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TUESDAY, Dec. 14, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- People with HIV have an added risk of heart failure, so they and their health care providers need to be alert for early signs such as shortness of breath, fatigue, leg swelling, coughing and chest pain, according to a new study.“Cardiovascular disease has been an important concern for people with HIV for many, many years,” senior author Michael Silverberg said in a Kaiser Permanente news release. He's a research scientist and HIV epidemiologist at Kaiser's Division of Research in Oakland, Calif.While most of the research has focused on the risk of stroke and heart attacks, this study shows that the heart impacts for people with HIV extend to end-stage conditions such as heart failure, Silverberg said.The study included nearly 39,000 Kaiser...

TUESDAY, Dec. 14, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- For certain leukemia patients, some welcome findings: New research confirms long remissions after treatment with the drug ibrutinib and chemotherapy.The study involved 85 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). All were 65 or younger, and 46 had more aggressive, unmutated IGHV subtype of the disease. "Patients with lower-risk CLL, which is marked by mutated IGHV genes, can gain long remissions from a six-month regimen known as FCR – for the chemotherapy drugs fludarabine and cyclophosphamide and the antibody therapy rituximab," Dr. Matthew Davids, of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said in an institute news release. Patients with higher-risk CLL, without IGHV mutation, typically don't get the same lasting benefit from FCR,...

TUESDAY, Dec. 14, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- Poor neighborhoods of color bore the brunt of a surge in violent crime in U.S. cities early in the COVID-19 pandemic, new research shows."This study adds to the mounting body of research showing that equal opportunities — including the opportunity to live, work, learn, play and worship free from violence — are not afforded to all Americans, and that the greatest burdens of violence are shouldered by our most marginalized and economically vulnerable neighborhoods," said study co-author Shani Buggs of the Violence Prevention Research Program (VPRP) at the University of California, Davis. "The pandemic has only worsened these outcomes."Buggs, an assistant professor, called for significant investments in development, empowerment and healing of...

MONDAY, Dec. 13, 2021 (HealthDay News) -- A gene therapy that could provide a permanent cure for sickle cell disease continues to show success through a third wave of patients, researchers report.The therapy, LentiGlobin, restored normal blood function in 35 sickle cell patients who had the one-time procedure, according to clinical trial findings published Dec. 12 in the New England Journal of Medicine.The patients are all now producing stable amounts of normal red blood cells containing healthy hemoglobin, said lead researcher Dr. Julie Kanter, director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham's Adult Sickle Cell Clinic.In addition, they have not suffered the severe pain episodes that come with sickle cell disease, she said."It's the beginning of a new life" for these patients,...