The discovery that our galaxy is teeming with exoplanets has also revealed the vast diversity of planetary systems out there and raised questions about the processes that shaped them. New work published in Science by an international team including Carnegie’s Jaehan Bae could explain the architecture of multi-star systems in which planets are separated by wide gaps and do not orbit on the same plane as their host star’s equatorial center.

If naked mole-rats were human, they would be prescribed hearing aids. With six mutations in genes associated with hearing, naked mole-rats can barely hear the constant squeaking they use to communicate with one another. This hearing loss, which is strange for such social, vocal animals, is an adaptive, beneficial trait, according to new findings published in the journal Current Biology.

A team of LSU Health New Orleans radiologists investigated the usefulness of chest x-rays in COVID-19 and found they could aid in a rapid diagnosis of the disease, especially in areas with limited testing capacity or delayed test results. Their findings are published in Radiology: Cardiothoracic Imaging, available here.

Some people are being asked to travel hundreds of miles for tests as labs struggle to keep up.

• EKG readings from a smartwatch were found to be nearly as accurate as standard EKGs
• EKGs are critical to establish if a patient with chest pain has had a heart attack
• Smartwatch EKGs could speed up diagnosis and treatment when time is of the essence

Could a smartwatch app save a heart attack patient’s life? Quite possibly, according to Italian researchers.

They found that electrocardiograph (EKG) readings from a smartwatch were nearly as accurate as standard EKGs among patients with suspected heart attacks.

“A [standard] electrocardiograph is not always readily available,” said study author Dr Ciro Indolfi. “[So] the ability to identify an ongoing heart attack quickly and easily thanks to the use of a simple smartphone could be of great help in certain situations in reducing the negative consequences of a heart attack.”

Indolfi is director of cardiovascular research at Magna Graecia University in Catanzaro, Italy.

FDA-approved for atrial fibrillation

An EKG is a graphic representation of the heart’s electrical activity. Indolfi noted that these readouts are critical for establishing whether a patient with chest pain has had a heart attack. It can also quickly identify specific causes.

To see whether smartphone electrocardiograms actually work, researchers assessed EKG reliability among 81 patients who sought care for a likely heart attack at one clinic between April 2019 and January 2020. Two-thirds were men (average age: 61).

All received a standard “12-lead” EKG, which uses 12 electrodes at different spots on the chest and limbs to produce a reading.

Patients also had an EKG using the Apple Watch Series 4. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the smartwatch’s built-in EKG tool as a reliable way to detect the serious heartbeat irregularity known as atrial fibrillation.

Instead of 12 electrode leads, the smartwatch is equipped with sensors designed to form a single electrode lead. As a workaround, researchers successively placed the watch in nine spots on each patient’s body to generate multiple readings. The readings were then uploaded to an Apple iPhone.

Watch doesn’t generate diagnosis

For comparison purposes, 19 men and women who were not suspected of having experienced a heart attack also had standard and smartwatch EKGs.

Watch-generated EKGs were 94% accurate when it came to correctly identifying and distinguishing between various types of heart attacks, according to Indolfi. The watch also correctly noted that no heart attack had taken place in more than nine out of 10 healthy patients.

The watch does not generate a diagnosis; the EKG readings need to be interpreted by a doctor. But the findings suggest that “with the Apple Watch it is possible to perform a nine-lead EKG with an almost similar reliability as the standard EKG,” Indolfi said.

That’s important, he added, because the faster post-heart attack treatments are administered, the better the outcome. That’s especially true, Indolfi said, among patients who experience a very severe form of heart attack known as a STEMI (ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction).

Such patients can do well after insertion of a stent or a balloon (coronary angioplasty) to widen a blocked artery, Indolfi noted. But that procedure only “reduces mortality if it is performed promptly”, meaning administering an EKG within 10 minutes and then, treatment within two hours.

Faster diagnosis and treatment

Dr Gregg Fonarow, director of the Ahmanson-University of California, Los Angeles Cardiomyopathy Center, welcomed the findings with cautious optimism.

