November News Roundup

November 22, 2019
News Roundup

 

Health Focus with Bobbi Conner featuring Dr. Patrick Flume

SC Public Radio-Health Focus
Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Patrick Flume about cystic fibrosis and promising new treatments for this disease that should be available next year. Dr. Flume is a Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and a pulmonary physician at MUSC.


MUMPS OUTBREAK: College of Charleston confirms total of 43 cases since September

WCBD News 2
Scott Curry, M.D. recently spoke to WCBD News 2 about why cases like the recent mumps outbreak at CofC spread so rapidly on college campuses 


Defining Risk of Preeclampsia: MUSC researchers aim to understand and potentially predict preeclampsia

Progress Notes
In a recent paper in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina look at preeclampsia, a combination of high blood pressure and pregnancy, when it coincides with type 1 diabetes.

Ammonia levels do not aid management of hepatic encephalopathy in cirrhotic patients

News Medical Life Sciences
Ammonia is believed to contribute to the pathology of hepatic encephalopathy, but ammonia levels in the blood do not influence treatment decisions. "The study shows that while ammonia is commonly used, it is simply not helpful when we treat patients. Drawing an ammonia level may be helpful in certain unusual diagnostic situations, but despite current practice which is to obtain ammonia levels in patients with cirrhosis, we don't use it to treat patients."--Don C. Rockey, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Medicine at MUSC

New device for fighting No. 1 cancer killer debuts at MUSC Health

MUSC Catalyst News
During Lung Cancer Awareness Month, Dr. Nick Pastis and colleagues launch the first robotic bronchoscopy system of its kind in the entire state

Leadership Transitions in the Department of Medicine

Following six years of exceptional service at MUSC, Dr. Lynn Schnapp, director of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy & Sleep Medicine, will be leaving MUSC to take a position as chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Under Dr. Schnapp’s leadership, the division has seen continued growth across all three mission areas of research, clinical care and education. She has been very successful in recruiting many new outstanding faculty members, led efforts to establish a new critical care fellowship and, just this year received a new NIH T32 Training grant that will support research training of Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellows. Additionally, in 2017, MUSC was named one of the first national Telehealth Centers of Excellence in the country by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Dr. Dee Ford, professor of medicine, will assume the role of interim division director. An MUSC faculty member since 2005, Dr. Ford is a physician scientist and physician leader with expertise in health services research, health professional education, and quality improvement. She has developed a regional and national reputation as an outstanding researcher, mentor, and healthcare leader. She has maintained a track record of continuous extramural research funding from the NIH, HRSA, and others and currently leads one of only two National Telehealth Centers of Excellence. She has mentored over two dozen faculty, trainees, and staff and was awarded the 2019 Department of Medicine Faculty Mentoring Award. She also has served in a number of leadership roles across the health system and university including as medical director of the medical emergency team and the medical intensive care unit. More recently, Dr. Ford has been a senior advisor to MUSC Health’s Center for Telehealth and the director of SCTR’s newly formed Dissemination and Implementation Science Core. Nationally, she has served on a number of leadership committees for both the American Thoracic Society and the American College of Chest Physicians.

Health Focus with Bobbi Conner featuring Dr. Patrick Flume

SC Public Radio-Health Focus
Bobbi Conner talks with Dr. Patrick Flume about NTM lung disease. Dr. Flume is a Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics and he’s a pulmonary physician at MUSC. 

Could sphingolipids help solve a racial paradox in heart disease?

MUSC Catalyst News
A MUSC study led by Dr. Samar Hammad in collaboration with Jim C. Oates, M.D., director of the Division of Rheumatology and Immunology at MUSC, was the first look at how race affects sphingolipid levels in patients with lupus and patients with lupus and heart disease.

Downstream signaling: Cilia release ectosomes to deliver important messages in the kidney

Phys.org
Lipschutz and colleagues have linked the presence and length of mammalian primary cilia to EV production. Loss of EXOC5 or IFT88 resulted in shorter cilia that produced fewer EVs, while the presence of more EXOC5 resulted in longer cilia that produced more EVs. Importantly, the proteins that were found in these various EVs were very different. This has important implications for intercellular communication that is not limited to the kidney.