nuevo Método Podría Aumentar el Valor de los Análisis de Sangre para Monitorear el Cáncer de Colon

Los análisis de sangre podrían convertirse en una herramienta más eficaz para monitorear la progresión del cáncer de colon y la respuesta al tratamiento, según un estudio dirigido por investigadores de Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University. Los hallazgos, publicados en Experimental Hematology & Oncology, utilizaron perfiles unicelulares para analizar las células tumorales circulantes y las células no cancerosas presentes en la sangre de los pacientes.

“Nuestro método va más allá del tumor para comprender también la respuesta del paciente al cáncer”, dijo Jun Gong, MD, director médico de Cáncer Colorrectal de Cedars-Sinai y autor del estudio. “Podría ayudar a orientar decisiones de tratamiento más personalizadas basadas en el comportamiento del tumor y el estado del paciente”.

Los investigadores analizaron muestras de sangre de pacientes con cáncer colorrectal avanzado, examinando 10 características celulares diferentes y utilizando análisis unicelular para precisar sus hallazgos.

El método revela cambios importantes, como las medidas que adoptan las células tumorales para evadir al sistema inmunitario o la presencia de inflamación en células normales. Según Gong, estos cambios pasarían inadvertidos con las pruebas existentes.

Si estos hallazgos se validan en estudios de mayor tamaño, dijo Gong, este método podría complementar las herramientas existentes para monitorear el cáncer, incluidas las pruebas de diagnóstico por imágenes y los análisis de laboratorio estándar.

Otros autores de Cedars-Sinai incluyen a Francesca Aguirre, MD; Lisa Zhou, BS; Aaron Denmark, BS; Rocio Alvarez, MsC; y Daniel M. Kim, MD.

Otros autores incluyen a Gabriela Felix, PhD, y Megan P. Hitchins, PhD.

Financiamiento: Este estudio fue financiado en parte por la subvención R01CA252042 del NCI (MH), el Cedars-Sinai Cancer Developmental Fund (MH) y el ASCO Conquer Cancer Career Development Award (JG).

Declaraciones: J.G. informa haber recibido honorarios por consultoría y otros honorarios de las siguientes compañías: EMD Serono, Exelixis, Natera, Eisai, Janssen, Pfizer, Bayer, Taiho, Agenus, Seagen y Caper Labs. G.F., J.G. y M.H. tienen una solicitud de patente provisional (solicitud n.º 64/039,184) relacionada con el trabajo descrito en este manuscrito.

Gas de Sulfuro de Hidrógeno Está Relacionado con Daños Más Graves en el SII

Investigadores de Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University han identificado cómo el exceso de gas de sulfuro de hidrógeno producido por ciertos microbios intestinales altera la actividad genética en el intestino delgado. Sus hallazgos, publicados en mSystems, ofrecen nuevos conocimientos sobre afecciones asociadas con el síndrome del intestino irritable (SII), uno de los trastornos gastrointestinales más comunes.

El sobrecrecimiento bacteriano del intestino delgado (SIBO, por sus siglas en inglés), el sobrecrecimiento de metanógenos intestinales (IMO) y la sobreproducción intestinal de sulfuro (ISO) son afecciones en las que los microbios productores de gases se multiplican excesivamente en el intestino delgado. Estos trastornos suelen estar relacionados con el SII.

“Nuestros resultados demuestran que ISO, IMO y SIBO son afecciones biológicamente distintas que requerirán diferentes enfoques de tratamiento”, dijo Mark Pimentel, MD, director ejecutivo del Medically Associated Science and Technology (MAST) Program de Cedars-Sinai y autor para correspondencia del estudio. “Los genes alterados en estas afecciones están relacionados con diversos síntomas, y comprender estos mecanismos nos ayudará a desarrollar mejores terapias para los pacientes”.

Los investigadores analizaron muestras de tejido del intestino delgado de pacientes y animales de laboratorio. Encontraron los cambios más extensos en la actividad genética en las muestras de pacientes con ISO, y cambios más limitados en las muestras de SIBO e IMO.