“This new feasibility study shows that a smartwatch could be used to obtain multiple leads of an EKG,” he said, underscoring the “high level [of] agreement” between smartwatch and standard readings.

Fonarow said more follow-up work will be needed to confirm the findings.

But he agreed that smartwatch EKGs could ultimately prove very helpful in speeding up diagnosis and treatment in situations where time is of the essence, including heart attacks in setting where standard EKGs are not available.

The findings were published in the online edition of JAMA Cardiology.

^{Image credit: Shutterstock}

• Many studies have shown that flu shots during pregnancy are safe and won’t increase the risk of autism in babies
• Getting the flu is riskier than a flu vaccination
• A flu shot may also reduce the burden on healthcare systems, freeing up resources during a possible Covid-19 resurgence

Pregnant women are understandably worried about everything that goes into their bodies. But here’s one worry they can cross off that list: flu shots.

A large, new study has confirmed that an expectant woman’s flu shot doesn’t increase the risk of autism in her child. And that’s true even if the vaccine is given during the first trimester of pregnancy, the Swedish study found.

“The flu vaccine is safe during pregnancy. This study, as well as many others, have consistently shown that flu vaccine is safe,” noted vaccine expert Dr Paul Offit. He’s director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and was not involved in the current research.

Developmental disorders

What can put mom and baby at risk is getting the flu.

“Pregnant women have a sevenfold increase of being hospitalised with pneumonia if they get the flu,” Offit said. And women who get the flu during pregnancy also have an increased risk of delivering their baby early, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Autism spectrum disorders are developmental disorders that affect communication and behaviour. Children with autism have varying degrees of impaired communication and social skills and they may engage in repetitive behaviours, the researchers said. These disorders are thought to stem from both hereditary and environmental factors.

The researchers – led by Dr Jonas Ludvigsson from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm – used data from national Swedish health registers. They looked at information on babies born between October 2009 and September 2010.

During that time, nearly 40 000 infants were born to women who received a flu vaccine. The vaccine was specifically for the H1N1 (swine flu) strain. The children were compared to more than 29 000 infants whose mothers didn’t get a vaccine.

Flu vaccines safe in pregnancy

After a follow-up of almost seven years, the researchers saw no significant difference in the rates of autism spectrum disorders among the children. Results were similar for flu vaccines given in the first trimester of pregnancy.

Ludvigsson said that research like this is even more critical right now. “Anticipating a vaccine against Covid-19, millions of pregnant women are likely to be offered such a vaccination. While our research group did not study Covid-19 vaccine effects, our research on H1N1 vaccination adds to the current knowledge about vaccines, pregnancy and offspring disease in general,” he said in an institute statement.

The new study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Funding was provided by the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research.

Anders Hviid, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology from the Statens Serum Institut and University of Copenhagen in Denmark, said, “The current evidence supports that flu vaccines are safe to use in pregnancy and that they provide protection against a potentially serious infectious disease for both mother and child.” He wrote an editorial accompanying the study.

“This year, a flu shot will not only provide protection during pregnancy for mother and child and protection in early infancy due to transfer of maternal antibodies, but may also reduce the burden on our healthcare systems freeing up resources, if needed, during a possible autumn and winter Covid-19 resurgence,” said Hviid.

Concerned and vigilant

He added that because of the potential benefits, it’s “somewhat disheartening that influenza vaccination in pregnancy is not embraced to a greater degree”.

Hviid said it’s understandable to be concerned and vigilant during pregnancy. “I hope that the many studies supporting the safety of vaccines and their benefits can help overcome any reservations,” he said.

Offit agreed that with the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s even more important to get a flu vaccine.

“To protect themselves and their unborn child, pregnant women should get the flu shot,” Offit advised, adding, “And get it as soon as possible.”

^{Image credit: iStock}

Researchers say it may be worth adding diarrhoea and vomiting to the list of symptoms.

Campaigners claim Facebook, Twitter and YouTube failed to act on flagged ‘clearly harmful posts’.

Annual STI cases are up by 5%, with 70,936 new gonorrhoea diagnoses driving the increase.