WASHINGTON — Non-tobacco nicotine use before a positive pregnancy result increased the risk for pregnancy and delivery complications, according to research at the ACOG Annual Clinical & Scientific Meeting.
Madeline West, the study’s lead author from the Paul L. Foster School of Medicine at Texas Tech Health Sciences Center El Paso, told Healio that the analysis “was driven by the increasing use of non-tobacco nicotine products — especially vaping and e-cigarettes — among reproductive-age patients. While the risks of traditional cigarette smoking during pregnancy are well established, many

WASHINGTON — Having a birth plan in place was associated with improved maternal and neonatal outcomes, according to research presented at ACOG’s annual meeting.
Giovanna Martin, a medical student at Faculdade Santa Marcelina in Brazil, and colleagues wrote that, in the 1980s, birth plans were developed to enhance a mother’s experience while reducing negative outcomes and unnecessary procedures during delivery, but it is unclear how birth plans actually impact both maternal and neonatal outcomes.
Martin, who is also a founder of HerResearch group, a nonprofit that brings those who are interested

A novel pulsed field ablation technology was safe and prevented atrial arrhythmia recurrence in most patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation at 1 year, according to a first-in-human study presented at Heart Rhythm 2026.
The circular nanosecond pulsed field ablation catheter (CellFX nsPFA 360, Pulse Biosciences) delivers nanosecond pulses as opposed to the microsecond pulses delivered by existing pulsed field ablation technologies, Vivek Y. Reddy, MD, director of cardiac arrhythmia services for the Mount Sinai Health System and the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust Professor

WASHINGTON — Hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are the greatest drivers of rising severe maternal morbidity in the U.S., according to data presented at the ACOG Annual Clinical & Scientific Meeting.
Severe maternal morbidity, or SMM, “has been rising for years, and we kept describing the trend without explaining it,” Tetsuya Kawakita, MD, MS, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Eastern Virginia Medical School at Old Dominion University, told Healio. “We knew advanced maternal age, obesity and hypertensive disorders were all increasing, but no one had quantified how

A novel transcatheter mitral valve replacement system designed for left atrial fixation rather than subvalvular fixation improved mitral regurgitation and functional outcomes in patients at high surgical risk, a speaker reported.
The system (AltaValve, 4C Medical Technologies) is designed to avoid left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction and enable implantation in patients otherwise ineligible for transcatheter mitral valve replacement (TMVR) due to large valve annulus or mitral annular calcification, according to data presented at the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography &

Click here to read the Cover Story, “Consequences of screen time in childhood extend beyond myopia.”
Digital eyestrain or computer vision syndrome is real, increasing in prevalence and severity, and is a causative factor in pediatric progressive myopia.
Studies suggest that digital device use of 1 hour or less per day is well tolerated. Digital device use of more than 4 hours in a single day is likely to induce some symptoms of digital eyestrain. Unfortunately, we Americans, by the time we are 13 years old, average 6 to 7 hours a day of cell phone and computer use. Even those older than 65

Once-weekly semaglutide was tied to a reduction in heavy drinking days among adults with obesity and alcohol use disorder, according to findings from a randomized controlled trial published in The Lancet.
“Semaglutide demonstrated strong therapeutic benefits in individuals with obesity and alcohol use disorder who were actively seeking treatment,” Anders Fink-Jensen, MD, PhD, professor and senior consultant at Mental Health Center Copenhagen, Copenhagen University Hospital–Bispebjerg and Frederiksberg, told Healio. “These findings align with earlier preclinical and clinical research, further

CHICAGO — Menstrual migraine symptoms are more severe and bothersome than symptoms for other migraines, according to a poster presented at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting.
These attacks are more intense and frequent than other migraine attacks, and they last longer as well, Jessica Ailani, MD, director of the MedStar Georgetown Headache Center, and colleagues wrote.
“The prompt for the study was to gain a better understanding of the patient experience of menstrual migraine — how often are they given the diagnosis, what types of treatments they take, how disabling are the

In this video, Monica Avila, MD, MPH, discusses final OS results from the phase 3 ROSELLA trial assessing the addition of relacorilant to nab-paclitaxel for patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.
In the trial, presented at Society of Gynecologic Oncology Annual Meeting on Women’s Cancer, patients were randomly assigned to relacorilant (Lifyorli, Corcept Therapeutics) plus nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane, Bristol Myers Squibb) or nab-paclitaxel alone.
According to Avila, a gynecologic oncologist at Moffitt Cancer Center, the median OS with the relacorilant regimen was 16 months vs. 12

Adults with moderate to severe asthma with uncontrolled symptoms had significantly improved asthma control with daily oral rilzabrutinib vs. placebo at 12 weeks, according to data published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.
Rilzabrutinib (Sanofi) is a Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, according to researchers.
“This study provides evidence that rilzabrutinib could be a new therapeutic avenue for individuals with moderate to severe asthma with uncontrolled symptoms, offering a potential solution to the suboptimal response to available therapies, particularly for patients with high