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FRIDAY, Sept. 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- Nitazenes: You've probably never heard of these highly toxic drugs, and neither have many Americans who abuse opioid street drugs.That lack of awareness could prove deadly, experts warn, because nitazenes are increasingly being added into heroin and street versions of opioid pills -- and triggering fatal overdoses."Laboratory test results indicate that the potency of certain nitazene analogs [e.g., isotonitazene, protonitazene, and etonitazene] greatly exceeds that of fentanyl, whereas the potency of the analog metonitazene is similar to fentanyl," explained a team of researchers from the Tennessee Department of Health.Deaths linked to drugs are on the rise. In their report issued Sept. 16, Jessica Korona-Bailey and colleagues said that "four...

FRIDAY, Sept. 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- In updated guidance issued Thursday, the World Health Organization now recommends against using the antibody drugs sotrovimab and casirivimab-imdevimab for patients with COVID-19.This recommendation replaces previous conditional recommendation for these antibody drugs. The change in guidance was based on emerging evidence that the medications -- which work by binding to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, preventing the virus from infecting cells -- are not likely to work on the Omicron variants that are spreading now.In the United States, both antibody drugs are no longer recommended to treat COVID-19 because of emerging variants.The panel also made a conditional recommendation for using the antiviral drug remdesivir in patients with severe COVID,...

FRIDAY, Sept. 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- A torn aorta can often be deadly, but a new study has found that survival has improved significantly over the past several decades.But it can still be five times more deadly if not repaired surgically, the researchers added.Aortic dissection happens when blood rushes through a tear in the heart's ascending aorta. This happens in about 3 of every 100,000 people. It mostly affects older men, who may experience a "knifelike, tearing pain through the back." About 50% of patients will die before they reach the hospital.In the study, researchers reviewed the cases of 5,600 patients from the International Registry for Acute Aortic Dissection between 1996 and 2018. Researchers found that about 5.8% of the patients died within two days of arriving at...

FRIDAY, Sept. 16, 2022 (HealthDay News) -- For women with breast cancer, their race may help predict the success of hormone therapy given before surgery. In a new study, researchers found that Black women treated with hormone therapy before cancer surgery (so-called "neoadjuvant endocrine therapy") may be more likely to benefit from that treatment than white women are if they’re treated at an earlier stage. But they may be less likely to benefit than white women if treated at a later stage of disease.“Our findings suggest that neoadjuvant endocrine therapy alone may not be the best approach in Black women who present with more advanced tumors,” said Dr. Veronica Jones, an assistant professor in the division of breast surgery at City of Hope in Duarte, Calif.The research is being...