geoffrey modest medical blogs

  A recent meta-analysis confirmed that gout needs to be treated with anti-inflammatory meds for longer than three months   after initiating urate-lowering meds  in order to decrease the risk of a recurrent flare  (see   gout flares high after stopping prophy ArthCareRes2024  in dropbox, or DOI 10.1002/acr.25486)   Details: --researchers found 6 trials in the literature and one with aggregated unpublished data from the VA (the VA STOP Gout trial), with a total of 2972 participants     -- these trials were chosen because they had at least one study arm with starting or intensifying urate-lowering therapy (ULT) in which anti-inflammatory prophylaxis was prescribed; these included trials needed to report the percentage of participants with at least one gout flare both during and after the period of anti-inflammatory prophylaxis was  documented  -- trial durations ranged from 24 to 104 weeks, and anti-inflammatory prophylaxis durations ...

  In these times of anti-science promoted by the head of the Office of Health and Human Services (RFK, Jr), I thought it was important to bring up a few studies reinforcing the non-infection-related benefits of vaccines, beyond their well-documented specific infectious disease benefits.   A recent very large observational South Korean study found that live zoster vaccination was associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular events for at least the next eight years (see  zoster vaccine dec cardiovasc outcome EurSocCardiol2025  in dropbox or   https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehaf230 )   Details : -- this nationwide, population-based cohort data-mining study included 2,207,784 individuals encompassing 98% of the South Korean population, compared individuals who had versus didn’t have live zoster vaccine but subsequently had herpes zoster (HZ) infection     -- data were collected from a combination of the national insurance information (outpat...