Los cambios genéticos afectaron la actividad inmunitaria, la absorción de líquidos, el movimiento de nutrientes a través del intestino, las defensas antioxidantes y la producción de energía celular. Estos hallazgos podrían ayudar a explicar por qué la sobreproducción de sulfuro de hidrógeno se ha asociado con diarrea, dolor abdominal y otros síntomas gastrointestinales graves en pacientes con SII con predominio de diarrea.

Pimentel dijo que se necesitan estudios de mayor tamaño que integren pruebas de aliento y perfiles del microbioma para validar aún más estos hallazgos e identificar cómo podrían contribuir al desarrollo de nuevas terapias.

Otros autores de Cedars-Sinai incluyen a Juliana de Freitas Germano, Gabriela Leite, Maria Jesus Villanueva-Millan, Daniel Brimberry, Mohamad Rashid, Ava Hosseini, Dilara Flora, Said Bogatyrev, Walter Morales, Stacy Weitsman, Maritza Sanchez, Ignacio Rivera, Cristina Moreno Fajardo, Victoria Murray, Gonzalo Parodi, Margie Parra, Gillian M. Barlow, Ali Rezaie y Ruchi Mathur.

Otros autores incluyen a Zhe Lyu.

Financiamiento: Este estudio recibió apoyo principalmente del Medically Associated Science and Technology (MAST) Program de Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Ángeles, California, y fue financiado en parte mediante donaciones privadas al MAST Program.

Declaraciones: Los doctores Pimentel, Mathur y Rezaie informan tener participación accionaria en APQ Health y haber recibido honorarios por licencias o consultoría relacionados con tecnologías de diagnóstico mediante pruebas de aliento de Gemelli Biotech y Brio-Medical. Los demás autores declaran no tener conflictos de intereses.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University está impulsando investigaciones innovadoras y formando a los futuros líderes en medicina, ciencias biomédicas y ciencias de la salud afines. Más información.

The study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, found that lowering the threshold for blood pressure treatment could prevent more than 200,000 deaths over the next decade, including 160,000 cardiovascular deaths. Researchers based these estimates on updated guidelines published by the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology, which recommend treatment for eligible adults whose blood pressure is 130/80 mmHg or higher and who also have diabetes, chronic kidney disease or elevated cardiovascular risk.

Ebinger, who was not involved in the study, told Forbes that many providers still rely on the older 140/90 mmHg threshold, even though lowering it by 10 mmHg could substantially improve patients’ long-term health.

“We know that every millimeter of mercury [mmHg] could increase the risk for not just heart attacks or strokes or heart failure but kidney failure, dementia and a myriad of other health conditions,” said Ebinger, chair of the American College of Cardiology Hypertension Working Group.

Ebinger told Forbes that connecting people with treatment can “significantly reduce individuals’ cardiovascular risk across the lifespan,” but noted that many people remain unaware of their diagnosis or unable to access care.

To help identify and treat more people with high blood pressure, Ebinger encourages regular blood pressure checks at a doctor’s office, clinic, pharmacy or at home.

“I love it when people monitor their blood pressure at home,” he told Forbes. “The big thing I would recommend is making sure that they are getting a cuffed, validated device.”

People who monitor their blood pressure at home can check whether their device has been independently validated for accuracy using the Validate BP website.

Read the complete article from Forbes.

Cedars-Sinai is urging eligible Angelenos to donate blood this month amid a national blood supply crisis. Blood donation expert Armando Romero is available for interviews to discuss the current shortage, why summer is a challenging time for maintaining the blood supply and how donating blood saves lives.  

WHO

Armando Romero, associate director of Transfusion Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, can discuss why blood donations are especially critical this summer, how the donation process works and who is eligible to donate.

WHY

Earlier this summer, the American Red Cross reported a four-year summer low and the second-ever national blood supply crisis. Because students are a significant percentage of the donor base and schools are not in session, summer is traditionally a time when blood donations decline. At the same time, it’s a busy travel season and extreme heat can discourage participation in community blood drives. Hospitals depend on blood supplies to save lives, and blood donations are especially critical during the summer, when traumatic injuries increase. Every two seconds, someone in the U.S. needs blood. At Cedars-Sinai, a Level 1 trauma center, patients need more than 60,000 units of blood each year.

WHEN

Armando Romero is available for immediate interviews.

