Epilepsy medications during pregnancy don’t affect early-childhood development; HPV vaccination could decrease cervical cancer mortality; insulin resistance linked to heart valve disease – Morning Medical Update

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Use of newer epilepsy medications during pregnancy do not affect children’s neurological development

A long-running study, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Neurology, determined that children of mothers who had taken certain, newer anti-seizure medications during pregnancy did not have worse neurodevelopmental outcomes at age 6.

“Controlling seizures during pregnancy is an important part of prenatal care for women with epilepsy, but for years, the effects of newer anti-seizure medications on their children was unknown,” Adam Hartman, MD, program director at NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), said in a news release. “One major component of this study was correlating the cognitive abilities of children with maternal blood levels of the drugs. This opens the door to future work and might inform better dosing strategies.”

Study suggests the impact of HPV vaccination on cervical cancer deaths

According to researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Hollings Cancer Center, cervical cancer deaths could be impacted by the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first to suggest a relationship between cervical cancer deaths and HPV vaccination, although previous studies have noticed declining levels of HPV infection, precancer and cervical cancer incidence since the introduction of the HPV vaccine.

“We observed a substantial reduction in mortality—a 62% drop in cervical cancer deaths over the last decade, likely due to HPV vaccination,” said Ashish Deshmukh, PhD, senior author of the study and co-leader of the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program at MUSC Hollings Cancer Center. “We cannot think of any other reason that would have contributed to such a marked decline.”

Insulin resistance is linked to the most common heart valve disease

A population study of men over the age of 45, published in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Medicine, indicated that insulin resistance could be an important risk factor in the development of aortic stenosis (AS), which is the world’s most common heart valve disease, according to the release. Researchers have expressed hope that these recent findings could open new avenues for the prevention of AS.

“This novel finding highlights that insulin resistance may be a significant and modifiable risk factor for AS,” said Johanna Kuusisto, MD, lead author of the study, cardiologist and professor from the Kuopio University Hospital, in Finland. “As insulin resistance is common in Western populations, managing metabolic health could be a new approach to reduce the risk of AS and improve cardiovascular health in aging populations. Future studies are now warranted to determine whether improving insulin sensitivity through measures such as weight control and exercise can help prevent the condition.”