WHERE

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, 8700 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles. Interviews also are available via Zoom.

TO ARRANGE AN INTERVIEW

Kristin Reynolds | 424-241-8108 | marykristin.reynolds@cshs.org

TO DONATE BLOOD

The public is invited to donate blood at Cedars-Sinai. Call 310-423-5346 to schedule an appointment or select a time here.

The multi-institutional study offers one of the clearest pictures of what happens during the earliest stages of disease. The findings could help researchers develop new ways to detect and prevent heart disease before plaque builds up inside arteries.

“We analyzed proteins and gene activity in coronary artery tissue from young adults who died of trauma and had no known coronary artery disease, and we found that more than half already had preclinical atherosclerosis,” said study first author Sarah Parker, PhD, an associate professor of Cardiology and Biomedical Sciences and co-director of the Proteomics and Metabolomics Core at Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University. “This suggests that changes in cellular metabolism and communication begin before the inflammation long considered a hallmark of the disease.”

Published in the European Heart Journal, the study findings point to previously unrecognized molecular pathways—and a potential “master regulator” called MLXIPL—that could become targets for therapies aimed at preventing plaque from developing.

The Cedars-Sinai Newsroom spoke with Parker about the findings and how proteomics—the study of proteins—is helping researchers rethink the earliest stages of heart disease.

Why are proteins so important in understanding heart disease?

Proteins are the molecules that make cells function. They tell us how the body’s cells are responding to risk factors like cholesterol, blood pressure or smoking. Two people can have identical cholesterol levels, yet only one develops plaque. Proteins may help explain why. They provide a much more direct picture of what's happening inside the artery wall and may reveal why some people are more vulnerable to heart disease than others.

What did this most recent study reveal about the earliest stages of atherosclerosis?

Previous studies had shown that the earliest artery lesions can appear in the first decade of life. What we haven’t understood is what causes those early changes to progress into dangerous plaques that lead to heart attacks. In studying coronary artery tissue before people ever developed symptoms, we were able to capture some of the earliest molecular changes that appear to set the disease in motion. One of the biggest surprises was that we saw changes in cellular metabolism and communication before we saw the classic inflammatory signals traditionally associated with atherosclerosis.

To be clear, inflammation remains a defining feature of advanced atherosclerosis. What our study suggests is that important molecular changes begin much earlier. If we want to prevent plaque from forming, we need to understand those earliest changes—not just what happens after inflammation has already taken hold.

Explain MLXIPL, the potential ‘master regulator’ you identified.

We performed a master regulator analysis to identify the genes that may be coordinating these early events. Some of the regulators we found were exactly what we expected. But one stood out. MLXIPL is a transcription factor gene involved in cellular metabolism. Previous genetic studies have linked it to coronary artery disease through its role in the liver. Our findings suggest it may also play an important role directly within the artery wall. When we altered MLXIPL activity in lab-grown human artery tissue, we saw the protein changes we predicted. That makes it an exciting candidate for future therapies that interrupt disease before plaque develops.

How could these findings change atherosclerosis prevention?

Today, we estimate cardiovascular risk using factors such as high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, age and family history. By the time plaque is visible on imaging, disease often is well underway. We hope to identify protein biomarkers in the blood that reveal what’s happening inside the artery wall much earlier. One day, a simple blood test could identify people who would benefit from preventive treatment before symptoms develop.

That said, our findings do not change current prevention recommendations. Managing cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, smoking, exercise and diet remain essential.

This study relied on a decades-long collaboration. Why was that essential?

This is a collaboration more than 20 years in the making. The project was spearheaded by proteomics pioneer Jennifer Van Eyk. (Van Eyk, PhD, is director of the Advanced Clinical Biosystems Research Institute in the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai and co-director of the Proteomics and Metabolomics Core.)

Our collaborators included investigators from many other institutions across the country. What began as a small group has grown into an ecosystem of investigators, trainees and collaborators. This kind of large-scale molecular study simply isn’t possible without that level of long-term partnership and shared expertise.

Cedars-Sinai Health Sciences University is advancing groundbreaking research and educating future leaders in medicine, biomedical sciences and allied health sciences. Learn more about the university.